Mr. Budd's Historical Expeditions

Mr. Budd’s Historical Expeditions

Randal O’Toole

n 1925 and 1926, the Great North- ern Railway sponsored two trips Iunlike any rail tours before or since. In preparation, the railway erected six historic monuments that remain to this day, commissioned numerous papers on the history of the Northwest, convinced the U.S. Post Office to rename several places newspaper publishers and writers. he said. “The country distinctly has a so as to reflect their history, and in- Though the ostensible purpose was past and a great many stirring things vited prominent historians, state gov- to study agricultural conditions, the happened many years before what we ernors, a former chief of staff of the group passed the Chief Joseph Battle call our present civilization came here U.S. Army, and a U.S. Supreme Court field in Montana and spent time in at all.”3 This was Budd’s vision for the justice to give talks at various points Glacier National Park and Seaside, Upper Missouri Historical Expedition along the way. Oregon, giving Budd the opportunity that would go from St. Paul to Glacier These tours were the brainchild to point out numerous historic sites Park in July 1925, stopping at a wide of Great Northern president Ralph along the way.2 variety of historic sites along the way. Budd. An Iowa farm boy who received While Glacier and Seaside offered Budd’s objective, at least in part, his degree in civil engineering at the unforgettable scenery, Budd realized was to attract passengers to his rail- age of 19, Budd was a self-made intel- that many travelers thought the Great road. Competitor Northern Pacific lectual with deep interests in history, Plains between Minneapolis and the had advertised at least since 1922 that literature, art, and technology, all of Rocky Mountains had “nothing worth it most closely followed the route “ex- which he brought together for the while looking at. . . . It would be quite plored by Lewis & Clark in 1804–6.” railway’s two historical expeditions.1 an accomplishment if we could let the After its expeditions, Great Northern Budd probably conceived the idea transcontinental traveler know that responded by featuring the monu- for the expeditions during a 1924 almost every inch of the way there ments it had built, as well as other trip he and Great Northern chair- is something that keeps the country historic sites along its route, in its man Louis Hill hosted for 29 eastern from being dreary and uninteresting,” advertising.4 At the same time, Budd was pro- jecting his own interests on the rail- RANDAL O’TOOLE is a transportation policy analyst from Oregon. He has scanned and posted many of the documents from Great Northern’s historical expeditions on his website, streamlinermemories.info. above: Engineer, businessman, and intellectual Ralph Budd in his study, St. Paul, about 1930

