Historic U. S. Highway 70 Through Arizona on Vintage Postcards

This exhibit displays vintage postcards of views, scenes, and businesses along historic U. S. Highway 70 through Arizona. They are regular size (3 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches) postcards published from the late 1920s to the 1960s. They are displayed in travel order going west from the New Mexico border to the California border. The postcards show views that were seen by travelers from right along the highway unless otherwise noted. The exhibit also shows the variety of postcards available to tourists at that time. The age estimates for the unused postcards are based mainly on automobiles in the views and on postcard publishers and style. However, some estimates may be off by half a decade or so.

The actual text printed on the postcards is in quotation marks. My comments are in brackets.

U. S. Highway 70 was one of the original Federal Highways commissioned in 1926 along with some of its more famous newly numbered cousins such as U. S. 66 - "The Mother Road", U. S. 30 - "The Lincoln Highway", and U. S. 40 - "The National Highway". It is a true transcontinental highway. At its longest alignment, its eastern end was (and still is) at Atlantic, North Carolina. Its western terminus was in Los Angeles, California, at the junction with U. S. Highway 101. After the new Interstate Highway System was constructed starting in the late 1950s, portions of U. S. 70 in the west were decertified. Today, its western end is in Globe, Arizona, at the junction with U. S. 60.

In Arizona, U. S. Highway 70 starts at the east at the New Mexico border a few miles east of Franklin. The highway then heads generally west-northwest through the towns of Safford, Globe, Superior, Mesa, Phoenix, Glendale, Wickenburg, and Quartzsite. At the small community of Ehrenberg, U. S. 70 crossed the Colorado River into California. From Globe to the California border, Route 70 shared the highway with U. S. 60.

Here is a scan of the Arizona map in the 1949 edition of the Rand McNally Road Atlas... showing U. S. Highway 70.

"Greetings from Arizona". Color linen-texture printed postcard. Published by Tucson News Co., Tucson. Number 49392. Number M126:-. Unused. Circa 1940s.

"Greetings from Arizona". Color linen-texture printed postcard. Published by E. C. Kropp Co., Milwaukee , Wis. Number 31579N. Unused. Circa 1940s.

"Here I am in Arizona". Color chrome-style printed postcard. Published by H. S. Crocker Co., San Francisco, Calif. Number HSC-219. Unused. Circa 1950s. [Here is a map showing U. S. 70].

"Greetings from Arizona". Color chrome-style printed postcard. Published by Scenic Art, Berkeley, California. Number 8964G. Postmarked 1965. [Here is another map showing U. S. 70].

"Greetings from Arizona". Color chrome-style printed postcard. Published by Colourpicture, Boston, Mass. Number P13879. Unused. Circa 1960s. [This map also shows U. S. 70].

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