Help finding a location

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I've scanned a large number of the old negatives found at my late grandmother's house. One pile was wrapped in a piece of paper that had "1912" written on it. My great-grandparents were married that year. I'm sorta guessing that the photos in that pile were from their honeymoon. It looks like they went to the Alps and maybe more. Attached is one shot of a town from higher up a hill. There are a couple from other towns, but I haven't saved them small enough to post, yet. Is there any chance that someone here can help me out with a location? I know one spot they went to was Chamonix (there's a photo of my great grandmother in front of a memorial statue to H. B. de Saussure). If anyone can help, I might post the others this weekend.

Try Googling the name which appears on the statue. The person depicted would have some close association with the town it is in.

Bear in mind the 'Alps' covers more than one country, they are also in Switzerland, North of Italy and some in Austria. So really you need a more specific area to search if you are going by the term 'Alps'. Besides since these photographs were taken some of the tonws will have changed and will now be unrecognisable from the air.

To save you the bother here is what I have found:- The statue may be that of Horace Benedict de Saussure who was a resident of Geneva (Switzerland) an aristocrat, physicist and alpine traveller. I looked in Wikipedia where there is more information and pictures you could compare what you have.

I have looked at Google maps and the town shown in your picture almost definitely isn't Geneva. The white curved strip is almost certainly a river and the river is not that shape near the town. It does look similar to another part of the area about 20 miles to the west however.

Chamonix is about the same distance south east. Around Geneva the ground is relatively low level but Chamonix is at the centre of the higher alpine skiing areas. Although Chamonix is in France it isn't far from the Swiss border.

At least it is a start.

There is a railway Station, a large lake and there are several dams. Especially the center one with those three buildings should be indicative.

This is definitely my kind of game.

That photo almost certainly depicts Interlaken CH, taken from the north.

LiamG said:

This is definitely my kind of game.

That photo almost certainly depicts Interlaken CH, taken from the north.

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Thanks! I'll go look that up. I have two other town shots (different towns) - wanna try those, too?
This is one of many reasons I love APUG.

LiamG said:

This is definitely my kind of game.

That photo almost certainly depicts Interlaken CH, taken from the north.

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You are right!

(I have to admit I never was so much off in aerial photo interpretation as in this one [dam and lake...]. Quite embarrassing.)

Please show us the other photographs, this town guessing is fun and maybe a little embarrasing.

LiamG was right (thank you very much!) - I googled Interlaken and found a picture on someone's blog that was from a different angle, but very definitely the same town.

The other two are not as easy, I don't think, but I know APUGers like a challenge, so here they are. I'd bet they're in the same general area, though the negs were definitely not in anything resembling a chronological order.

my guess:

#1: Arth at Lake Zug

I think AgX has it, sure looks like Arth. That third picture is quite the challenge, though, hardly even a recognizable building...

Yes, # 2 is a challenge. I did not even start to look for it. I'm off this round.

I agree with Arth.
The 2nd is too close and not from above it enough which makes it tougher. I would guess it's nearby - Arth and Interlaken aren't too far apart.

What's cool that I didn't have time to post earlier is that on the blog where I saw the recent photo of Interlaken, the writer mentioned they didn't need to set an alarm because they got woken up by cows wearing bells each morning. In the photos from my great-grandparents' trip, there are several of my G-GMa with cows wearing bells. It's kinda comforting that some things haven't changed a ton in 100 years.

Thanks for all the help!

I am going to Interlaken in June and will note the bells because I will be camping.

I'm quite sure those bells would make me mad... I always wondered what the cows think of it.
To be fair, agriculture is not really silent over here either with all those huge machines.

BMbikerider said:

I am going to Interlaken in June and will note the bells because I will be camping.

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Cool! I hope you lost of fun - looks like a great place.

winger said:

Cool! I hope you lost of fun - looks like a great place.

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This will be my 3rd attempt, beaten by weather on the last two occasions - both in late spring early summer. The 3 mountain passes we had to ride over to get there and out again (on motorcycles) were all still blocked with snow in early June! One cafe owner told us that they had in some places an extra 30 meters of snow than is usual. Thats 104 feet if you cannot be bothered to work it out. The Swiss army were causing explosions in some of the areas to cause controlled avalanches, so that it was made safe for the tourist season! But what we saw was brilliant, I cannot wait to get back

That must have been 3m or 10.4' .

No, not 3 meters, the cafe owner was adamant that the peaks in the area had up to 30 meters! Judging by the avalanche blocking the Sustens Pass near the cafe where we had to turn around, I don't doubt her word........(If we had seen the sign 'Geschlossen' at the bottom we would not have gone up there but it was worth it.)

The highest snow thickness ever reported in Switzerland was 11m. And you even had it about an add-on to what is usual.
That is about plains. At edges or so snow it may pile up higher.

Still shocking for me over here in the lowlands, as we hardly ever get one foot of snow.

I thought it was a bit over the top, but other passes we went across - Stelvio, Grossglockner, Timmesjoch, and Jaufen were almost clear of snow and they are all further north. It seems Swizerland high peaks were hit very badly.