14 MINNESOTA HISTORY the Great Northern line near Havre, “It would be quite an accomplishment if we could let the Montana; Camp Disappointment, transcontinental traveler know that almost every inch about 12 miles northeast of Browning, Montana, the northernmost point of the way there is something that keeps the country from reached by a party of the Lewis and being dreary and uninteresting,” Clark Expedition; and Marias Pass, the lowest-elevation pass across the Rocky Mountains in the United States, which had been located for the Great road and its customers. A longtime de la Varennes, sieur de La Véren Northern by engineer John F. Stevens member of the Minnesota Historical drye spent Christmas in 1738, as did in 1889. Society and other states’ historical so- British explorer David Thompson in To help explain the historic sig- cieties, he would sometimes call his- 1797; Mondak, on the Montana–North nificance of each of these sites, the torian friends and ask questions such Dakota border, site of Fort Union, Great Northern published six elegant as “Who was the first white man to the chief trading post for John Jacob booklets: An Important Visit: Zebulon see Montana’s Flathead Lake?”5 These Astor’s American Fur Company for Montgomery Pike, 1805; The Verendrye queries led to flurries of research that four decades;6 the Chief Joseph Battle Overland Quest of the Pacific; Fort Union occasionally ended with publication field, located a few miles south of and Its Neighbors on the Upper Missouri; in historical journals. Chief Joseph’s Own Story; A Glance at The Upper Missouri Expedition the Lewis and Clark Expedition; and The visited six major sites between July Discovery of Marias Pass. In addition to 16 and July 21, 1925: Fort Snelling, giving copies to expedition members, near St. Paul, sited by Lt. Zebulon the railroad provided them as reading Montgomery Pike in 1805; the tiny material in its first-class lounges for town of Falsen, North Dakota, where several years afterward. the French explorer Pierre Gaultier Grace Flandrau, author of three of these booklets, was previously known only for her fiction. Born and raised Dedicating the Astoria (Oregon) Column, in the same St. Paul neighborhood as the climax of the Great Northern’s Columbia F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flandrau wrote sa- River Historical Expedition, July 1926. The spiral painting of Columbia River history on tirical critiques of high society, much the monument’s exterior was completed in like Fitzgerald did. Her 1923 novel, October. Being Respectable, was a national bestseller that Fitzgerald said was he expedition began July “better than Babbitt.” Yet after it was 16 with a luncheon Budd published, Flandrau fretted, “I’ve shot Thosted at the exclusive Som- my wad.”7 erset Club near St. Paul. Participants Budd and Louis Hill came to her then took a tour of Fort Snelling, rescue, offering a free pass on Great where the railway gave them cop- Northern trains to visit historic sites, ies of An Important Visit, its booklet use of the caretaker’s cabin on Hill’s about Pike’s 1805 expedition to what ranch near Glacier Park for writing, became Minnesota, which included and $100 a month (more than $1,300 some of Pike’s notes about the Fort today) to write about the region. In- Snelling region, comments by histo- trigued by the opportunity to work rian Elliott Coues, and excerpts from with “the delectable and so fabulously Pike’s treaty with the Dakota Indians intelligent Mr. Budd,” Flandrau even- to acquire the land. After the tour, the tually authored 11 booklets for the group went to St. Paul’s new Union railway, most of them related to the Depot to board the Upper Missouri Spe- historical expeditions, and went on to Author Grace Flandrau, St. Paul, about 1910 cial, which included Pullman cars, a a new career in nonfiction books and diner, and a special library car featur- magazine articles. Budd also lined up a long list of ing books on Northwest history. distinguished speakers, most of them The next morning, the train ar- historians, to lecture at various stops rived in Falsen, a central North Dakota o design the monuments along the route, and he persuaded town of about 75 people. Budd had that would be dedicated the state historical societies of Min- persuaded the Post Office to rename Tduring the expeditions of nesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, it Verendrye after the French explorer 1925 and 1926, Budd hired New York and Montana to cosponsor the pro- and his two sons, the first Europeans architect Electus D. Litchfield, whom grams. In June 1925, the railway sent to enter the Dakotas (1738).12 As the he had met a decade before when the elaborate invitations to 5,000 histo- Great Northern Employees’ Band of architect designed the St. Paul Public rians, politicians, writers, artists, and Minot played, expedition members Library and the connecting James J. other notables. Probably due to the got off the train to find Litchfield’s Hill Reference Library. The Italian Re- short notice, only about 75 people ac- granite globe dedicated to Thompson, naissance Revival style Litchfield used cepted the invitations.10 who had explored the region for the for the libraries provided a hint to the A brochure about the expedition British in 1797 and 1798. Coinciden- historic forms he would employ for indicates that the round-trip fare tally, Thompson and the Verendryes most of these monuments.8 from St. Paul to Glacier Park was had each spent Christmas, 59 years For the first one, in what became $47.70, plus $12.75 for a berth in a apart, practically within sight of this Verendrye, North Dakota, Litchfield Pullman sleeper. This was the normal location. was more creative. To represent David cost of travel to Glacier Park, even The ten-ton monument rested on Thompson’s role as a geographer, he though the expedition would entail a piece of railroad right-of-way that designed a granite globe, five feet in four nights on the train—two more Budd conveyed to the governor of diameter, scored with longitude and than the usual trip on the Oriental North Dakota. After that ceremony, latitude lines, and resting on a large Limited. Expedition members would the gathering heard lectures on La granite slab. This imposing memorial also have to pay for three nights in the Vérendrye by Canadian historian would greet expedition members as Glacier Park Lodge at rates starting Lawrence Burpee and on Thompson they got off the train.9 Litchfield’s de- at $6.50 per night (including three by Washington State historian T. C. sign for most of the other monuments meals), as well as several meals on the Elliott. Expedition members could was less inspired; for example, a train. In all, a traveler could join the also read the Great Northern booklet simple obelisk similar to (but smaller expedition for as little as $90—about The Verendrye Overland Quest of the than) the Washington Monument $1,250 in today’s money—though Pacific, which contained a translation marked the spot near Camp Disap- most probably spent more to get pri- of part of the explorer’s journals and pointment, Montana, visited by part vate baths at the hotel, drinks, and a 15-page essay by Grace Flandrau.13 of the Lewis and Clark expedition. other amenities.11 Each also received a replica of the

16 MINNESOTA HISTORY the idea of rebuilding the original fort but decided the cost was too great. Instead, the Great Northern erected a flagpole near the location of the original fort’s flagpole. The railway also gave its travelers a copy of its booklet Fort Union and Its Neighbors on the Upper Missouri.14 To entertain passengers, the railway arranged an Indian Congress— a gathering of 400 members of 11 tribes: Arikara, Assiniboines, Blackfeet, Blood, Ojibwe, Crow, Gros Ventres, Hidatsa, Mandan, Piegan, and Dakota. This was the first meeting of the different tribes since they had been herded onto reservations in the late-nineteenth century. Budd brought this group together over the objections of the eight U.S. Indian Field Service superintendents in the Dakotas and Montana, who stated that encouraging people “to show off their old time dances and customs in their old time finery” would interfere with the government’s “five-year program” to turn the Indians into farmers. Further, the superintendents argued that allowing “old time customs” was “absolutely inimical to the religious welfare of the Indian”—that is, the federal attempt to suppress Native religion and cul- ture in favor of Christianity.15 Ignoring these concerns, the railway provided the Indians with food, horses, materials for building lodges, and other goods, such as Montana pipestone for making pipes. The Indi- Invitation, blank and unsent, from the Great Northern Railway’s copious documentary files, 1925 ans were reportedly happy to attend because it gave them a chance to en- lead tablet the Vérendryes had buried for the Mt. Rushmore monument, gage in activities forbidden by Indian near what is now Pierre, South Da- and several other historians. agents and to meet with friends and kota, to claim the territory for France. The next morning, the train relatives from other reservations.16 (Schoolchildren discovered the arrived at the site of Fort Union, Maj. Gen. Hugh L. Scott, a former original plate in 1913.) After a picnic the American Fur Company’s main U.S. Army Chief of Staff who had lunch, the expedition continued on to trading post from about 1828 to 1867. served at posts in Dakota Territory Minot, North Dakota, where partici- The fort had been replaced by a town earlier in his career and was currently pants enjoyed a banquet and talks by called Mondak, but the Great North- on the Board of Indian Commission- South Dakota state historian Doane ern persuaded the Post Office to -re ers, gave a speech in English and sign Robinson, then promoting his idea name it Fort Union. Budd toyed with language.17 Six chiefs responded,

