In 1901, the Union Pacific and Chicago & North Western formed the “Chicago, Union Pacific and North Western” tour company, offering escorted tours of national parks and other sights in the West. Starting from Chicago or St. Louis, these tours included transportation, lodging, and meals for one price. Most tours would go Pullman and stay in the best hotels; budget tours would go coach and stay in camps or less-luxurious hotels.

These tours were soon emulated by the Burlington, Rock Island, and Milwaukee Road, though only the Burlington’s continued through 1940. To advertise these tours, the railroads published elaborate booklets filled with photos–often in color–and descriptions of the sights people would expect to see on the tours. Sometimes separate booklets listed detailed itineraries and tour prices.

Escorted tours generally cost no more than if someone followed the same itinerary without an escort, so the cost of the escort was absorbed by the railroads in an effort to get business from people who might not otherwise travel. Such people included single women who did not feel comfortable traveling alone, so the escorts effectively acted as chaperones as well as a guides.

Union Pacific was the leading purveyor of such tours not just because of its early start but because, with partner Southern Pacific, Union Pacific reached almost every major western national park except Glacier and Mesa Verde. UP published a series of annual booklets for its tours to California, Colorado, the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, Yellowstone, and southwest Utah parks. Plus it had a separate series of Summer Tours books with itineraries and prices.

Union Pacific’s leading competitor for tour business was the Burlington Route, which at least as early as 1914 combined with its co-owners, Great Northern and Northern Pacific, to form Burlington Escorted Tours. I’ve posted a couple of Northern Pacific tour booklets, a Burlington booklet on Rocky Mountain Park, and some Burlington Escorted Tours booklets (and more here).

The PDF thumbnails I’ve posted provide easy access to all of the Union Pacific and Burlington escorted tour booklets.