Reply
Fifty miles long and as little as one-third of a mile wide, Lake Chelan is “a stupendous and splendid fjord,” says this brochure. It was hard to reach in the 1920s and remains little known outside of the state of … Continue reading
Category Archives: Great Northern
Tacoma was the “lumber capital of the world” when this brochure was published. That’s no longer true, but it still has a reputation of being more of an industrial city as opposed to Seattle’s high-tech economic base. Tacoma is also … Continue reading
This brochure describes some of the landmarks and sights in Spokane which, when the brochure came out, had a population of about 110,000 people (it is double that today). One of the landmarks is the Davenport Hotel, “one of the … Continue reading
Superficially, this looks a lot like yesterday’s brochure about Portland. However, it appears to have been written by a different member of Great Northern’s marketing team. Instead of suggesting a ten-day tour, this brochure focuses on Seattle’s rapid growth, mild … Continue reading
This brochure starts out aiming to sell Portland as a location for conventions but ends up suggesting a ten-day tour of the Portland area. The tour includes four days in Portland, two on the Columbia River Highway and Mt. Hood, … Continue reading
We’ve previously seen brochures for Great Northern’s Twin Cities-Winnipeg train from the 1930s and one from the 1950s. In my description of the former brochure, I said the Winnipeg Limited was inaugurated in 1938, but it turns out it had … Continue reading
In 1925, Chicago had twelve times as many people as St. Paul — 3 million people vs. a quarter million. But in the late 1920s St. Paul Union Depot (SPUD), which was completed in 1924, hosted almost as many trains … Continue reading
The first card today is postmarked April 6, 1916. The fact that it doesn’t have the “See America First” slogan in large letters or a little rhyme on the back suggests that the cards with that slogan were only used … Continue reading
Great Northern opened the Glacier Park Hotel in 1913 and popularized the “See America First” slogan to encourage people to visit the park instead of taking a trip to Europe. These postcards were part of this campaign and all have … Continue reading
Copies of this beverage menu were used in the lounge cars of both the Empire Builder and Western Star in 1964. The menu offers a few wines, bourbons, whiskeys, and numerous mixed drinks. Playing cards were 80 cents (about $6.50 … Continue reading