A desert scene with the wispy, blue-gray foliage of smoke trees (Psorothamnus spinosus) framing a sandy wash, with low green scrub and purple-toned hills under a sunset sky of orange and pale blue. Smoke trees are characteristic of dry washes in the Colorado and Mojave deserts of the American Southwest, where their hazy gray-green masses give them their common name. The card is a color-tinted view of the kind issued for tourists traveling the desert Southwest in the mid-twentieth century.
Linen-textured stock with a wide yellow border; Curt Teich production code "7A-H3624" at lower right, indicating a late 1930s-1940s issue.
No postmark or cancellation. Divided-back "POST CARD" with stamp box; linen-texture stock; C.T. Art-Colortone imprint of Western Publishing & Novelty Co., Los Angeles. Unused, no writing, no damage beyond light toning.
Cite this card
Smoke Trees on the Desert, American Southwest, circa 1940, postcard, c. 1930. PostalPast Collection. https://postalpast.com/postcard/smoke-trees-on-the-desert-american-southwest-circa-1940. Accessed October 24, 2026.
