These blotters from the Dale Hastin collection are from the 1910s to the early 1920s. The first two are dated 1915, and include photos of Marguerite Motie, who was named Miss Spokane in 1912.

Note that the blotters urge passengers to take the Great Northern to the “1915 Exposition,” meaning the Panama expositions in San Francisco and San Diego. As previously noted here, Great Northern had a large exhibit at the San Francisco exposition.

GN was pleased to advertise that Glacier was the “only national park on the main line of a railroad.” The blotter’s image is of a scene far from the main line of the Great Northern: Swiftcurrent Lake (which was probably called Lake McDermott at the time) before the opening of the Many Glacier Hotel in 1915.

A similar scene, possibly before construction of the footbridge but when the lake was definitely named McDermott, can be seen in the postcard below.

Click image for a larger view.

The Winnipeg Limited was probably GN’s most popular overnight train other than its transcontinentals. In the early days, it competed with a Northern Pacific train between the same end points, but NP dropped out fairly quickly.

“Homeseekers” were invited to take Great Northern trains on Tuesdays to look for farms and homes in the Northwest. Presumably, these were secondary trains (not the Oriental Limited) or perhaps even special trains just for immigrants. Though not dated, this blotter is probably from the 1910s as other railroads put similar ads on blotters in that decade.