My final Charlie Russell menu, at least for now, isn’t actually in my collection; I found this 1956 Buffalo Hunt lunch menu at Waterlevel.com, a web site that allows people to share their rail and other collectibles. This menu, and many of the other items on that site, are scanned at about two-thirds of the resolution that I use, but that’s still pretty readable.

Click image to download a PDF of this menu.

In any case, the 1956 Buffalo Hunt menu offers a “Chef’s Suggestion” of a triple decker clubhouse sandwich with soup, potato chips, cole slaw, dessert, and beverage for $1.85 (about $15 in today’s money). There is also a salad bowl luncheon for $1.70; and a table d’ôte luncheon with a choice of fish; omelette; or meat loaf complete with soup, potatoes, stewed tomatoes, bread, dessert, and beverage for $2.15.

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This 1957 Indian Warfare dinner menu included the exact same Lenten Special as the lunch menu. This one is stapled inside instead of paper clipped, so rather than harm the paper I left it in. Curiously, the a la carte menu that it partly covers up is almost identical to the luncheon a la carte menu.

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The table d’hôte side, however, is different, offering Lake Superior trout ($2.75; about $22 in today’s money); hickory smoked ham ($2.95), center cut pork chops ($2.95); and pan fried or broiled spring chicken ($2.95), complete with navy bean soup; potatoes; biscuits; beets; dessert; and beverage. There is also the $3.00 Western Star Special of top butt steak or “Chef’s Suggestion” of unspecified meat or fish for $1.85 with soup, potatoes, biscuits, vegetable, dessert, and beverage.

The five Russell paintings used on Great Northern menus (and reproduced in the observation cars) were painted between 1895 and 1899. Russell married in 1896 and his wife Nancy soon took over the business side of his art, helping to make him an internationally known artist and demanding high prices for his paintings.

Russell painted more than 40 versions of this buffalo hunt; the one used on the menu cover is numbered 26 and is considered one of his best-known paintings. Click image for a larger view.

The backs of my 1948 and 1949 menus say, “Russell pictures reproduced on the Empire Builder fleet are owned by Mrs. Kenneth Egan, Maurice Egan, and Gene Robertson, and are on exhibition in the Mint, in Great Falls.” The “Mint” is not a government building but a saloon that was purchased by a former U.S. Marshall named Sid Willis in 1905. Supposedly, Russell traded his paintings to Willis for drinks and meals, but this seems unlikely since by 1905 Nancy Russell was pretty much in control of the sale of Russell’s art.

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The Great Northern needed five complete train sets to protect the streamlined Empire Builder‘s 44-hour schedule between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest. The observation cars on the 1947 Empire Builder were named Mississippi River (car number 1190), Missouri River (1191), Flathead River (1192), Kootenai River (1193), and Marias River (1194). Each of these cars had a different Charles Russell painting in the lounge.

Click on image for a larger view.

Marias River was selected for early publicity photos of the 1947 Empire Builder. Interior photos clearly show the Russell painting, “Desperate Stand,” on the bulkhead at the forward end of the lounge. Winold Reiss Indian portraits are also visible between the windows.

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