While Mary Jo Morey was searching the internet for pieces to add to her Fiesta dinnerware collection, a postcard about Barron Lake caught her eye. Her Fiesta collection continues to grow, and now so does her collection of Barron Lake postcards.
“I was always on eBay looking at Fiestaware. We have a collection from the 1930s that we use here. Somehow a postcard of Barron Lake popped into my feed, so I bookmarked Barron Lake and kept seeing all these postcards with all these resorts,” Morey said. “I had no idea that all these resorts were on the lake back in the day. Of course, I knew about Kugler’s Beach because I swam there when I was a child, but I didn’t know there was a Reid’s Resort on that property before the beach. There was one called Kennedy’s Resort and one called Rutledge Resort, which I had never heard of before I saw the postcard,” she said. *After publishing this story, it was learned William Rutledge opened a resort in approximately 1900 at the sound end of the lake.*
She’s been collecting the postcards for about 15 years. “I think that’s when I first saw the first one on eBay and thought well this this could be kind of a fun little hobby,” she said. Most of the postcards, she noted, cost her just a few dollars. Her collection now includes between 30 and 40 depictions of the lake resorts. And only one is a duplicate. “I didn’t realize that when I bought it, but the rest of them are all different and many are original photographs, not mass produced,” she said.
Her collection also includes a few miscellaneous items, like matchbook covers and a small pennant.
Morey is excited to find new postcards and fascinated to see so many of them have writing on the back—many postmarked from the early 1900s. “It’s funny, too, because somebody was writing about their vacation on Barron Lake and sending it to Minneapolis, Minnesota and all that’s on the card is their name and the city and state. No address, but it still got to them,” she said. Another was addressed to a family in Naperville, Illinois. Again, with no address—just name and city and state. And still another was addressed to a family in Columbus, Ohio. On that one, the state was listed with just a capital O. Most of these postcards were all mailed using a stamp that cost one penny.
The cards are all framed and hanging throughout her house. The frames are such that she can easily open them to read what people wrote on the back. Most are kept where there is very little sunshine to minimize damage from the light.
“I have had a lot of fun collecting and I’m still looking. I want something to go in there,” she said pointing to an empty spot in the frame. “It’s fun to look for things like this—it’s like the thrill of the hunt, you know? I do spend time looking at them and they keep bringing me joy.”
Written by Jodi Marneris for the Barron Lake Association. July 2022
