Perched on the basalt headland above a churning Pacific cove, the white shaft of Yaquina Head Lighthouse stands 93 feet tall against a linen-textured sky of improbable turquoise — a classic mid-century chromolithograph that makes Oregon's rugged coast look almost tropical. A steam or sail vessel rides the horizon, keeper's quarters gleam in red-roofed domesticity, and a dirt road curves up from the highway below; it is exactly the scene a wartime traveler on the new Oregon Coast Highway would have mailed home. This card was postmarked at Newport, Oregon on May 10, 1943 and sent to a woman named Ella in Wayne City, Illinois. The sender, traveling by land with an unknown address, writes enthusiastically about covering "nearly 1,200 miles" and teases news about a speed record, ending with warm greetings to "Stephen + Eliza" — a rare glimpse of civilian road travel during World War II rationing.