This curiously titled booklet “is the first of a series to be issued jointly by the Burlington, Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railways,” says the introduction, “giving authoritative information about the Pacific Northwest.” We’ve previously seen several others in the series, including Western Gateway to World Trade, Treasure Lands of the Pacific Northwest, Timber Billions of the Pacific Northwest, and–perhaps the most popular one–Through the American Wonderland.

Click image to download a 9.3-MB PDF of this 44-page booklet.

It is always amusing to see what people mean by terms like “Northwest” and “Pacific Northwest.” I usually think of the former as Idaho, Oregon, and Washington while the latter is just Oregon and Washington. But an Oregon State University book, Atlas of the Pacific Northwest, includes Idaho while Minnesota media seem to think that state belongs in the Northwest.

This booklet defines Pacific Northwest as including not just Idaho but also Montana and Wyoming. Of course, the Burlington served Wyoming and the other two railroads crossed Montana, so they would want to include those resource-rich but minimally populated states in publications that attempted to attract settlers.

While this booklet has lots of text, it also includes many somewhat muddy black-and-white photos. One shows a wheat harvesting machine drawn by at least 26 horses, which shows why farmers were glad when internal combustion engine-powered tractors became affordable.

Another photo shows what for the time was a rather large hydroelectric dam (though puny by late 1930s standards). This is the Long Lake Dam, which opened in 1915 about 30 miles from Spokane. This photo is right above one illustrating “the world’s largest fishery,” which is sadly ironic as Long Lake Dam completely blocked salmon migration to the upper Spokane River and later dams would destroy most of the rest of the Columbia River salmon fishery.

Finally, a photo illustrating “schools, colleges, [and] universities” shows what appears to be the half-time entertainment during a football game with a humongous (and humongously ugly) seven-story building in the background. This was originally built by the Northern Pacific to be a hotel, but that dream was quashed by the panic of 1893. NP eventually sold it to Tacoma School District, which opened it as Tacoma High School in 1906.

The school district built a large stadium bowl in 1910 and soon renamed the school Stadium High, perhaps the only case of a school named after a sports stadium rather than the other way around. The school and stadium are still open today and were used in the 1999 movie, 10 Things I Hate About You, which featured Heath Ledger serenading Julia Stiles in the stadium. The school used to be visible to riders of Amtrak trains between Olympia and Tacoma, but I think they rerouted the train to save a little time.

The booklet’s inside front cover is inscribed “Adeline Smith” with an address (a beautiful duplex that still exists) in Sunbury, Pennsylvania. I couldn’t find out anything about Smith but left the name and address in case someone else wants to find if this booklet inspired her to visit or, better yet, move to the Pacific Northwest.