SPRING 2016 17 thanking the Great Northern but also imploring the audience to per- To entertain passengers, the railway arranged an Indian suade the federal government to treat Congress—a gathering of 400 members of 11 tribes. This Indians fairly and abide by treaties— requests that largely fell on deaf ears, was the first meeting of the different tribes since they had even though the head of the Bureau been herded onto reservations in the late-nineteenth century. of Indian Affairs and the chair of the House Committee on Indian Relations were there to listen and speak. The Indians spent much of the day since 1898 created an opportunity about 800 peaceful Indians, led by entertaining the crowds with a variety to work together toward common Chief Joseph, resisted removal to a of dances, races, and competitions for aims.19 reservation by fleeing their homes in such things as best old-time costume, northeastern Oregon, traveling nearly best tribal dance, and best Indian 1,200 miles. After their capture, the lodge. These events attracted some fter the Indian Congress, army, under the command of Gen. 10,000 local residents, who drove to the Upper Missouri Special Nelson A. Miles, roughly relocated Fort Union in 3,000 automobiles.18 A journeyed overnight to the surviving Nez Perce to Indian Budd could not have known it, Havre, Montana. From that point, Territory (now Oklahoma). Joseph but this gathering helped spur the expedition members made an auto unsuccessfully appealed to be allowed American Indian movement of today. trip to the site of the 1877 Battle of What the Great Northern viewed as Bear Paw, between the Nez Perce and Fort Union Indian Congress, July 1925 (from entertainment and public education, the U.S. Army, about 15 miles south of left): Chiefs Owen Heavy Breast and Mountain the Indians saw as an act of defiance. the Great Northern line. This battle Chief (both Blackfeet), Guiding Star (Miss Moreover, the gathering of people ended one of the most dramatic epics Glacier Park, no tribe given), Maj. Gen. Hugh L. from so many tribes for the first time in the Old West, in which a band of Scott, and Mrs. Scott to return to Oregon in a moving statement published in the April 1879 issue of North American Review, one of the nation’s leading monthly mag- azines.20 The Great Northern distrib- uted a reprint of Joseph’s statement, retitled Chief Joseph’s Own Story, to expedition members. At the site, the group heard speeches by Maj. Gen. Scott, who had served on the periphery of the Nez Perce campaign (not in any of the major battles), and Charles Smith, one of the battle’s participants under Gen. Miles, who urged Congress to designate the site a national monument. While Americans in 1925 respected Joseph for his courage and tragic experience, they had little sympathy for Indians in general. As Agnes C. Laut later wrote of the chief with “west,” that Lewis was trying to Upper Missouri Special and the newly in her chronicle of the Upper Mis- find Marias Pass. erected obelisk, Camp Disappointment, souri Expedition, “It was as inevitable As in Verendrye, the railway do- Montana, July 1925 that he must be defeated as it was nated this land to the state; Montana’s right that he should be.”21 governor John Erickson was on hand duce sculptures for the U.S. Capitol, After the group returned to Havre, to accept the donation. In addition to Smithsonian, and 1939 New York the train left for the small village of hearing noted historians lecture on World’s Fair.22 East Glacier Park, where expedition the epic journey, expedition members People rarely erect statues to members settled into Glacier Park could read Grace Flandrau’s booklet living persons, but Stevens was Ralph Lodge. The next morning, the Upper A Glance at the Lewis and Clark Expedi- Budd’s mentor and, in a real sense, Missouri Special backtracked about tion, which the railway gave to all. Budd owed his current job to the 27 miles eastward to a rail station The next morning, the Upper senior engineer. The two had met in originally called Bombay, but which Missouri Special traveled to the rail- 1903 when Budd was a fledgling civil the Great Northern renamed Meri- way’s summit at Marias Pass on the engineer working for the Rock Island wether. Four miles north of this spot southern boundary of Glacier Park. Railroad and Stevens, 26 years older, was Camp Disappointment, so called Great Northern was proud of having became the Rock Island’s chief engi- not because Meriwether Lewis failed the lowest-elevation route of any neer. Two years later, when Theodore to find Marias Pass over the Rocky American railroad across the Rocky Roosevelt asked Stevens to take over Mountains (as Great Northern litera- Mountains, and it credited this feat construction of the Panama Canal, he ture hinted) but because he was disap- to engineer John F. Stevens, who brought Budd along. While Stevens pointed that the Marias River did not located the pass on a freezing De- was fighting disease-spreading go farther north, allowing the United cember day in 1889. Grace Flandrau mosquitoes and deciding to build a States to claim land up to the 50th dramatized the story in The Discovery high-level canal with locks instead of parallel as part of the Louisiana Pur- of Marias Pass. one at sea level, Budd oversaw recon- chase. To commemorate this north- Litchfield had proposed to com- struction of the Panama Canal Rail- ernmost camp of the Lewis and Clark memorate the site with an irregularly road, which was essential to build and party, the Great Northern erected the shaped sandstone block. Instead, maintain the canal.23 obelisk designed by Litchfield next to Budd commissioned New York artist After leaving Panama, Stevens its rail line. Inscribed on one side is Gaetano Cecere to sculpt a larger- was hired by James J. Hill to finish “Furthest point west on Captain Lewis than-life statue of Stevens. Then just construction of the Spokane, Portland trip up the Marias River,” implying, 31 years old, Cecere went on to pro- & Seattle Railway. Stevens put Budd

