Catlettsburg is a small city on the Ohio River in northeastern Kentucky, where Ohio and West Virginia meet the border of Kentucky.

The area was first settled in 1798, although frontiersmen had passed through the region for many years previously.

The construction of canals to the Ohio River, as the later development of the railroad, led to the town growing as a commercial center.

The great harvest of Kentucky forests in the last quarter of the 19th century fueled the growth of Catlettsburg as the leading supplier of hardwood lumber.

The lumber boom was winding down by 1919 as the virgin forests were depleted.

Some excitement was brewing in Catlettsburg on June 23 of 1919.

Men are lining Front Street, filling the sidewalk.

A photographer captured the crowd, and added a helpful notation to the postcard print.