LAKE MICHIGAN TO PUGET SOUND
A Scenic Guide Book
Electrically Through the Rockies, Bitter Root & Cascade Mountains
Along the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway.ca.
1915
The color illustrations shown in the following pages are all
made expressly for this book from photographs taken by special
artists of the most striking objects of interest which abound
to a most remarkable extent along the C. M. &' S. P. R. Great
care was taken to select only such views as are most noteworthy
on this trip. Everyone desires to secure souvenirs of the journey,
and, knowing this, we have endeavored to make this volume such
a record of facts, and such a collection of beautiful, accurate
and attractive views, that it will be recognized by all as the
most appropriate and interesting souvenir of the Transcontinental
Journey.
EXCLUSIVE EDITION.
A Memory Book of Pictures
A TRANS-CONTINENTAL JOURNEY is an event. However much or however
little one may have traveled, it is impossible to think of it
otherwise. Preparing for it is a succession of pleasurable thrills
of anticipation. Looking back upon it is a series of delightful
memories. But memory has the best of anticipation in that it can
be shared, to a certain extent, with friends. Over the teacups
or around the evening fire, with your picture book, you can trace
your journey and live it all over again in the companionship of
those who were not with you on the trip of trips.
To cross the continent from the Great Lakes to Puget Sound
is a moving picture, with Nature in her most fascinating array
on the stage. She is there in her mildest, most placid aspect,
and in her wildest, most awe-inspiring grandeur. Verdant meadows
and bosky dells, woodland and water, mountain and plain in bewildering
array. And these scenes are reproduced in this Memory Book, being
a few, of the many wonderful and beautiful pictures seen from
the car windows along the line of the Chicago, Milwaukee &
St. Paul Railway between Chicago and the cities of Puget Sound.
The route, passing through Wisconsin, touches at Milwaukee,
and onward amid some of its most pleasing scenic country, of which
none is more so than "The Dells" of the Wisconsin River,
where the stream has worn down for itself through the ages a rift
in the sandstone rock, through which it swirls and eddies for
five miles or more, with wild and weird formations reared above
the water in long and winding lines on either side. "The
Dells" enjoy a wide popularity with sight-seers, but only
those who go deeper into historic lore will catch the lure of
the place, where caves and glens and dark ravines are the ghostly
haunts of Indian warriors, and of Blackhawk, the intrepid chief
of the savage western tribes who made these rocky shores their
hiding place for many years. Northwesterly, across Wisconsin,
this route follows up much of the old Indian trail to the Mississippi
River, crossing which, it keeps to the river bank for many miles,
as rarely beautiful as the famous ride down the Hudson. At Lake
Pepin the river spreads out into a broad expanse, with lofty bluffs
lining its shores and Indian tradition tells of a lovelorn daughter
of a great chief who threw herself over a high cliff which marks
a bold headland that has ever since been called Maiden Rock.
Between the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, close
by a picturesque boulevard drive, is Minnehaha Fallsthe
land of Hiawatha. This is the center of a region of enchantment,
rich in the charm and romance of Indian legend and famed for the
beauty of its scenery.
Westward from the Twin Cities, then out across the Golden Grain
Belt of Minnesota and South Dakota to the Missouri River, where
a stately bridge, one of the wonders of the bridge-builder's science,
carries the line across into what was until recently the Standing
Rock Indian Reservation, and now a rapidly growing agricultural
country that extends through North Dakota and eastern Montana,
with its wonderful story of development since this railroad penetrated
those states, wonderful pictures of new homes and farming, on
land that a generation ago was supposed to be valueless for crops,
but now known to be of extraordinary fertility.
After crossing the Missouri River, this line bears away westward
some sixty miles south of that stream and approaches the Rocky
Mountains by way of the valley of the Musselshell River in Montana.
At the foot of the eastern slope of the Rockies, the trains
of this railway are "taken over" by the giant electric
motors. "King of the Rails" they are called, because
they are the largest and heaviest type of motive power in existence.
As the train leaves Harlowton, Montana, moving easily and steadily
under the power of the giant electrics a new sensation in travel
is experienced. Free from jerk or jar the train rises on the mountain
grade as smoothly as a bird wings its flight; while the splendid
mountain panorama unrolls, unobscured by smoke or cinders. Electric
motive power is now used in crossing three ranges of mountains,
the Belts, the Rockies and the Bitter Roots, and shortly will
include the Cascades in Washington. The summit of the Belt Mountains
is reached at a height of 5,788 feet, whence the line gradually
falls to the canyon of Sixteen Mile Creek. This is known as the
Montana or Sixteen Mile Canyon, through which the road winds and
twists, rising on its rocky walls, creeping through many tunnels
and over airy bridges of steel and concrete, with the beauty and
splendor of mountain heights and rocky depths, rushing waters
and darkling pools. Through this natural pass the road makes its
way again down to the level of the Missouri, coming out to the
great river where Sixteen Mile Creek pours in its waters. The
Lewis & Clarke Expedition charted this creek as Howard's River,
but their successors, the cowboy gentry, evidently preferred something
more local and called it Sixteen Mile.
