Josh Van Veldhuizen
Railroads and the Early National Parks
HIST 590
The growth and expansion of the railroads in America is in part, the story about the growth and expansion of the American National Park system. America is a beautiful nation, but it is also enormous in size. Before the automobile and the railroad, journeying across the country was a dangerous endeavor that required a great deal of preparation and risk. The journey could take months, and travelers could expect to cross massive undeveloped regions by horse, carriage, ferry, and foot. They were also susceptible to disease, dangerous wildlife, dehydration, and starvation. Traveling by rail cut down on the time and risk involved on the journey.
This provided both the parks and the railroad companies a unique opportunity. Railroad companies were large and powerful organizations that could aid in the creation of National Parks, and then lay their own lines out to reach them. The railroads would help bring business to the National Parks and the parks could be used by the railroads in their advertisements to persuade people to commit to the long trips on their lines. They used posters, pamphlets, and brochures as their advertising mediums. Americas interest in National parks grew during a time when railroad companies increasingly advertised the attractive qualities of them. They highlighted the gorgeous scenery of the west and showcased some of the amazing sights passengers could expect to observe along the way.
Advertising the Railroads and the National parks
“The only convenient method by which Eastern tourists may reach the remarkable Wonderland of America is by way of the Northern Pacific Railroad and its branch line from Livingston.”[1] Such was the decree the Northern Pacific made of their route to Yellowstone. They were not alone in their proclamation either. The promotion of the National parks in art and text were common forms of advertising.
Railroad companies reached out to artists and directly engaged those who could portray the beautiful imagery of the American wilderness. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the Southern Pacific Railroad published their own magazine called the Southern Pacific Bulletin, which employed artists and photographers who were tasked with capturing the beauty along the rail lines. Additionally, the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railways commissioned paintings and photos by the hundreds. Some of America’s most iconic areas like Crater Lake, Yellowstone, and Mount Rainier were included in these commissions.
Advertisements in the 19th and early 20th centuries were much heavier in text. Vivid descriptions were written to sell the product, and railroads were no different with their early designs in advertising the parks. One advertisement for the Railroad passenger service to Rainier National Park via the Milwaukee Line has paragraphs of text and only a small drawing of Mt. Rainier itself.[2]
Although this was common for the time, the text heavy style appears to become less popular as the years go on, and a style more focused on photographs and painting of scenic views began to take its place in the early 20th century. A 1903 guidebook for the Lackawanna Railroad demonstrated the beautiful art typical of these advertisements.[3] The design of this guidebook is unlike many of the early advertisements of the National Parks in the sense that they emphasize visualization over textual description. A brown border around the front of the brochure takes up most of the cover, but inside the border there is a picturesque scene of mountains, trees, and water. The artist makes the wonderful touch of having some of the branches from the trees overlap and stick out on the brown border around the page. The result is a gorgeous scene that sells the location to the viewer, which no doubt the railroad company intended to do.
In some cases, there was simply more to be said than a simple poster or a small pamphlet could provide, and entire books were published advertising the parks. The Yellowstone National Park issued by the General Passenger Department of the Northern Pacific Railroad is a superb example of the lengths the railroad companies went to show off the scenic opportunities that passengers could take advantage of. This was a full-fledged 50-page book published in 1883 that was essentially an advertisement for Yellowstone National park, and an advertisement for the Northern Pacific Railroad. The first half of the book provides vivid descriptions of the beautiful sights of Yellowstone, and on almost every page there is a charming sketch of one of the iconic sights of the park.
Considering it was published by a railroad company, one would expect most the content in it to revolve around the railroads ticket pricing and schedules. Instead more than half of the book, 29 pages worth of material, is dedicated to vivid descriptions of Yellowstone. The writing is in the style of traveling to and into the park, as if you were being told the experience of a tourist. The story begins with tourists traveling from east of the Mississippi, with the assurance that the sights on Northern Pacific’s line out west are interesting to the passenger. After entering the park the tale continues, “Two miles within the limits of the park the way leads upward from the Yellowstone River to a commanding height which presents a surprisingly charming view of the valley in which the wonderful Mammoth Hot Springs are situated”.[4]
The story continues with the tourist’s experience on their journey into the valley. The descriptions include cliffs, geysers, woods, waterfalls, volcanic glass, rivers, and several other unique terrain features around the park. Throughout the writing the Northern Pacific repeatedly brings up their own services to notify the reader of options for travel.
