Here’s the first of three more Northern Pacific menus that I photographed at the Minnesota History Center. These are from what I call the “Rustic Photo” series in which sepia-toned photographs are pasted onto the menu covers. The menus are undated but the menus I’ve seen in this series that have dates are from the early 1940s.
Click image to download a 1.0-MB PDF of this menu.
The caption on this photo says “Sunset on the Missouri, Gates of the Mountains, Montana.” We’ll have to take the railway’s word for it as it is difficult to tell whether this sepia-and-white photo was taken at sunset or some other time of the day. The “gates” would also look a lot more impressive if they were shown in full instead of just one gate. The back cover fails to enlighten as it instead describes Olympic National Park.
In addition to a la carte, the menu includes table d’hôte meals featuring fried chicken, calf’s liver, or tenderloin steak for $1.50 (about $27 in today’s money assuming the menu is from 1940) or an “evening special” of fried chicken, fish, or eggs with everything on the table d’hôte menu but appetizer and soup for only 90 cents (about $16 today). There is also a vague “plate dinner” for 65 cents (about $12 today) that includes meat or fish entrées suggested by the steward plus potatoes, vegetable, bread, and beverage but no soup or dessert.