Snoqualmie Falls Postcard By Smith’s Scenic Views – P6925

The majestic Snoqualmie Falls in Snoqualmie, Washington has been photographed for decades. While the 268-foot waterfall attracts millions of visitors every year, it’s  part of sacred ancestral lands of the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe—(sdukʷalbixʷ) the People of the Moon. The falls hold profound spiritual significance as it is central to the Tribe’s creation story. I can never tire of finding photos of the falls that shows its placement in the beautiful Snoqualmie Valley. This postcard by Smith’s Scenic Views features an image by Pacific Northwest photographer Joseph Scaylea. As it turns out, it’s an uncropped photo from a different postcard featuring his work.

SNOQUALMIE FALLS POSTCARD BY SMITH’S SCENIC VIEWS – P6925 | FRONT

The front of this Snoqualmie Falls postcard shows the 268-foot waterfall nestled in the heart of Snoqualmie Valley, Washington. In the distance, you can see the Snoqualmie Falls Lumber Company in the shadow of Mount Si. The former Snoqualmie Falls Lodge is perched above the waterfall. The roadside inn would be expanded to a 91 room hotel and renamed The Salish Lodge by 1988.

It looks like the Scenic View’s postcard is an uncropped image of a shot used on a card from Ellis Postcard Co. (#4299). It wouldn’t surprise me that the photographer Joseph Scaylea licensed his aerial photos to multiple companies at the time.

SNOQUALMIE FALLS POSTCARD BY SMITH’S SCENIC VIEWS – P6925 | BACK

With the catalog number of P6925, the back of this card contains the following inscription:

SNOQUALMIE FALLS, WASHINGTON
This spectacular view of these falls, which are just 26 miles east of Seattle, show the town of Snoqualmie in the background and the magnificent Cascade Mountains form a beautiful backdrop.

The card was published by Smith’s Scenic Views based out of Tacoma, Washington. Kyle S. Smith ran this business from 1948 until 1960 when he purchased a half interest in Western Color Sales of Portland. The company then became Smith-Western and is still in business today.

In the mid-1970s, Smith-Western bought photos from “free lancers, take pictures itself and armed its field salesmen with cameras.”  The latter covered nine states and were constantly on the road with traveling displays in Winnebagos, according to a “News Tribune” article on August 18, 1974.

Considering the company was named Smith’s Scenic Views until 1960, I’m thinking the aerial photo may be from around that time. One thing I noticed is the covered overlook is missing in this image. That covered structure was officially dedicated on on Tuesday, June 18, 1968. So I know the image was taken before that year.

According to a postcard collecting website, Colourpicture Publishers, Inc. was a “prominent publisher and printer of linen view cards in the United States. From 1938 to 1969, the company was based in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the 1950s, it expanded its offerings to include photochromes and small spiral-bound picture booklets under the trade name Plastichrome.”

WHO IS PHOTOGRAPHER JOSEPH SCAYLEA?

Pacific Northwest photographer Josef (Joseph) Scaylea served as the chief photographer of The Seattle Times for 35 years. Starting in 1947. Scaylea worked at The Times bringing magazine-style photography into weekend sections, onto the front page, and for years, onto a picture page.

“He pioneered pictorial photography and portrait photography for us.” said James B. “Jim” King, retired executive editor in Scaylea’s obituary from 2004.

After working on his family orchard in South Glastonbury, Connecticut during his childhood, he studied photography in New York in the mid-1930s. Drafted into the military two days after the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941, he served in the Army Air Corp photographing missions over Japan, Okinawa and the Philippines.

While being stationed at Paine Field and Moses Lake, Washington, he fell in love with the Pacific Northwest and never left.

He published seven books, including the 1981 book “In Moods of the Mountain,” which showed Mount Rainier from many vantage points and in different kinds of weather and lighting.

He also received more than 1.000 photography awards, including recognition from Look, Life, Graflex, and the National Press Photographers Association. Scaylea was named West Coast Photographer of the Year 10 times, and one of the 10 top Press Photographers of the Nation on 10 occasions.

“What I remember is his use of contrasts,” said Cowlitz Historical Museum director David Freece in an article published on July 13, 1995 in The Daily News. “It seems like every one of his photos used black and white most effectively. There would be a real deep black where you could see no details, as well as some stark white – a full range of contrasts.”

Josef passed from natural causes at the age of 91 on July 19, 2004. His daughters once ran a website about his work but it appears to be offline as of July 2026: http://www.josefscaylea.com/index.html

Download a high-resolution image of this postcard and many other from my Flickr account: https://www.flickr.com/photos/aloha75/albums/72177720314797263/