In addition to enticing descriptions of the park, the Northern Pacific took it a step further by including local stage tariff rates from the Northern Pacific's terminal station in Yellowstone. Travelers using the book could get an idea for the cost of a stagecoach to take them from the train directly to one of Yellowstone’s famous scenic areas. These areas included places like Mammoth Hot Springs, Upper Geyser Basin, Tower Creek Falls, and others. Distance in miles is provided for the reader as is the fare, which range between $1 and $25 depending on the location.[5]
The US government funded some interesting projects to promote tourism at the parks using a similar design to the Northern Pacific’s book from the 1880s. One of these projects was a series of booklets called National Parks and National Monuments, published in 1919 by the United States Railroad Administration.[6] Numbering 13 booklets in all, the series covered parks throughout the United States. Each one was about 16-20 pages in length and included: Crater Lake, Glacier National park, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Mt Rainer, and many other National Parks. Each booklet has vivid descriptions of the sights to be found at each of the parks. They also have photographs, maps, and the rates for various lodges and railroad fares, just like the Northern Pacific’s book on Yellowstone forty years beforehand.
The Railroad experience: Traveling to a National Park
The culture of the train service itself was much different back then compared to a contemporary Amtrak experience. Trips that once took days or even weeks by road and trail could be made in just a few hours in the early 1900s. Even so, leisure was at the forefront of the railroad’s business models. Anything to make the passengers travel experience faster and more comfortable was something that the railroad companies desired to achieve. For example, there was a sleeping car service launched by the Southern Pacific Railroad, and the Yosemite Valley Railroad added a complete diner experience to their cars.
Arriving at your destination quickly and safely wasn’t the only selling point of the railroads either. The Northern Pacific let their passengers ride with a touch of luxury, provided they were willing to pay extra for it. They offered cars with reclining chairs for those who chose to pay extra for it. Dining service was also available for an extra fee, and the Northern Pacific proudly proclaimed theirs were “the finest dining cars on the continent!”[7]
There are several accounts of passenger experiences on the trains heading west. One such account comes from Helen Hunt Jackson in the 19th century. Helen was a poet, novelist, and activist against the inhumane treatment of Native Americans. She speaks of part of her train experience in the late 19th century book Bits of travel at Home, where Helen describes the impressive power of the train: “Engineering triumphs where brute force merely evades; the steam-engine has stronger lungs than mules or men; and the journey which was counted by weeks was made in hours.”[8]
Helen’s writing characterizes a combination of astonishment and awe with the railroads at the time. In one of the chapters in the book she describes the tedious work of journeying into the picturesque lands of the west with wagons and mules. Her acknowledgement of the labor involved with the exploration and extraction of resource rich lands helps the reader to understand the marvel that the railroad was at the time, especially when bringing tourists to America’s national parks:
“It is a notable feat of feat of engineering. As the road winds among the mountains, its curves are so sharp that the inexperienced and timid hold their breath. From one track, running along the edge of a precipice, you look up to another which you a presently to reach; it lies high on the mountain-side, four hundred feet above your head, yet it looks hardly more than a stone's throw across the ravine between. The curve by which you are to climb up this hill is a thirty-degree curve. To the non-professional mind it will perhaps give a clearer idea of the curve to say that it is shaped like a mule-shoe, a much narrower shoe than a horse-shoe. The famous horse-shoe curve on the Pennsylvania Railroad is broad and easy in comparison with this.... The grade is very sleep- two hundred and eleven feet to the mile; the engines pant and strain, and the wheels make a strange sound, at once sibilant and ringing on the steel rails. You go but six miles an hour; it seems like not more than four... With each mile of ascent, the view backward and downward becomes finer...".[9]
Direct involvement with the National Parks and the railroads decline
The railroad’s advertisements were part of an effort to entice Americans to vacation in America, rather than in Europe. PBS covers this ad campaign in their series, The National Parks: Americas Best Idea. “On every Great Northern Railway brochure and billboard were three words: "See America First." The slogan was part of a promotional campaign aimed at upper-middle-class white Americans from the East Coast who were collectively spending $500 million each year visiting Europe."[10] Tourism in Europe centered around unique cultures with incredibly rich history and unique monuments, but the United States had an entire frontier with natural beauty that had barely been touched or seen by men. The Great Northern Railway took part in the campaign and soon all their brochures and advertisements reminded people that a wonderful sightseeing adventure awaited them, not just in Europe, but in their very own nation. In addition to advertising the sights, “the Great Northern arranged for a group of Blackfeet Indians to tour the east, performing war dances”, showcasing the distinct traditions and culture of the Native Americans as another part of their advertising campaign. [11] The American people, newly exposed to these exotic photos, paintings, and demonstrations, began to plan trips to see them in person in record numbers. To escape to somewhere to vacation, Americans need only to look west.