SPRING 2016 19 to work building that road’s subsidi- ary Oregon Trunk from the Columbia River to Bend and surveying a line from there to California. Impressed with Budd’s abilities, Hill brought the young engineer to St. Paul to be his assistant. Shortly before he died in 1916, Hill told Great Northern board members that they should make Budd the railway’s next president, which they did in 1919. Just 40 years old, he was the youngest railroad president at the time and one of the youngest in history. Budd asked Supreme Court Justice Pierce Butler, who had built his early career working for James J. Hill, to give a speech presenting the statue. Butler noted that Stevens’s location of The engineer himself: John F. Stevens at the unveiling of a larger-than-life statue of himself, Marias Pass “shortened the proposed Marias Pass, July 1925 line to the Coast by over one hundred miles, afforded far better alignment, 1926, it was clearly prepared with the Grace Flandrau produced five new much easier grades, and much less Great Northern’s cooperation as, in ad- booklets for 1926: Red River Trails; rise and fall.”24 dition to Laut’s flowery prose, it con- Frontier Days Along the Upper Missouri; After Stevens’s grandson unveiled tains significant excerpts from many Koo-koo-sint the Star Man (about David the statue, the engineer himself “gra- of the lectures and speeches, as well as Thompson); Historic Northwest Ad- ciously and gracefully” responded: trip photos by railroad photographers ventureland; and Astor and the Oregon “It is a common truism that corpo- and a fold-out map identical to the one Country. She also added several pages rations have no souls. But I think in the expedition program. to 1925’s A Glance at the Lewis and that you will all agree with me that Clark Expedition; the booklet was reis- one corporation has a soul, and that sued as The Lewis and Clark Expedition. it is wonderfully shown here today, ven before the 1925 journey Budd asked Minnesota Historical and besides soul, this one has lasting ended, Great Northern officials Society museum curator Willoughby memory.”25 That soul, of course, be- Ewere talking about a trip to Babcock to turn a Great Northern longed to Ralph Budd. “the old Oregon country” in 1926 and baggage car into a museum car. The Following the dedication, west- a “James J. Hill Memorial Expedition” result housed a diorama showing ern artist and expedition member in 1927. On the very morning of his re- a fur trapper’s camp, including a Charles M. Russell hosted a reception turn from Glacier Park, Budd outlined cabin with fireplace, balsam-bough at his cabin near Lake McDonald. to his staff a plan for the 1926 expe- bed, traps, and furs. A mannequin After dinner at Lake McDonald Lodge dition from Chicago to the Oregon wearing buckskins stood outside by and another night at Glacier Park coast.28 a canoe, bullboat, and dogsled. The Lodge, most participants boarded the For this trip, Budd had Litchfield car also showcased mementoes of train for St. Paul.26 design three more monuments. He Native Americans, trappers, pioneers, The Upper Missouri Expedition also persuaded the Franco-American and cowboys. Close to 12,000 people generated more than 1,200 favorable Chapter of the American Good Will toured the rolling museum when newspaper stories for the Great North- Society to sponsor oratorical contests it was opened to the public at stops ern.27 Historian Agnes Laut wrote and on “The French Pioneers in America” along the way.30 Charles Russell illustrated a 271-page for high-school students across the Invitations specified that the 13- book, The Blazed Trail of the Old Fron- nation. The 39 winners, plus five day trip, including all meals, hotels, tier: Being the Log of the Upper Missouri students who won similar contests in transportation, and a lower berth Historical Expedition. Published in France, would be expedition guests.29 in a Pullman car, would cost $290

