During his royal tour of Canada, King George VI unveiled a memorial to soldiers fallen in the Great War. The two-decade tardiness of this memorial suggests that its real purpose was to bolster Canadian support for the newest war that was then brewing in Europe. The memorial was dedicated in May 1939; World War II is considered to have begun in Europe in September.

Click image to download a 1.8-MB PDF of this menu, which was provided by Brian Leiteritz.

While World War II killed far more people worldwide, Canadians suffered 42,000 deaths compared with 61,000 in World War I. Today, the National Memorial serves as a memorial to Canadians who fell in all military conflicts. Continue reading →

The haunting photo on the cover of this menu is made even spookier by tilting it parallel to the diagonal borders rather than perpendicular to the vertical borders, which means all the water should be running off to the left. We’ve seen this design before on a 1938 Tonquin Valley menu. Today’s menu is also dated 1938.

Click image to download a 1.8-MB PDF of this menu, which was provided by Brian Leiteritz.

The back cover says nothing about Maligne Lake but instead describes the railroad’s streamlined 6400-class locomotives. These were introduced in 1936 and operated until 1960. Locomotive 6400 itself is preserved in an Ottawa museum. Continue reading →

Today’s menu may be from the same voyage as yesterday’s as they are dated a few days apart. It features a scene of Prince Rupert or possibly Prince George heading north up Alaska’s Lynn Canal, the fjord between Juneau and Skagway. The menu is unpriced indicating the meals were a part of the fare.

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The menu itself features such foods as poached halibut in lobster sauce, braised breast of lamb, and cracked crab en Ravigotte. Today, this is usually spelled with only one t (ravigote) and is apparently a French sauce that is often paired with crab in Louisiana recipes.

In 1793, British explorer Alexander MacKenzie led the first party of Europeans across North American by land. When they first sighted the Pacific, MacKenzie said he painted the words “Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, the twenty-second of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three” on a rock.

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In 1923, a British Columbia land surveyor named R.P. Bishop claimed to have found MacKenzie’s rock, although by then the paint had all disappeared. Bishop physically inscribed “Alex MacKenzie from Canada by land 22 July 1793” on the rock; note this is worded differently from the phrase reported by MacKenzie. In a 1925 report about Bishop’s discovery, historian Frederic William Howay asserts that the rock identified by Bishop is “beyond doubt” MacKenzie’s rock. Although I’m willing to doubt it, the area has been made into a provincial park. Continue reading →

“The first christening of land in British Columbia” refers to the first time a European saw and named a piece of land in what would become British Columbia. The fact that thousands of Native Americans already lived there and had plenty of names for various landmarks was practically ignored by CN in this 1934 menu.

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According to the menu’s back cover, in 1774 a Spanish explorer named Don Juan Perez sailed from Monterey, Mexico north as far as Queen Charlotte Island, naming a point on that island Santa Margarita. The name did not stick as it is now called North Point. Neither Perez nor his crew bothered to land on the island or anywhere else in what is now British Columbia, but they did meet many natives who canoed to their ship to engage in trade but otherwise were undeserving of mention on this menu. Continue reading →