Railroad companies looking to expand out west had the exclusive opportunity of pioneering routes that could give them a monopoly of rail transportation in a certain region. Because the west was still a frontier and because gorgeous locations were still being discovered, bold railway companies with a keen eye for the beauty of the American wilderness could strike it rich by establishing tracks through an area that people would pay to see or visit.
A company that played its cards right could find itself being one of, if not the only, primary methods of quick transportation to a National Park. Examples include: The Northern Pacific to Yellowstone, The Great Northern line to Glacier National Park, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway’s line to The Grand Canyon, and the Alaskan Railroad to Denali National Park.[12] Competition boomed between the railways, but there was more to this competition than just market pricing to entice customers to their travel packages. The president of the Great Northern Railroad company put it bluntly when he “equated a successful railroad with nearby national parks.”[13] This mindset was shared by many railroad entrepreneurs and resulted in company support for the legislation to establish more and more national parks.
Many railroads took advantage of their proximity and actively promoted them. These parks became a huge hit with the American people. Railroad companies that sought the expansion of the National Parks began to participate more in the government. One such example is noted by William Butler: "realizing that National Parks were becoming a great attraction for the public – and thus generating revenue producing passengers – the AT&SF (Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway) then successfully led the lobbying effort to establish Grand Canyon National Park" in 1919.[14]
The success the railroads once had from tourism quickly declined once parks developed the infrastructure to accommodate automobiles. In 1916, fourteen thousand people used the Yosemite Valley Railroad. A round trip fare at the time cost the passenger only $18.50, but slightly more tourists visited via automobiles that year. Only one year later the passenger count for the Yosemite Valley Railroad plummeted to around eight thousand and six hundred people, a drop of nearly 40% in just one year.[15] Not even massive cuts to the ticket fares could save the railroads that were operating to bring in more tourists from the cities. As instrumental as the railroads had been in the creation of the parks, the ease and individuality of taking a personally owned automobile directly to the parks themselves became the primary form of transportion for Americans in just a few years. Once affordable vehicles hit the mainstream, the writing was on the wall for most of the railroad companies. Although they had pioneered reliable transportation to many of the National Parks, their business model simply couldn’t compete with the changing times. The early railroad companies recognized the beauty of the American wilderness and fought to preserve it not just because they could use it in their advertisements, but because the wilderness of the west was unique to America, it served as a badge of honor and prestige for the companies who could offer such an amazing experience to their fellow Americans.
Railroads and the National Parks today
Even today Americans can ride railroads to some of our national parks like Glacier National Park and the Grand Canyon. The National Park service recognizes and honors the contribution railroad companies made towards the early success of the National Parks. The number of vacationers and the revenue the early parks enjoyed has a great deal to do with these bold, early railroad companies, but there is more to the park service’s appreciation of the railroads than just financial reasons. Traveling to a national park by train was itself a unique experience. The park service notes: “When most travelers think of traveling to their destinations, they think of flying or driving. There’s a tendency to forget about the most iconic way to travel across the country and discover the land we love, and that’s by rail.”[16]
It isn’t very difficult to see why so many people would rather drive themselves to a park. There is much less freedom on a trip via train than with an automobile. You must buy a ticket, you must stick to a schedule, and you’re at the mercy of the railroad when it comes to delays for the train. Simply put, traveling by train can be an ordeal. But this ordeal can be an event for the passenger. It’s an entirely unique experience itself, for travelers like Helen Hunt Jackson over a hundred years ago, and for the passengers who travel today. In many ways the travelers commute on a railroad is less of an obstacle to be conquered so that their vacation can begin, and more of a key part of their National Park experience.