20 MINNESOTA HISTORY (nearly $4,000 today). Including the gave each expedition member a hand- days in the region via radio from his students and lecturers, the expedi- cast replica of the Astor medal, which home in Winnipeg.32 He was followed tion attracted about 160 participants, American Fur Company employees by one of the French students speak- enough so that the Columbia River had given to Indians as a token of ing on “The French in the Heart of Special was divided into two trains for friendship. America.” most of the journey. Paying members That evening, participants enjoyed An overnight trip across North ranged from a Bemidji schoolteacher a salmon banquet followed by several Dakota brought the group to Fort to Charles S. Pillsbury, president of lectures on the history of the Red Union for a second Indian Congress. Pillsbury Flour Mills Company. River Valley, famed for the grain pro- Members of the Cheyenne tribe Except for Fort Union, the Colum- duction that was critical to the Great joined the 11 others that had partic- bia River Historical Expedition itiner- Northern’s success. Using the latest ipated in 1925. After celebrations, ary was almost completely different technology, aging Canadian historian ceremonies, and competitions similar from the 1925 trip; the main sites Charles N. Bell talked about his early to those of the year before, the trains were Chicago, Grand Forks, North Da- kota, Great Falls, Montana, Bonners Ferry, Idaho, Spokane and Wishram, Washington, and Seaside and Astoria, Oregon. Though the trip ended with a stay at Glacier Park, the train passed the Camp Disappointment obelisk at night and barely slowed down as it went by the Thompson and Stevens monuments.

he expedition started in Chicago on the morning of TJuly 15. Echoing the subject of the students’ oratory, Chicago Historical Society librarian Caroline McIlvaine gave a lecture about French pioneers in Illinois. The group visited the Chicago Art Institute, Field Museum, and Lincoln Park before boarding a train at Union Station. An overnight trip brought the expedition to St. Paul, where travelers spent a brief two hours at the Minnesota His- torical Society and a few other points of interest before hastening on to North Dakota.31 The real excitement began at Grand Forks, where the Great North- ern staged a pageant of transportation history featuring Indian travois, Red River ox carts, and the railway’s oldest locomotive, the William Crooks, with two historic passenger cars looking tiny next to the 1926 train. Potter Margaret Cable showed ceramics made from North Dakota clays and

SPRING 2016 21 continued to Fort Benton, where the up the Deschutes River 15 years be- parade. After a round of golf, Budd, expedition spent a morning with the fore, and he probably pointed this out Holman, and several others visited Society of Montana Pioneers before with special pride to another budding the site of Lewis’s and Clark’s Fort riding 42 miles to Great Falls for the engineer, his son John, an 18-year-old Clatsop, about 15 miles from Seaside. afternoon. There, the travelers viewed student at Yale.36 On behalf of the expedition, Budd had waterfalls and other sights once seen After an auto tour from Portland donated the funds to install a 90-foot by Lewis and Clark. to Multnomah Falls on Oregon’s new flagpole and brass marker there. After Passing Glacier Park at night, Columbia River Highway, the group dedicating this marker, the party trav- the Columbia River Special arrived in reboarded the trains for a trip over eled to Astoria for the night. Bonners Ferry, Idaho, to dedicate a the Spokane, Portland & Seattle line The climax of the Columbia River monument to the explorers who first to the Oregon coast and the Seaside Expedition was July 22, when the crossed that region. The names on Hotel, built by stagecoach magnate group spent the morning dedicating the monument include Americans as Ben Holladay in the early 1870s. The the grandest monument yet, the only well as some curious choices: French next morning, the travelers walked one not immediately adjacent to a rail Canadians who migrated to Oregon a short distance from the Holladay right-of-way. Standing 125 feet tall on in 1839–41, partly with the goal of train station to the beach where mem- Coxcomb Hill high above the city, the securing the territory for Britain, and bers of the Lewis and Clark Expedi- Astoria Column has a 164-stair spiral Henry Warre and Merwin Vavasour, tion had spent the winter of 1805–06 staircase inside leading to a viewing who were essentially British spies tending fires that boiled seawater to platform near the top. Litchfield seeking the best ways to invade and make salt. To help protect the site, the modeled the structure after Trajan’s capture the Oregon country from the Great Northern paid for an ironwork Column in Rome. On the exterior is a United States.33 fence around the salt works. spiral painting portraying the history Next, the expedition proceeded to Oregon Historical Society presi- of the Columbia by Attilio Pusterla, an Spokane, where participants took a dent Frederick Holman spoke about Italian artist who immigrated to the trip to Mount Spokane, heard lectures Lewis’s and Clark’s experiences on United States in about 1900 and also about missionaries and fur traders, the Oregon coast, and then the party did frescoes in the U.S. and Canadian and enjoyed a picnic supper. An split up for the rest of the day, with capitol buildings.37 overnight train ride put them in the some members enjoying the beach Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway in Seaside and others playing golf or Travelers and residents dedicating the Bonners town of Fallsbridge, Washington, on attending Astoria’s Spirit of the West Ferry monument, July 1926 the Columbia River. To mark the occa- sion, Budd renamed the town Wish- ram after an Indian village formerly nearby (generating a minor contro- versy among Indians who feared that relocating the name would change their treaty rights).34 Participants dedicated a monument “To the memory of those dauntless pathfinders and pioneers who followed the great thoroughfare of the Columbia at this place.” Designed by Litchfield, the memorial consisted of several col- umns of basalt mined from a nearby cliff and a plaque listing 43 people who journeyed down the Columbia between 1805 and 1841.35 From Wishram, expedition members could gaze across the river and see the Oregon Trunk Railway. Ralph Budd had overseen its construction

