For some reason, several railroads — including Burlington, Rio Grande, and of course NP — issued menus in the late 1930s and 1940s that required someone to glue photos on the covers. The glued-on photo on this menu shows Grand Coulee Dam, one of the largest dams in the world and a great source of national pride when it was built.
Click image to download a 1.4-MB PDF of this menu.
The dam was built in two stages. First, a low (290-foot-tall) dam was built for generating hydroelectricity. This was completed in 1938. Second, a high (550-feet-tall) dam was built on top of the old one, creating enough power and storing enough water for irrigation. This was completed in 1942.
The dam in the photo is the low dam with scaffolding on top for construction of the high dam. Construction of the high dam began almost immediately after completion of the low dam, so the photo was taken between 1938 and 1942. I’m guessing 1940 plus or minus a year. Since the menu is otherwise undated, that’s the best indication of its age.
Aside from its size, Grand Coulee is notable for two other things. First, one of the biggest salmon runs in the world — with fish so large they were known as “June hogs” — was wiped out when the dam was built without fish passages. On a brighter note, the Kaiser Permanente health care system was first developed for the dam construction workers and their families.
None of this is mentioned, of course, on the menu. In fact, other than an eight-word photo caption, the dam isn’t mentioned anywhere on the menu. The back cover instead encourages people to take a steamship to Alaska.
The menu itself offers a luncheon with one of five entrées — walleyed pike, ox tongue, beef ribs, pork chops, or eggs scrambled with crab meat — plus soup, potatoes and green beans, pear and cottage cheese salad, bread, dessert, and beverage for $1 (about $22 today). A casserole luncheon with bread, dessert, and beverage was 75¢.
For 50¢, people could order a plate luncheon. “The Steward will suggest several items from which selection may be made,” says the menu. “This meal includes meat or fish, potatoes, vegetable, bread and butter, coffee, tea or milk,” so no soup, salad, or dessert. Presumably the $1 sirloin steak was excluded from the plate luncheon, but since most of the other meat and fish entrées cost around 50¢ by themselves, this was a pretty good deal.