The competition these early railroad companies had with one another not only helped spread Americans west, it also helped to show off the beauty of the American landscape and promote the groundbreaking concept of “landscape democracy,” which Amy Jewell describes as “the concept that the most scenic parts of the landscape belong to all citizens, and that all citizens have the duty to protect these landscapes.”[17] The rapid expansion of the National Parks owe a lot to the railroad companies that sought to transport people to the unique beauty of the frontier. In the same sense, the railroads have the natural beauty of the American west to thank for the booming growth of their industry in the mid to late 19th century.
Bibliography
" Railroad service to Mount Rainier National Park." Early Advertising of the West Collection. Accessed February 01, 2017. http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/advert/id/29/rec/9.
Butler, William B. Railroads in the National parks: the NPS Railroad Registry for 2005. Washington: National Park Service, 2005. July 29, 2005. Accessed January 17, 2017. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/nps/railroads.pdf.
"Episode Three: 1915–1919 The Empire of Grandeur." PBS. Accessed January 20, 2017. http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/history/ep3/3/.
Jackson, Helen Hunt. Bits of travel at Home. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprints, 2007.
Jewell, Amy. "Railroads and the Creation of National Parks." Triple Pundit. December 19, 2014. Accessed January 17, 2017. http://www.triplepundit.com/2008/03/railroads-and-the-creation-of-national-parks/.
National Parks and National Monuments. United States Railroad Administration. July 2, 2013. Accessed February 07, 2017. https://archive.org/details/bookletsdescript00unit.
Runte, Alfred. Trains of Discovery: Railroads and the legacy of our national parks(Kindle Version). Lanham, MD: Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 2011.
The Yellowstone National Park. Chicago , IL: Rand, McNally & Co, 1883. July & aug., 2007. Accessed February 1, 2017. http://archive.org/details/yellowstonenatio00nortrich.
"Unique Ways to Experience National Parks by Rail." National Park Foundation. July 20, 2016. Accessed February 22, 2017. https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/unique-ways-experience-national-parks-rail.
"Unique Ways to Experience National Parks by Rail." National Park Foundation. July 20, 2016. Accessed February 26, 2017. https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/unique-ways-experience-national-parks-rail.
[1] The Northern Pacific, The Yellowstone National Park. Chicago , IL: Rand, McNally & Co, 1883. July & aug., 2007. Accessed February 1, 2017.http://archive.org/details/yellowstonenatio00nortrich, 6.
[2] "Railroad service to Mount Rainier National Park." Early Advertising of the West Collection. Accessed February 01, 2017. http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/advert/id/29/rec/9.
3 Runte, Alfred. Trains of Discovery: Railroads and the legacy of our national parks(Kindle Version). Lanham, MD: Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 2011. 114
[4] The Northern Pacific, The Yellowstone National Park, 7.
[5] The Northern Pacific, The Yellowstone National Park, 32.
[6] National Parks and National Monuments. United States Railroad Administration. July 2, 2013. Accessed February 07, 2017. https://archive.org/details/bookletsdescript00unit.
[7] The Northern Pacific, The Yellowstone National Park, 37.
[8] Jackson, Helen Hunt. Bits of travel at Home. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprints, 2007. 387
[9] Jackson, Bits of Travel at Home, 387.
[10] "Episode Three: 1915–1919 The Empire of Grandeur." PBS. Accessed January 20, 2017. http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/history/ep3/3/.
[11] “The Empire of Grandeur." http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/history/ep3/3/.
[12] Butler, William B. Railroads in the National parks: the NPS Railroad Registry for 2005. Washington: National Park Service, 2005. July 29, 2005. Accessed January 17, 2017. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/nps/railroads.pdf. 1
[13] Runte, Trains of Discovery, 354.
[14] Butler, Railroads in the National Parks, 1.
[15] Runte, Trains of Discovery, 618, 619.