22 MINNESOTA HISTORY growing auto ownership. Various Despite the positive publicity the expeditions had generated, historical societies published many of the Columbia River lectures, but the Great Northern decided not to run a third one. the railway did not attempt to have a second book, similar to Blazed Trail, published. A. Guthrie, the St. Paul construc- had organized the city’s first such What remains are the monu- tion company that was digging Great event in October 1925, modeled on the ments. “If it should so happen that Northern’s 7.9-mile Cascade Tunnel, Great Northern’s Fort Union gather- the Great Northern Railway did not built the column at a cost of $27,000 ing. It proved so successful that 1926’s inspire the printing of another page (about $360,000 today). This was convocation was timed to coincide of history,” wrote University of Wash- more than the Great Northern was with the Columbia River Expedition. ington historian Edmond S. Meany, willing to spend, but the railway’s Afterward, the travelers spent an- “an indelible record has already been largest shareholder at the time other night on the train before tour- made by the rearing of those perma- happened to be John Jacob Astor’s ing Glacier Park for two days. Then nent monuments and by the publica- great-grandson, Vincent, whom they returned east, reaching Chicago tion of the programs of the dedication Budd persuaded to contribute most on July 27. ceremonies.”41 of the cost. Verendrye is a ghost town today, The city of 10,000 residents but the Thompson monument is in devoted three days to celebrating 1927 James J. Hill Memorial good condition, cared for by historical its new monument, and more than Expedition might have groups. Fort Union is now a national 8,000 people attended the dedica- A visited Duluth, Winnipeg, historic site managed by the National tion. Among the lecturers on the oc- and Seattle, key parts of Hill’s empire Park Service; the railway’s flagpole casion was Margaret Aldrich, one of not included in the previous trips. has been replaced by a 1980s recon- Astor’s great-great-granddaughters, Yet, despite the positive publicity the struction of much of the original trad- who told family stories about the man expeditions had generated, the Great ing post, just as Budd had dreamed responsible for founding Astoria. Northern decided not to run a third of doing. The Chief Joseph Battlefield The expedition then returned east as one. A month before the Columbia became a part of Nez Perce National far as Longview, Washington, where River Expedition began, Budd wrote Historic Park in 1965. its members helped dedicate a new Grace Flandrau, warning, “It appears The Camp Disappointment obe- bridge across the Cowlitz River. In that crops through the Northwest may lisk has been vandalized, but the the spirit of the expedition, Longview be poorer than the average,” forcing statue of John F. Stevens at Marias named the structure Pioneer Bridge. the railway to “economize in the re- Pass stands proudly next to the The- After touring what was then the search work which we have under- odore Roosevelt Memorial Obelisk world’s largest sawmill, the group taken in the past two or three years.” that Congress commissioned in 1931. returned overnight to Spokane and In short, he terminated her contract. The monuments at Bonners Ferry, helped dedicate a monument to the In place of an expedition, the railway Spokane Plains, and Wishram re- 1858 Battle of Spokane Plains. This sent the William Crooks and a number main in good shape but are seen by memorial, inspired by the Great of Blackfeet Indians to the Baltimore & few people. Northern monuments, was built by Ohio Centenary Fair, held in Maryland The iron fence around the Lewis the Washington Historical Society. during September and October 1927.39 and Clark salt cairn survives, but the On behalf of the railway, Budd con- Contrary to Budd’s letter, Great Fort Clatsop flagpole was removed tributed $100 and a piece of right- Northern freight revenues grew every in 1955, when local residents built of-way to the project.38 More than year from 1924 to 1929, but passenger a replica fort to commemorate the 1,500 people attended the dedication, revenues stagnated.40 Though the Lewis and Clark sesquicentennial; the including numerous Native Ameri- railway tried to capitalize on its his- National Park Service now manages cans who smoked a peace pipe with toric expeditions by featuring adven- the site. The Pioneer Bridge across returned traveler Maj. Gen. Scott. ture and history in its advertising, any the Cowlitz River in Longview, Wash- Expedition members then enjoyed hopes that the trips would increase ington, did not survive even as long another Indian meeting, this one passenger business were doomed as the flagpoles: a flood washed it out sponsored by Spokane, whose mayor to disappointment in the face of in 1933.

SPRING 2016 23 “It is education, it is travel, it is conversation and good fellowship. It is a new art and more than an art.”

