Postcard, probably 1925-28, titled "Harry Carey Trading Post, Saugus, California. Mr. Carey and Navajos." Back reads:
Nowhere in California is there a spot more real interest than the Harry Carey Ranch
and Trading Post, situated in the beautiful San Francisquito Canyon. It's a ranch
in all respects, consisting of over 1,200 acres. Here Navajo Indians live and work
in their native way and large herds of Navajo and Karakul sheep graze on the slopes
of the mountains.
To say the Carey Ranch was "a ranch in all respects" and that the Native Americans
employed there "live and work in their native way" is a bit of a stretch. The
Indians carried out a Hollywood version of their lifestyle for tourists —
after all, the ranch was a tourist attraction and had little to do with life on the Plains.
On a "real" note, it is reported that the Indians had a preminition that something
bad would happen at the ranch on March 12, 1928, so they went away that morning. That night, at
three minutes before midnight, the great St. Francis Dam broke, wiping out the Carey ranch
and trading post. The Careys continued to live there, but the trading post and performances
were to remain a memory.
Of note in this hand-colorized postcard are the brown adobe walls, split log roof and
blue window treatments. The sign atop the trading post (we might call it a gift shop) reads,
in the middle: "Harry Carey Ranch Store & Trading Post." To the left are the words
"GEN MDSE" (General Merchandise); to the right is "Navajo Indian Crafts(?)"
Postcard by C.T. American Art Colored of Chicago, No. 105720.
Actor Harry Carey (Sr.) established a rancho at the mouth of San Francisquito Canyon in the late 1910s. The ranch included the Carey's wooden ranch home
as well as several outbuildings and the Harry Carey Trading Post, which was a tourist attraction that included billed entertainment from Native American and other performers,
along with a store that sold Western and Indian curios. The ranch was occasionally used for filming. The Careys'
son, Harry Carey Jr., who would follow in his father's acting footsteps, was born in the Carey ranch home in 1921.
The trading post washed away in the St. Francis Dam disaster of March 1928 and was not rebuilt. The ranch house was situated at a higher
elevation and survived the flood, only to burn down in 1932. The Careys replaced it by building a Spanish adobe home, which they sold with the
rancho in 1945.
About Harry Carey Sr.:
Harry Carey was born Henry DeWitt Carey II on January 16, 1878 on 116th Street in the Bronx section
of New York City. His father was a special-sessions judge and president of a sewing machine company.
Harry attended a military academy but declined an appointment to West Point, instead trying his hand as a playwright.
According to the Internet Movie Database:
"In 1911, his friend Henry B. Walthall introduced him to director D.W. Griffith, for whom Carey
was to make many films. Carey married twice, the second time to actress Olive Fuller Golden (aka Olive Carey),
who introduced him to future director John Ford. Carey influenced Universal Studios head Carl Laemmle
to use Ford as a director, and a partnership was born that lasted until a rift in the friendship in 1921.
During this time, Carey grew into one of the most popular Western stars of the early motion picture,
occasionally writing and directing films as well. In the 1930s he moved slowly into character roles
and was nominated for an Oscar for one of them, the President of the Senate in 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'
(1939). He worked once more with Ford, in 'The Prisoner of Shark Island' (1936), and appeared
once with his son, Harry Carey Jr., in Howard Hawks' 'Red River' (1948). He died on September 21, 1947,
in Brentwood, after a protracted bout with emphysema and cancer. Ford dedicated his remake '3 Godfathers' (1948) 'To Harry Carey - Bright Star Of The Early Western Sky.'"
Carey would appear in a total of 233 films, including short features, between 1909 and 1949.