[16] "Unique Ways to Experience National Parks by Rail." National Park Foundation. July 20, 2016. Accessed February 26, 2017. https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/unique-ways-experience-national-parks-rail.
[17] Jewell, Amy. "Railroads and the Creation of National Parks." Triple Pundit. December 19, 2014. Accessed January 17, 2017. http://www.triplepundit.com/2008/03/railroads-and-the-creation-of-national-parks/.
Railroads and the Early National Parks
HIST 590
The growth and expansion of the railroads in America is in part, the story about the growth and expansion of the American National Park system. America is a beautiful nation, but it is also enormous in size. Before the automobile and the railroad, journeying across the country was a dangerous endeavor that required a great deal of preparation and risk. The journey could take months, and travelers could expect to cross massive undeveloped regions by horse, carriage, ferry, and foot. They were also susceptible to disease, dangerous wildlife, dehydration, and starvation. Traveling by rail cut down on the time and risk involved on the journey.
This provided both the parks and the railroad companies a unique opportunity. Railroad companies were large and powerful organizations that could aid in the creation of National Parks, and then lay their own lines out to reach them. The railroads would help bring business to the National Parks and the parks could be used by the railroads in their advertisements to persuade people to commit to the long trips on their lines. They used posters, pamphlets, and brochures as their advertising mediums. Americas interest in National parks grew during a time when railroad companies increasingly advertised the attractive qualities of them. They highlighted the gorgeous scenery of the west and showcased some of the amazing sights passengers could expect to observe along the way.
Advertising the Railroads and the National parks
“The only convenient method by which Eastern tourists may reach the remarkable Wonderland of America is by way of the Northern Pacific Railroad and its branch line from Livingston.”[1] Such was the decree the Northern Pacific made of their route to Yellowstone. They were not alone in their proclamation either. The promotion of the National parks in art and text were common forms of advertising.
Railroad companies reached out to artists and directly engaged those who could portray the beautiful imagery of the American wilderness. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the Southern Pacific Railroad published their own magazine called the Southern Pacific Bulletin, which employed artists and photographers who were tasked with capturing the beauty along the rail lines. Additionally, the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railways commissioned paintings and photos by the hundreds. Some of America’s most iconic areas like Crater Lake, Yellowstone, and Mount Rainier were included in these commissions.
Advertisements in the 19th and early 20th centuries were much heavier in text. Vivid descriptions were written to sell the product, and railroads were no different with their early designs in advertising the parks. One advertisement for the Railroad passenger service to Rainier National Park via the Milwaukee Line has paragraphs of text and only a small drawing of Mt. Rainier itself.[2]
Although this was common for the time, the text heavy style appears to become less popular as the years go on, and a style more focused on photographs and painting of scenic views began to take its place in the early 20th century. A 1903 guidebook for the Lackawanna Railroad demonstrated the beautiful art typical of these advertisements.[3] The design of this guidebook is unlike many of the early advertisements of the National Parks in the sense that they emphasize visualization over textual description. A brown border around the front of the brochure takes up most of the cover, but inside the border there is a picturesque scene of mountains, trees, and water. The artist makes the wonderful touch of having some of the branches from the trees overlap and stick out on the brown border around the page. The result is a gorgeous scene that sells the location to the viewer, which no doubt the railroad company intended to do.
In some cases, there was simply more to be said than a simple poster or a small pamphlet could provide, and entire books were published advertising the parks. The Yellowstone National Park issued by the General Passenger Department of the Northern Pacific Railroad is a superb example of the lengths the railroad companies went to show off the scenic opportunities that passengers could take advantage of. This was a full-fledged 50-page book published in 1883 that was essentially an advertisement for Yellowstone National park, and an advertisement for the Northern Pacific Railroad. The first half of the book provides vivid descriptions of the beautiful sights of Yellowstone, and on almost every page there is a charming sketch of one of the iconic sights of the park.