By far the most popular of the tise, but during the trips he took the expedition monuments is the As- podium only briefly to convey deeds, toria Column, which receives some preferring to leave most time for the 400,000 visitors a year. In recent experts. When, at the conclusion decades, the Friends of the Astoria of the Columbia River Expedition, Column spent $3.5 million in private writer Sydney Greenbie requested an funds to restore it and the surround- interview for a feature article on the ing grounds, and in 2015 the group railway president, Budd declined, say- raised an additional $1 million for the ing the story was the railroad and the artwork and structure.42 Northwest, not a single man.44 In 1932 Budd became president of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy eyond the monuments, the Railroad, where his innovations tours left a strong impression included the Burlington Zephyr, the Bon many people. At a banquet world’s first stainless-steel, diesel- near the end of the second expedi- powered passenger train. (Budd took tion, Harvard historian Samuel Eliot the name from Chaucer’s Canterbury Morison rose to announce Tales.) In 1939 he would win the John Fritz Medal for outstanding scientific I have received more educa- or industrial achievement, mainly for tion than I knew existed. I have his contribution to passenger-train learned much that I could never technology.45 get from books. But I am at a loss After he left the Great Northern, to call it by a name. We speak of the railroad’s advertising department it as the Columbia River Histori- stopped mentioning historic sites cal Expedition, but that does not in its literature, apparently deciding tell the story. It is history, to be that potential passengers were more sure, but it is more than that. It interested in scenery than history. is education, it is travel, it is con- Budd, however, never lost interest in versation and good fellowship. It the subject. As president of the Bur- is a new art and more than an art. lington, he hired Richard Overton, a To name it, we must coin a word, Harvard PhD candidate in history, to and I suggest that we do it now. be his assistant, essentially paying I submit to you the new word, him to write a history of the railroad. “Budducation.”43 He continued to support efforts at historic preservation, including donat- Though everyone knew that Budd ing Burlington records to Chicago’s was the driving force behind the Newberry Library.46 Today, the Astoria expeditions, he modestly remained Column and other Great Northern in the background. He was perfectly monuments are as much memorials willing to give speeches about freight to Budd’s career as the Pioneer Zephyr rates, the future of passenger service, in Chicago’s Museum of Science and or other subjects within his exper- Industry.

