Resorts of the Canadian Rockies in 1926

Posted on by August 5, 2023
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This is a strange booklet that really comes in two parts. First is a cover that is about 6-1/2″x9.2″. The fine print says the cover was printed in Canada. Second is the interior portion which is about 12″x9.2″. It was printed in the United States and probably shipped to Canada to be stapled to the covers. Once stapled, the interior pages probably folded in half again to fit into the cover.

Click image to download a 20.6-MB PDF of this 24-page booklet. Click here to download a 2.2-MB PDF of the full wraparound cover.

This booklet is from archive.org so I don’t have an actual example to know how it worked. I downloaded the scans of each page, touched up the covers, and relaid it out to be as close to the original as possible. One question is how big was the original, as the archive.org scans are not all the same size. I have a 1929 edition of the same book that came without the covers, and it is about 9.2″x12.1″, so I used this size for this 1926 edition. Continue reading →

Canadian Pacific 1929 Memograms

Posted on by August 5, 2023
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I’ve previously told how husband-wife artist team Martin & Flora DeMuth talked Canadian Pacific into letting them go on at least 15 cruises in exchange for doing artwork and (in Martin’s case) giving lectures for those cruises. Indeed, it is likely that CP actually paid the DeMuths for their work in addition to giving them free room and board on lengthy cruises some of which, in today’s dollars, cost passengers a minimum of $40,000 apiece.

Click image to download a 7.0-MB PDF of these 11 memograms.

Here are some of Flora DeMuth sketches, or “memograms,” that were given to passengers aboard CP’s 72-day Mediterranean cruise (whose fares started at around $16,000 in today’s dollars) in 1929. Some memograms were postcard size and designed to be mailed to friends if passengers wanted. But today’s sketches are nearly 8-1/2″x11″ and the back is entirely blank. Passengers might receive scores of sketches during a single cruise and many presumably took them home to put into albums or stuff into boxes. Continue reading →

Canadian Pacific Fish & Game Dinner Menu

Posted on by August 5, 2023
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This dining car menu celebrates Canadian fish & game, or the hunters of same. The front cover, shown below, shows someone catching what looks like a smallmouth bass. The back cover shows two hunters, one aiming at a rocky mountain goat. This could be a subtle dig at the Great Northern, Canadian Pacific’s great rival until the Canadian National managed to get itself organized. Neither of the illustrations are signed, I suspect because they aren’t good enough that an artist would want to take credit for them.

Click image to download a 3.5-MB PDF of this menu.

The menu is undated, but based on the lamb chop index it is from somewhere between 1924 and 1927 (CP frequently changed the price of lamb chops on its menus). Based on the design, particularly the decoration around the edges of the interior pages, I would say it is from 1924 or 1925. Continue reading →

The New Lounge Lunch Menu

Posted on by August 5, 2023
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This menu pictures the interior of one of the comfortable lounges in the new Jasper Park Lodge. Above the fireplace is a piece of Northwest Indian artwork that was also pictured on the lodge’s beverage menu .

Click image to download a 2.4-MB PDF of this menu card.

Dated one day after yesterday’s dinner menu, today’s lunch menu is almost as elaborate. It includes a choice of three appetizers, three soups, eight entrées, potatoes and vegetables, salad, five desserts, and a beverage. Among the entrées were bacon and eggs, kippered herring, roast pork, and cold salmon.

The New Central Building Dinner Menu

Posted on by August 5, 2023
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As previously noted, CN’s log-built Jasper Park Lodge burned to the ground in 1952, forcing the railroad to hastily erect a new lodge made of fireproof stone, concrete, and steel. While not as rustic as the old one, it was 40 percent larger, providing room for meetings and conventions as well as ordinary tourists. The building had lobby, dining, and entertainment facilities only; sleeping rooms were in separate cabins that were not harmed by the fire.

Click image to download a 2.4-MB PDF of this menu card.

