Indian Detours 1940

Unlike the the 1930 and 1931 Indian Detour booklets shown here, this one says nothing about the company that actually operated the tours. Instead, the focus is on the destinations including Santa Fe’s La Fonda Hotel, which was still run by Fred Harvey and was the starting point for many of the tours.

Click image to download a 20.3-MB PDF of this 24-page booklet.

Tour pricing has changed as well. One-, two-, and three-day tours from the LaFonda cost about $15 per day, including transportation and (for the two- and three-day tours) accommodations but not including meals. That may sound cheap today, but $15 in 1940 is about $250 today, which is pretty stiff for a tour that doesn’t include meals.

While describing the tours from Santa Fe in great detail, the booklet also briefly describes some tours that start elsewhere. A one-day (or possibly half-day) petrified forest tour from Winslow, Arizona is about $10; based on the map shown in the booklet, I estimate the round-trip tour covered about 150 miles. An overnight tour from Gallup to Mesa Verde was $25, meals and lodging not included. This booklet says almost nothing about the Grand Canyon as it would have been covered in other booklets and Santa Fe passengers would not need to rely on buses or chauffeured cars to get there.


Leave a Reply