Astoria Column, restored, 2010

24 MINNESOTA HISTORY Notes

1. Richard C. Overton, “Ralph Budd, Railroad 17. On Scott, see www.history.army.mil/books 1951. In 1970, when GN merged with the North- Entrepreneur,” The Palimpsest 36 (Nov. 1955): 431. /cg&csa/Scott-HL.htm; Agnes C. Laut, The Blazed ern Pacific and the railroads they jointly 2. “Personnel in Newspaper Men’s Party,” and Trail of the Old Frontier: Being the Log of the Upper owned—the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and “Revised Itinerary, Chairman’s Special,” June 1, Missouri Historical Expedition (New York: Robert the Spokane, Portland & Seattle—into the Bur 1924, both in Railway Advertising and Publicity McBride, 1926), 116. lington Northern, Budd became its CEO. Department records (hereinafter Advertising 18. Fort Union Trading Post National Historic 37. Here and below, “History of the Column,” records), 133.H.4.4F, box 1, file 768-F, Great Site, “A Confluence Country Centennial,” tinyurl astoriacolumn.org. Northern Railway Corporate Records, Minnesota .com/zoat6th. 38. W. D. Vincent to Ralph Budd, June 28, Historical Society (MNHS); Clark B. Firestone, 19. Blee, “1925 Fort Union Indian Congress,” 1926, Advertising records, 133.H.4.6F, box 3, file “Newspaper Writers Journey to the Great North- 582–612. 874-Q. west,” Cincinnati Times Star, June 10, 1924. 20. Chief Joseph, “An Indian’s View of Indian 39. Ralph Budd to Grace Flandrau, June 16, 3. Budd speech at Two Medicine Lake, quoted Affairs,” North American Review 128 (Apr. 1879): 1926, President’s files, 133.K.14.11B, box 565, file in “Upper Missouri Historical Expedition,” Adver- 412–34. 11,955. On the B&O fair, see Adolf Hungry Wolf, tising records, 133.H.4.4F, box 1, file 861. 21. www.history.army.mil/books/cg&csa/Scott The Blackfoot Papers, vol. 3, The Blackfeet in 4. “The Storied Northwest: Explored by -HL.htm ; Laut, Blazed Trail, 128. Bear Paw Battle- Glacier National Park (Skookumchuck, BC: Good Lewis & Clark in 1804–6 and Developed by the field is part of the Nez Perce National Historical Medicine Cultural Foundation, 2006), 776. Northern Pacific Railway,” 1922, https://archive Park, created in 1955 and managed by the 40. Great Northern annual reports to the In- .org/details/storiednorthwest619nort. On the GN’s National Park Service: www.nps.gov/nepe terstate Commerce Commission, 1923–29, tables efforts, see, for example, photos of the monu- /planyourvisit/basicinfo.htm. 302 & 309, Great Northern Railway Historical ments in Great Northern Railway, Scenic North- 22. Blueprint, Aug. 15, 1924, Advertising rec- Society, Jackson Street Roundhouse, St. Paul. west (St. Paul: GN, 1927) or the 1931 edition’s map ords, 133.H.4.5B, box 2, file 861-16; Laut, Blazed 41. Edmond S. Meany, “The Columbia River of the routes of La Vérendrye, Thompson, Lewis Trail, 255. Historical Expedition,” Washington Historical and Clark, and various pioneers. 23. Here and below, Overton, “Ralph Budd,” Quarterly 18 (Jan. 1927): 4. 5. Sidney M. Logan, “Who Was the First 436–39, 442. 42. See astoriacolumn.org; Daily Astorian, White Man to See Flathead Lake?” Helena Inde- 24. Laut, Blazed Trail, 255. Sept. 11, 2015. pendent, Aug. 29, 1926, 1. (The answer, according 25. F. G. Young, “Upper Missouri Historical 43. W. R. Mills, press release, July 23, 1926, to historian T. C. Elliott, who accompanied both Expedition,” Oregon Historical Quarterly 26 (Sept. Advertising records, 133.H.4.5B, box 2, file 874-G. historical expeditions, was David Thompson.) 1925): 279; Laut, Blazed Trail, 265. 44. Sydney Greenbie to Ralph Budd, Sept. 14, 6. John Matzko, Reconstructing Fort Union 26. Solon J. Buck, “Upper Missouri Historical 1926, President’s files, 133.K.13.8F, box 548, file (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001), 38. Expedition,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 12 11,620, recapping their previous correspondence. The explorer’s name is spelled Vérendrye, but (Dec. 1925): 390. 45. Margaret Coel, “A Silver Streak,” American the place name and some publications omit the 27. Matzko, Reconstructing Fort Union, 42. Heritage of Invention and Technology, Fall 1986, accent. 28. Buck, “Upper Missouri Historical Expedi- 10–17; “Ralph Budd Receives Honor,” Spokane 7. Here and below, Georgia Ray, Grace Flan- tion,” 391; G. Herrein to W. R. Mills, memo regard- Spokesman-Review , Jan. 19, 1941, 13. The Ameri- drau: Voice Interrupted (Roseville, MN: Edinbor- ing meeting with Budd about 1926 expedition, can Association of Engineering Societies awards ough Press, 2007), 81, 87, 94, 103. July 23, 1925, President’s files, 133.K.13.7B, box the medal. 8. W. Thomas White, “James J. Hill’s Library: 547, file 11,620. 46. Overton, “Ralph Budd,” 481. The First 75 Years,” Minnesota History 55 (Fall 29. Gertrude Krausnick, “The Columbia River 1996): 124; “Great Northern Monuments: General Historic Expedition,” Minnesota History 7 (Sept. Investigation and Arrangement with Litchfield,” 1926): 242. The photo on p. 15 is Oregon Historical Society President’s files, 133.K.12.4F, box 530, file 11,269, 30. Willoughby Babcock, “The Museum Car,” #ba008461; p. 21, courtesy the author; p. 24, GN records. Minnesota History 7 (Sept. 1926): 248–49. Jonathan James, IMG_8260, Flickr, http://tinyurl 9. Unless otherwise noted, accounts of the 31. Unless otherwise noted, the account of .com/jonathanjames2. All others are in MNHS daily activities of the Upper Missouri Historical the 1926 trip is based on “Program of Events, collections, including p. 18, 19, 20, and 22 in the Expedition are drawn from “Program of Events, Columbia River Historical Expedition,” 1926, Great Northern Railway Corporate Records, Ad- Upper Missouri Historical Expedition,” 1925, Ad- Advertising records, 133.H.4.5B, box 2, file 874-A. vertising and Publicity files. nvitationI photo- vertising records, 133.H.4.5B, box 2, file 861-13. 32. Krausnick, “Columbia River Expedition,” graph by Eric Mortenson. 10. For a photo of a blank invitation, see Ad- 243–44. vertising records, 133.H.4.4F, box 1, file 861-5. 33. Murray Morgan, “Henry Waree and 11. “Round Trip Excursion Fares, Verendrye, Merwin Vavasour, British Spies,” Tacoma News North Dakota, Fort Union North Dakota, Meri- Tribune, Dec. 9, 1973. wether,” Advertising records, 133.H.7.9B, box 4, 34. Robert Ballou to W. E. Turner, president, file 607. SP&S Ry., May 24, 1926, President’s files, 12. Matzko, Reconstructing Fort Union, 38. 133.K.13.8F, box 548, file 11,620. 13. The booklet was a reprint of an article by 35. Ralph Budd to A. J. Witchel, Oct. 17, 1925; the same name, Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Electus Litchfield to Ralph Budd, Nov. 6, 1925— Society 26 (June 1925). both in Advertising records, 133.H.4.6F, box 3, file 14. Matzko, Reconstructing Fort Union, 38–39. 874-R. 15. R. C. Craige et al. to Great Northern 36. Thomas W. White III, “John M. Budd,” En- Railway Co., Feb. 1, 1925, Advertising records, cyclopedia of American Business History and Biog- 133.H.4.5B, box 2, file 861-7. raphy (New York: Facts On File, 1988), 53–55. 16. Lisa Blee, “The 1925 Fort Union Indian After graduating with a degree in civil engineer- Congress: Divergent Narratives, One Event,” ing in 1930, he worked his way up the ranks in American Indian Quarterly 31 (Fall 2007): 582–612. the Great Northern, becoming its president in

SPRING 2016 25

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