Antique & Vintage Postcards

From a forested bluff, a sweeping panorama unfolds over Chatcolet Lake near St. Maries in North Idaho — a sapphire-blue waterway threading between wooded peninsulas and rolling hills, one bare-branched tree arching dramatically across the frame in classic mid-century chrome composition. This is the lake famously featured by Ripley's Believe It or Not for the ghostly St. Joe River, which flows invisibly through the lake's surface, its fresh current never mingling with the standing water around it — a hydrological curiosity that made Chatcolet a minor celebrity among roadside America enthusiasts. Postmarked Pinehurst, Idaho, July 29 (no year on postmark, but the 2¢ Jefferson stamp dates it to the early-to-mid 1950s), the card was sent from a traveler named May to her Aunt and Uncle — Pearl and Lacy — in Attica, Indiana, reporting that living is "so well" and that she'll "write more later." Published by The Ross Hall Studio of Sandpoint, Idaho, catalog E-68141.