Considering it was published by a railroad company, one would expect most the content in it to revolve around the railroads ticket pricing and schedules. Instead more than half of the book, 29 pages worth of material, is dedicated to vivid descriptions of Yellowstone. The writing is in the style of traveling to and into the park, as if you were being told the experience of a tourist. The story begins with tourists traveling from east of the Mississippi, with the assurance that the sights on Northern Pacific’s line out west are interesting to the passenger. After entering the park the tale continues, “Two miles within the limits of the park the way leads upward from the Yellowstone River to a commanding height which presents a surprisingly charming view of the valley in which the wonderful Mammoth Hot Springs are situated”.[4]
The story continues with the tourist’s experience on their journey into the valley. The descriptions include cliffs, geysers, woods, waterfalls, volcanic glass, rivers, and several other unique terrain features around the park. Throughout the writing the Northern Pacific repeatedly brings up their own services to notify the reader of options for travel.
In addition to enticing descriptions of the park, the Northern Pacific took it a step further by including local stage tariff rates from the Northern Pacific's terminal station in Yellowstone. Travelers using the book could get an idea for the cost of a stagecoach to take them from the train directly to one of Yellowstone’s famous scenic areas. These areas included places like Mammoth Hot Springs, Upper Geyser Basin, Tower Creek Falls, and others. Distance in miles is provided for the reader as is the fare, which range between $1 and $25 depending on the location.[5]
The US government funded some interesting projects to promote tourism at the parks using a similar design to the Northern Pacific’s book from the 1880s. One of these projects was a series of booklets called National Parks and National Monuments, published in 1919 by the United States Railroad Administration.[6] Numbering 13 booklets in all, the series covered parks throughout the United States. Each one was about 16-20 pages in length and included: Crater Lake, Glacier National park, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Mt Rainer, and many other National Parks. Each booklet has vivid descriptions of the sights to be found at each of the parks. They also have photographs, maps, and the rates for various lodges and railroad fares, just like the Northern Pacific’s book on Yellowstone forty years beforehand.
The Railroad experience: Traveling to a National Park
The culture of the train service itself was much different back then compared to a contemporary Amtrak experience. Trips that once took days or even weeks by road and trail could be made in just a few hours in the early 1900s. Even so, leisure was at the forefront of the railroad’s business models. Anything to make the passengers travel experience faster and more comfortable was something that the railroad companies desired to achieve. For example, there was a sleeping car service launched by the Southern Pacific Railroad, and the Yosemite Valley Railroad added a complete diner experience to their cars.
Arriving at your destination quickly and safely wasn’t the only selling point of the railroads either. The Northern Pacific let their passengers ride with a touch of luxury, provided they were willing to pay extra for it. They offered cars with reclining chairs for those who chose to pay extra for it. Dining service was also available for an extra fee, and the Northern Pacific proudly proclaimed theirs were “the finest dining cars on the continent!”[7]
There are several accounts of passenger experiences on the trains heading west. One such account comes from Helen Hunt Jackson in the 19th century. Helen was a poet, novelist, and activist against the inhumane treatment of Native Americans. She speaks of part of her train experience in the late 19th century book Bits of travel at Home, where Helen describes the impressive power of the train: “Engineering triumphs where brute force merely evades; the steam-engine has stronger lungs than mules or men; and the journey which was counted by weeks was made in hours.”[8]
Helen’s writing characterizes a combination of astonishment and awe with the railroads at the time. In one of the chapters in the book she describes the tedious work of journeying into the picturesque lands of the west with wagons and mules. Her acknowledgement of the labor involved with the exploration and extraction of resource rich lands helps the reader to understand the marvel that the railroad was at the time, especially when bringing tourists to America’s national parks:
“It is a notable feat of feat of engineering. As the road winds among the mountains, its curves are so sharp that the inexperienced and timid hold their breath. From one track, running along the edge of a precipice, you look up to another which you a presently to reach; it lies high on the mountain-side, four hundred feet above your head, yet it looks hardly more than a stone's throw across the ravine between. The curve by which you are to climb up this hill is a thirty-degree curve. To the non-professional mind it will perhaps give a clearer idea of the curve to say that it is shaped like a mule-shoe, a much narrower shoe than a horse-shoe. The famous horse-shoe curve on the Pennsylvania Railroad is broad and easy in comparison with this.... The grade is very sleep- two hundred and eleven feet to the mile; the engines pant and strain, and the wheels make a strange sound, at once sibilant and ringing on the steel rails. You go but six miles an hour; it seems like not more than four... With each mile of ascent, the view backward and downward becomes finer...".[9]
Direct involvement with the National Parks and the railroads decline
The railroad’s advertisements were part of an effort to entice Americans to vacation in America, rather than in Europe. PBS covers this ad campaign in their series, The National Parks: Americas Best Idea. “On every Great Northern Railway brochure and billboard were three words: "See America First." The slogan was part of a promotional campaign aimed at upper-middle-class white Americans from the East Coast who were collectively spending $500 million each year visiting Europe."[10] Tourism in Europe centered around unique cultures with incredibly rich history and unique monuments, but the United States had an entire frontier with natural beauty that had barely been touched or seen by men. The Great Northern Railway took part in the campaign and soon all their brochures and advertisements reminded people that a wonderful sightseeing adventure awaited them, not just in Europe, but in their very own nation. In addition to advertising the sights, “the Great Northern arranged for a group of Blackfeet Indians to tour the east, performing war dances”, showcasing the distinct traditions and culture of the Native Americans as another part of their advertising campaign. [11] The American people, newly exposed to these exotic photos, paintings, and demonstrations, began to plan trips to see them in person in record numbers. To escape to somewhere to vacation, Americans need only to look west.
