In October, 2005, we discovered an original colorized post card (purchased from the web site http://www.cardcow.com) which shows the exact same scene as Jesse France’s photograph. As illustrated below, the front of the post card identified the location as “Higgins Beach, Me., Thunder Cove”.

This post card was produced by The Hugh C. Leighton Co. Manufacturers, Portland, ME, U.S.A., Printed in Frankfort °/ Main, Germany, No. 996. The post card has a divided back and the place to affix postage calls for a one cent stamp for United States and two cents for foreign addresses. The card was post marked Portland, ME, So. Port. Sta., 2 PM, August 3, 1908.

The designation “Thunder Cove” historically has been associated with the Higgins Beach shoreline, as illustrated on the Community Heritage Maps, Prouts Neck, Scarborough & Higgins Beaches, 1892, where the arrow at the lower margin points to Thunder Cove off Higgins Beach.

On a newer map that focuses on Higgins Beach, the exact location of the cliffs in the photograph has been shown, as illustrated by the arrow on the Mapquest map from web site http://www.mapquest.com, which is the second map. This site is on the south side of Cliff Street where the summer home built by Jesse and Eurilda is still located. For more information on this unique ocean side, please see the next story on The Cliff House.