Long before their title to the Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountain Wagon Road land grant was secure, the farmers and livestock owners who founded the company put the road and land up for sale. In 1871, they agreed to sell … Continue reading
Before the Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountain wagon road was built, or not built as the case may be, a number of families had started farms near the route of the road in the Prineville area. They planned to claim … Continue reading
Most residents of central Oregon are familiar with the Santiam Wagon Road, which parallels U.S. highway 20 up the Cascade Mountains from Sweet Home to Santiam Pass and then down the other side to Sisters. Parts of it are still … Continue reading
The recent posts about the Northern Pacific land grant and Red River Valley lands provides a good segue to some research I’ve been doing about a land grant in Oregon. This has no passenger train content and is only peripherally … Continue reading
It’s 1892, and the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway has changed its name to the Great Northern, signifying a completely different set of ambitions. But James J. Hill has not forgotten the importance of the Red River Valley, which … Continue reading
The 19th-century timetables recently presented here revealed that passenger train speeds in the 1870s averaged about 18 miles per hour including stops. Two decades later, the New York Central was running a passenger train that averaged more than 50 miles … Continue reading
Whereas pre-war brochures assumed that the only easy way to get to Glacier Park was by train, GN devoted a fifth of the front of this brochure to promoting the Western Star, which was having to compete with auto travel … Continue reading
We’ve previously seen a summer, 1937 Great Northern timetable. This one is from three years later, and there are only minor differences. The schedules of the Empire Builder appear to have been left completely unchanged. Minor trains have slightly different … Continue reading
There are “four ways to see Glacier Park,” says this 1939 brochure: hiking, motoring, horseback riding, or boat. Each of these are illustrated by one or more of the eight black-and-white photographs on the front of the brochure. Click image … Continue reading
The cartoon-style map of Glacier Park in this brochure shows hikers hiking with walking sticks and backpacks, bears hiking with walking sticks and backpacks, mountain goats ice skating on a glacier, and golfers imbibing at the 19th hole of the … Continue reading