Railroad companies looking to expand out west had the exclusive opportunity of pioneering routes that could give them a monopoly of rail transportation in a certain region. Because the west was still a frontier and because gorgeous locations were still being discovered, bold railway companies with a keen eye for the beauty of the American wilderness could strike it rich by establishing tracks through an area that people would pay to see or visit.
A company that played its cards right could find itself being one of, if not the only, primary methods of quick transportation to a National Park. Examples include: The Northern Pacific to Yellowstone, The Great Northern line to Glacier National Park, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway’s line to The Grand Canyon, and the Alaskan Railroad to Denali National Park.[12] Competition boomed between the railways, but there was more to this competition than just market pricing to entice customers to their travel packages. The president of the Great Northern Railroad company put it bluntly when he “equated a successful railroad with nearby national parks.”[13] This mindset was shared by many railroad entrepreneurs and resulted in company support for the legislation to establish more and more national parks.
Many railroads took advantage of their proximity and actively promoted them. These parks became a huge hit with the American people. Railroad companies that sought the expansion of the National Parks began to participate more in the government. One such example is noted by William Butler: "realizing that National Parks were becoming a great attraction for the public – and thus generating revenue producing passengers – the AT&SF (Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway) then successfully led the lobbying effort to establish Grand Canyon National Park" in 1919.[14]
The success the railroads once had from tourism quickly declined once parks developed the infrastructure to accommodate automobiles. In 1916, fourteen thousand people used the Yosemite Valley Railroad. A round trip fare at the time cost the passenger only $18.50, but slightly more tourists visited via automobiles that year. Only one year later the passenger count for the Yosemite Valley Railroad plummeted to around eight thousand and six hundred people, a drop of nearly 40% in just one year.[15] Not even massive cuts to the ticket fares could save the railroads that were operating to bring in more tourists from the cities. As instrumental as the railroads had been in the creation of the parks, the ease and individuality of taking a personally owned automobile directly to the parks themselves became the primary form of transportion for Americans in just a few years. Once affordable vehicles hit the mainstream, the writing was on the wall for most of the railroad companies. Although they had pioneered reliable transportation to many of the National Parks, their business model simply couldn’t compete with the changing times. The early railroad companies recognized the beauty of the American wilderness and fought to preserve it not just because they could use it in their advertisements, but because the wilderness of the west was unique to America, it served as a badge of honor and prestige for the companies who could offer such an amazing experience to their fellow Americans.
Railroads and the National Parks today
Even today Americans can ride railroads to some of our national parks like Glacier National Park and the Grand Canyon. The National Park service recognizes and honors the contribution railroad companies made towards the early success of the National Parks. The number of vacationers and the revenue the early parks enjoyed has a great deal to do with these bold, early railroad companies, but there is more to the park service’s appreciation of the railroads than just financial reasons. Traveling to a national park by train was itself a unique experience. The park service notes: “When most travelers think of traveling to their destinations, they think of flying or driving. There’s a tendency to forget about the most iconic way to travel across the country and discover the land we love, and that’s by rail.”[16]
It isn’t very difficult to see why so many people would rather drive themselves to a park. There is much less freedom on a trip via train than with an automobile. You must buy a ticket, you must stick to a schedule, and you’re at the mercy of the railroad when it comes to delays for the train. Simply put, traveling by train can be an ordeal. But this ordeal can be an event for the passenger. It’s an entirely unique experience itself, for travelers like Helen Hunt Jackson over a hundred years ago, and for the passengers who travel today. In many ways the travelers commute on a railroad is less of an obstacle to be conquered so that their vacation can begin, and more of a key part of their National Park experience.
