The diary was written by a woman who took a two-week luxury train tour with her husband from their home near Philadelphia, PA through Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park in August 1932. Also present is an account of a three-week 1935 train tour of the Southwest, Pacific Coast and Western Canada.
On August 13, 1932 the couple left on a railroad vacation tour to Glacier National Park through Chicago, North Dakota and Shelby Montana arriving at Glacier on the 16th. They toured the park until August 20 when they left for Yellowstone Park. During their tour of Glacier, she describes several hikes, glaciers, lakes and waterfalls, boat rides, Blackfeet performances, ranger lectures and the accommodations of the large hotels of their stay. Among the sights they visited were St. Mary's Lake, Going to the Sun Highway and Chalet, Josephine Lake, Grinell Glacier, and Mt. Altyn at the Many Glacier Hotel.
On August 22 they arrived at the Gardiner Entrance to Yellowstone Park. The visit including the Mammoth Hot Springs and geyser fields going to Old Faithful Lodge. Visits to Mount Washburn, the Lower and Upper Falls of the Yellowstone at Canyon Lodge are described. Her accounts of the tour include Park Ranger information on the geysers and other lecture facts, the feeding of bears at the hotel dumps, feeding "tame" bears at the hotel, hikes at the waterfalls and the types of scenery on the roads. She does not discuss other tour guests or many other animals but concentrates more emphasis on the special features, scenic views, the weather and travel accommodations. On August 26, they left the Park over the Cody Road and she described the Shoshone Canyon and Lake, the Hoodoo and beautiful scenery. After an overnight stay at Cody they boarded the train and arrived home on August 29.
The second account in the diary is of a three-week train tour from August 9 through 29, 1935 traveling to the Southwest, Pacific Coast and Canadian West. As before she concentrates on special attractions, their housing and meals without reference to personalities. This trip included Pikes Peak, the Grand Canyon, Los Angeles and Hollywood homes and studios, Catalina Island, Yosemite National Park, San Francisco, Crater Lake, Klamath Falls, Portland and Columbia River Gorge, Mt. Rainier, Seattle, the Butchart Gardens, Vancouver BC, the Fraser River Valley and Canyon, Yoho National Park and Lake Louise in the Banff National Park before heading home on August 29 reentering the U.S. at Portal, North Dakota where the account ends.
This collection is open for research.
This anonymous diary was purchased from Robert M. Brabowski of Lancaster, PA by the Montana State University Library on November 14, 2006.
This collection was processed 2008 August 4