On July 21, the Upper Missouri Special went to the railway’s summit on the southern boundary of Glacier Park where the GN had commissioned the sculptor, Gaetano Cecere, to do a statue of John F. Stevens. Then just 31 years … Continue reading
The Upper Missouri Special arrived in East Glacier on July 20, and members of the expedition then returned by auto about 27 miles east to a rail station known as Bombay, but which the Great Northern renamed Meriwether for the … Continue reading
On July 19 the Upper Missouri Special arrived in Havre at 8 am, where expedition members made an auto trip to the site of the last battle of Chief Joseph’s Nez Perce Indians, about 15 miles south of the Great … Continue reading
The Upper Missouri Expedition spent July 18 at the site of Fort Union, which had been the chief trading post for Astor’s American Fur Company from about 1828 to 1867. Located just east of the North Dakota-Montana border, the fort … Continue reading
On the morning of July 17th, the Upper Missouri Special arrived in a town of about 75 people in North Dakota that had been named Falsen. However, Budd had persuaded the Post Office to rename it Verendrye after an early … Continue reading
In 1925 and 1926, the Great Northern Railway offered two “historical expeditions” of the Northwest that featured colorful Indian ceremonies, lectures by a variety of historians and other experts, and the dedication of at least six impressive monuments to early … Continue reading
William Crooks was the first chief engineer of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad (the original predecessor of the Great Northern). That railroad’s locomotive number 1 was named for him, and this “autobiography” is of the locomotive, not the engineer. … Continue reading
Slightly marred by punch holes and sexism, this 1940 brochure invites “girls and men” to take the Great Northern Railway to a Montana, Idaho, Washington, or Oregon dude ranch. The brochure devotes a page to Glacier Park, four pages to … Continue reading
One more Glacier Park menu from the New York Public Library. Like yesterday’s, this one is from 1946 and has the lower prices ($1.25 for “plate dinner number one”). Curiously, the number of entrées in the number one plate dinner … Continue reading
Unlike yesterday’s menu, which is from my personal collection, this one is from the New York Public Library. Like yesterday’s, this dinner menu is dated 1946, but the prices are the lower prices as the 1947 menu. Where today’s menu … Continue reading
