$35.00 CAD
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Attractive set Of 2 photo postcards of Roanoke IL one showing steam locomotive arriving at train station, and another with bird’s eye view of the city and railway cars loaded with coal.
Photo of steam train arriving at the Roanoke IL train station
Steam engine arriving at station, people milling about. Two horse-drawn wagons waiting to be loaded.
Written in frame at bottom:
La gare de Roanoke l’arrivée du train
Arrival of train Roanoke station
Numbered on negative -81-.
Undated , but c. 1910
Light stain on back
Bird’s Eye View Roanoke, Ill.10046
View from above of Roanoke. Loaded railway coal cars on siding. Cars belong to A.T. & S.F. One building with large advertising painted on it:
S. SCHULTZ CLOAK-HOUSE 326 S. ADAMS ST.
Another building has ad for shoes:
SELZ Royal Blue
On back:
GENUINE PHOTO BY C. U. WILLIAMS, BLOOMINGTON ILL.
Based on AZO photographic paper, should be 1924-1929, but other source dates it to c. 1909.
French message on back:
La ville of Roanoke et le chemin de fer de la mine et les wagons.,,Je vois envoyer 2 ou 3 cornes de mais de la récolte cette année mais c’est très difficile…
The city of Roanoke and the mine railway and its cars.,,I will send you 2 or 3 cobs of corn of this year's harvest but it will be difficult....
Roanoke is a village in Roanoke Township, Woodford County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,960 at the 2020 census.
The Roanoke area, like most of Illinois, is underlain by rich veins of coal. The second coal shaft in Woodford County was sunk in Roanoke in 1881. Another shaft started in a westerly direction, but this coal was "flinty", or mixed with rock, and digging was discontinued. The mine at its peak employed around 300 men and hoisted 500 tons of coal a day.
After the Roanoke mine stopped operation in 1940, and with the growing popularity of using Semi-trailer trucks to move crops from farm to market, the rail line running through Roanoke was eventually retired in the mid-1980s, and was promptly dismantled for scrap. The original Roanoke rail station still stands as a historic building.
WIKIPEDIA