At this point the railroad again crosses the Missouri and proceeds
along its banks to the headwaters at Three Forks, one of the historic
spots in Montana. At Three Forks, three big rivers, the Jefferson,
Madison and Gallatin, all flowing down from snowy heights in the
Continental Divide, join to flow eastward as the Missouri. Here
came to a successful issue the primary purpose of the great Lewis
& Clarke Expedition that set forth in 1804 from St. Louis
to trace and locate the Missouri, and chart the new land acquired
by the Louisiana Purchase. After two years of toilsome journeyings
and much uncertainty, these intrepid explorers came to the fabled
Three Forks, and found the headwaters of the great river. They
then pushed on, westward to the Columbia River country, choosing
as their route the Jefferson, the stream which most nearly bore
the characteristics of the big river they had conquered. The Jefferson
was also the chosen route of "The Milwaukee Road," when
it started on its way over the Continental Divide, following the
river course through its beautiful canyon, and then striking out
on a long tangent straight for the Divide. With many windings
upward from the base of the mountain, it attains an altitude of
6,322 feet and compromises the matter of the summit with a tunnel
half a mile in length. On the west slope, the railroad drops gently
to the valley of Silver Bow Creek and enters the City of Butte.
Westward, then, it passes through Silver Bow Canyon, the valleys
of the Deer Lodge River, the Hell Gate River and Canyon and the
Missoula Valley, stopping at Missoula City, and thence westward
along the river course, with lofty, timbered slopes rushing grandly
down to the edge of the rails and sweeping in splendid circles
on every side, closing in and opening wide as the railroad winds
its sinuous trail along the brink of the stream.
Soon again on upward grade, on a steady ascent, looping from
hillside to hillside, winding on higher and higher levels, now
disappearing in tunnels and now thrown across deep ravines, on
monster upstanding steel trestles that reach down to the bed of
the gorge and rest on the eternal rock, the line is making across
the Bitter Root Mountains. At St. Paul Pass a tunnel nearly two
miles long cuts off a thousand feet of mountain top and the beautiful
western slope unfoldsa dazzling picture of a mountain railroad
resting on shelves cut into the heavy slopes, swinging grandly
down and down, making sufficient distance by loops and curves
to allow an easy grade. At the foot of the mountain it enters
the valley of the St. Joe River, a swift and singing mountain
stream, until it emerges from its mountain fastness into the level
of the great St. Joe Valley, when it slacks and its surface becomes
as glassy as a mirror and it enjoys the picturesquely suggestive
title "The Shadowy" St. Joe. From this valley, there
being still more hills to conquer, the railroad prepares for another
climb and swings up the long grade over the last divide before
entering the state of Washington.
In unique panorama lies the city of Spokane, capital of the
"Inland Empire," as on high the line swings away over
bridge and trestle towards the vast rolling wheat fields of Eastern
Washington. This entire section of Washington is made fertile
by the irrigation canals and is one of the finest garden spots
of the United States.
West of the Columbia River, where a marvelous bridge nearly
a mile in length carries the railroad over the great river of
the North, lies the splendid Kittitas Valley. In this favored
region grows everything that grows anywhere outside of the tropicsand
in the broad and lovely plain, through which flows the Yakima
River, life is easy and pleasant. It is well named"The
Valley of Content." On its western, rim hang the jagged ridges
of the mighty Cascade Mountains and towards these points the railroad.
Upward again, through ragged mountain scenesand here, for
the first time, the eastern traveler sees something of the mighty
forests of the Cascades. Dark and still and full of a nameless
peace stand the great trees. Trackless are these forests, except
where the long, narrow aisle of the railway opens a way through;
or where a rippling brook rushes down from unknown heights. Ever
increasing in number and grandeur the mountains crowd about, seeming
to bar the way. The railway pierces this range through Snoqualmie
Tunnel, which is 12,000 feet in length. Magnificent beyond compare
are the Cascades, on east and west, and at the western base the
Cedar River glides into the level and ripples along beside the
tracks-both river and railway on their way to Seattle, the first
to supply the city with the purest water on the continent, the
other to serve the western metropolis with its incomparable facilities
and magnificent trains.
From Seattle to Tacoma the line lies among the berry fields
of the famous Puyallup and White River Valleys, with hills and
forest closing in the horizon. Away in the southeast towers the
great white cone of Mount Rainier (Tacoma), and from Tacoma this
railroad carries you to the very granite foundation of the old
fire peak. Mount Rainier National Park encloses the mountain,
and the train takes you to Ashford, where automobile stages carry
you up through the park entrance and along the most beautiful
woodland road in the world to The Inn, at Longmire Springs or
Paradise Inn at Paradise Park.
Trails and ponies that start from The Inns take you to many
other wonder spots on the mountain and with competent guides you
may even venture out on to the great glaciers that sweep down
on every side. You can, also, if you are a mountaineer, join a
party and go to the summit-but this is a task that usually requires
some preparation while there are many climbs and many trails that
you can take in a day's trip, without undue exertion.
Chicago,
Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Map
Missouri
River Bridge at Mobridge, S. Dak.
The World's
Mightiest Electric Locomotive
The Olympian
on Short Line Bridge, Between St. Paul and Minneapolis
The Olympian
Under Electric Power in Montana Canyon
One of Many
Graceful Curves, Montana Canyon
Crossing
the Missouri River, Lombard, Mont.
The Columbian
on the Summit of the Rocky Mountains
Crossing
the Spokane River, Spokane, Wash.
Kendall
Peak, Cascade Mountains, Wash.
The Olympian
on West Slope of the Cascade Mountains, Wash.
Lake Keechelus,
Wash.
Kittitas Valley,
Wash.
Source of the
Missouri River, Three Forks, Mont.
On the Road
to the Inn, Rainier National Park, Wash. (Automotive)
From Sea to
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