The competition these early railroad companies had with one another not only helped spread Americans west, it also helped to show off the beauty of the American landscape and promote the groundbreaking concept of “landscape democracy,” which Amy Jewell describes as “the concept that the most scenic parts of the landscape belong to all citizens, and that all citizens have the duty to protect these landscapes.”[17] The rapid expansion of the National Parks owe a lot to the railroad companies that sought to transport people to the unique beauty of the frontier. In the same sense, the railroads have the natural beauty of the American west to thank for the booming growth of their industry in the mid to late 19th century.
Bibliography
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Butler, William B. Railroads in the National parks: the NPS Railroad Registry for 2005. Washington: National Park Service, 2005. July 29, 2005. Accessed January 17, 2017. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/nps/railroads.pdf.
"Episode Three: 1915–1919 The Empire of Grandeur." PBS. Accessed January 20, 2017. http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/history/ep3/3/.
Jackson, Helen Hunt. Bits of travel at Home. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprints, 2007.
Jewell, Amy. "Railroads and the Creation of National Parks." Triple Pundit. December 19, 2014. Accessed January 17, 2017. http://www.triplepundit.com/2008/03/railroads-and-the-creation-of-national-parks/.
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Runte, Alfred. Trains of Discovery: Railroads and the legacy of our national parks(Kindle Version). Lanham, MD: Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 2011.
The Yellowstone National Park. Chicago , IL: Rand, McNally & Co, 1883. July & aug., 2007. Accessed February 1, 2017. http://archive.org/details/yellowstonenatio00nortrich.
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[1] The Northern Pacific, The Yellowstone National Park. Chicago , IL: Rand, McNally & Co, 1883. July & aug., 2007. Accessed February 1, 2017.http://archive.org/details/yellowstonenatio00nortrich, 6.
[2] "Railroad service to Mount Rainier National Park." Early Advertising of the West Collection. Accessed February 01, 2017. http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/advert/id/29/rec/9.
3 Runte, Alfred. Trains of Discovery: Railroads and the legacy of our national parks(Kindle Version). Lanham, MD: Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 2011. 114
[4] The Northern Pacific, The Yellowstone National Park, 7.
[5] The Northern Pacific, The Yellowstone National Park, 32.
[6] National Parks and National Monuments. United States Railroad Administration. July 2, 2013. Accessed February 07, 2017. https://archive.org/details/bookletsdescript00unit.
[7] The Northern Pacific, The Yellowstone National Park, 37.
[8] Jackson, Helen Hunt. Bits of travel at Home. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprints, 2007. 387
[9] Jackson, Bits of Travel at Home, 387.
[10] "Episode Three: 1915–1919 The Empire of Grandeur." PBS. Accessed January 20, 2017. http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/history/ep3/3/.
[11] “The Empire of Grandeur." http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/history/ep3/3/.
[12] Butler, William B. Railroads in the National parks: the NPS Railroad Registry for 2005. Washington: National Park Service, 2005. July 29, 2005. Accessed January 17, 2017. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/nps/railroads.pdf. 1
[13] Runte, Trains of Discovery, 354.
[14] Butler, Railroads in the National Parks, 1.
[15] Runte, Trains of Discovery, 618, 619.
[16] "Unique Ways to Experience National Parks by Rail." National Park Foundation. July 20, 2016. Accessed February 26, 2017. https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/unique-ways-experience-national-parks-rail.
[17] Jewell, Amy. "Railroads and the Creation of National Parks." Triple Pundit. December 19, 2014. Accessed January 17, 2017. http://www.triplepundit.com/2008/03/railroads-and-the-creation-of-national-parks/.