In 1923, Canadian Pacific publicist John Murray Gibbon organized a fishing trip for Country Life magazine editor Reginald Townsend; Rand McNally president Harry Beach Clow; Chicago artist Reinhold Palanske; and their wives. The group was joined by Banff photographer Byron Harmon and U.S. photographer H. Armstrong Roberts and guided by Windermere outfitter Walter Nixon.

Click image to download a 1.0-MB PDF of this 1929 breakfast menu.

The group enjoyed the trip so much that they decided to form the Trail Riders of the Canadian Rockies to make similar trips available to more people. The Trail Riders sponsored guided trips each summer and encouraged people to return by offering certificates and buttons when they have ridden 50, 100, 500, and more miles in the Canadian Rockies.

On one of the first rides in 1924, J. Murray Gibbon poses with Trail Riders’ first president, Smithsonian Museum administrator Charles Walcott and pioneer outfitter Tom Wilson in front of Takakkaw Falls in Soho National Park. Though he was never an officer in the group, Gibbon called Wilson “the father of the Trail Riders.” Click image for a larger view.

Canadian Pacific quietly sponsored the organization until 1961, when it sold all of the equipment to a newly created non-profit group for $1. The group still exists and along with its usual rides is planning a special ride in 2023 to celebrate its 100th anniversary.

Reinhold Palanske designed these buttons; bronze designates 50 miles of riding; silver 100; gold 500; gold with an enamel outline, 1,000; and all enamel, 2,500. By the time the above menu was issued, more than 100 people had earned the 2,500-mile buttons.

The brilliant cover on this 1929 menu is signed CJG, which stands for Charles James Greenwood (1893-1965), who painted other menus as well as posters for the Canadian Pacific. He probably did this menu on commission, but records indicate that CP hired him as a full-time artist until 1940 and he continued working for CP until he retired in 1956.