Dated July 21, this unpriced dinner menu offered one more course than the lunch menu: a relish dish. Beyond this, it had a choice of three appetizers, three soups, six entrées, three kinds of potatoes, two vegetables, a salad, and five desserts as well as a beverage. Other than the relish, the main difference between lunch and dinner was the entrées: while lunch had eight entrées, the six dinner entrées were fancier. Among the entrées on this menu were were scallops and shrimps, ham steak, prime rib, and cold fresh lobster.

Jasper 14th Tee Menu

Posted on by August 16, 2023
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The 14th tee of Jasper’s golf course appears to be located on a small peninsula in Lac Beauvert. If this were a modern golf course, the designer might have sadistically used the peninsula for the green, causing many golfers to earn penalties from losing their balls in the water.

Click image to download a 2.5-MB PDF of this menu card.

Today, Jasper’s golf course is rated one of the best in Canada, even better than the one at Banff. Both golf courses and their associated hotels are now owned by the same company, but in 1954, when this menu was issued, they were hotly competitive with one another. Continue reading →

To Seattle via the Canadian Rockies

Posted on by August 16, 2023
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I have this beautiful cover listed as a “missing menu” on my page of Canadian National menu series. Rather than a menu, however, today’s item is the itinerary of a 1949 trip of the American Association of Railroad Ticket Agents to their annual sales meeting in Seattle.

Click image to download an 3.3-MB PDF of this booklet.

The itinerary began in Chicago, from which the agents took the Chicago & North Western to Duluth. There they transferred to the Canadian National, which took them to Saskatoon, Jasper, and Vancouver. The trip included a day-long tour in Jasper and an overnight stay at the Jasper Park Lodge so that the agents could know what they were selling to their customers. There were also short sightseeing trips in Duluth, Saskatoon, and Vancouver. Continue reading →

Minaki Lodge 1949 Dinner Menu

Posted on by August 16, 2023
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This dinner menu has a different view of Minaki Lodge from yesterday’s lunch menu. The water in the background is supposed to be the Winnipeg River, but the river is really more of a series of lakes beginning with Lake of the Woods and continuing with Big Sand Lake at Minaki and ending at Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba.

Click image to download a 876-KB PDF of this menu.

Although you can’t tell from the above image (as I size all images to be about the same), this menu is larger than the lunch menus shown over the past three days: about 7″x10″ rather than 6″x9″. Almost three years ago, I presented another dinner menu that, like today’s, was used for the American Association of Railroad Ticket Agents’ trip to Seattle. That menu featured Percé Rock near Gaspé. Continue reading →

Minaki Lodge 1949 Lunch Menu

Posted on by August 16, 2023
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Minaki Lodge was a misbegotten effort by CN predecessor Grand Trunk Pacific to build a resort in the middle of nowhere. Although Minaki is in Ontario, it is only 114 miles east of Winnipeg but 1,244 miles west of Toronto. Grand Trunk Pacific executives probably reasoned that a resort that was a day’s travel away from Canada’s main population centers would be more attractive to residents who didn’t have the time or money to travel all the way to the Canadian Rockies.

Click image to download a 1.6-MB PDF of this menu.

When Grand Trunk Pacific went bankrupt and was taken over by the government and made part of Canadian National, the new owner rebuilt the lodge, whereupon it immediately burned down. CN rebuilt it again, including a golf course that required 30 trainloads of soil to cover up the rocky outcroppings of the Canadian Shield. It apparently did well for a few years but CN sold it after WWII. It passed through several owners until 2003 when it again burned to the ground. It is an indication of the lodge’s lack of profitability that the owners had no insurance. Continue reading →

Fishing in Jasper 1949 Lunch Menu

Posted on by August 16, 2023
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This menu was used on the same trip of the American Association of Railroad Ticket Agents as yesterday’s. While the back of yesterday’s menu noted that hunting was illegal in Jasper Park, this one points out that fishing was “not only permitted but it is encouraged” partly by a government fish hatchery that stocked many of the park’s lakes.

Click image to download a 1.0-MB PDF of this menu.

A close look at the cover photo indicates that the women in the canoe don’t appear to be fishing; they are merely paddling on Lac Beauvert. Fishing is mentioned only on the back of the menu. Continue reading →