A Postcard Mailed From Banff in 1953

With Banff National Park and visits to Alberta's Rockies still as popular as ever, it's cool to look back at vintage postcards and see just how much has (or often hasn't) changed. This postcard was mailed from Banff, Alberta to Webster, New York on June 25, 1953.

Featuring an image of Castle Mountain, this vintage postcard lists the location as Mount Eisenhower. The mountain held that name between 1946 to 1979, named after World War II General (and later 34th President of the United States) Dwight D. Eisenhower. The image of Castle Mountain is by Byron Harmon, who was a prominent photographer of the Canadian Rockies and owned a photography business in Banff until his death in 1942.

The back of the postcard reads, "We returned to Lake Louise today again as yesterday it snowed all day up here and poured rain. Today it is nice. Got lots of pictures today. Cloudy but nice. We got pictures of 2 elk, 3 moose, one at a time we saw 12 moose, 9 elk, 1 beaver, lots of bears. We stayed in Banff last night. Plan to go back and stay at same place tonight."  

An additional scribble says they were staying at the Homestead Hotel, which amazingly still exists in Banff, Alberta today as the Homestead Inn.