This beautiful photo postcard, postmarked in Lucerne, was mailed to Cheyenne, Wyoming, on December 8, 1907. As you’ll note, there is a Cheyenne postmark and a striking flag cancel on the front of this card. These illustrate the early 20th century postal practice of backstamping mail — that is, in addition to the postmark applied by the sending office, the destination office would apply a postmark to register its receipt. This card was mailed on the afternoon of December 8, and, as the backstamp shows, it was received in Cheyenne that same day. Given that Cheyenne and Lucerne are 47 miles apart, and the fact that the year 1907 preceded the heyday of motor vehicles, I think it’s safe to assume this card was delivered by train.

Lucerne, which sits on Highway 85 about five miles north of Greeley, was named for the alfalfa, also known as lucerne, grown near the original town site. The word lucerne comes from the French “luzerne,” which in turn comes from the French “luzerno,” meaning “glowworm.” The latter refers to alfalfa’s shiny seeds. Lucerne, which is no longer an incorporated town, was probably established around 1892, which is when the Lucerne post office, still operating, was established.

REFERENCES:

– “Alphabetilately” at https://alphabetilately.org/H.html

– “Distance between cities” at https://www.distance-cities.com/distance-lucerne-co-to…

– Google search on “dictionary lucerne” at https://www.google.com/search?source=hp…

– Google search on “etymology of lucerne” at https://www.google.com/search?biw=1166&bih=920…

– Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_automobile
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucerne,_Colorado
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_85_in_Colorado