Lake Michigan to Puget Sound by Rail

I was delighted to find this at my parent's house yesterday!  In a brief internet search it appears to have been published about 1924 (it's not dated anywhere on the inside).  The colorized photos are so beautiful, I had to share.
"Lake Michigan to Puget Sound - Electrically Operated through the Rocky, Bitter Root and Cascade Mountains. Along the Chicago Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway to Puget Sound - Electrified"

From Lake Michigan to Puget Sound

Mount Rainier and Reflection lake, Rainier National Park, Wash.



A Scenic Guide Book. Price $1.25

"A Trans-Continental Journey is an event. However much or however little one may have traveled, it is impossible to think of it otherwise . . ."

". . . . Upward again, through ragged mountain scenes the "King of the Rails" ascends the east slope of the Cascades, winding around Lake Keechelus - and here, for the first time, the eastern traveler sees something of the mighty forests of the Cascades. Dark and still and full of 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 the 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. From here the route is down grade through magnificent forests and along the rims of deep canyon carved into solid rock and carpeted with mountain shrubbery or threaded by rushing mountain streams, fed by eternal snows. Magnificent beyond compare are teh 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 . . ."

Map of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway

New Chicago Union Passenger Station

Steamboat in the jaws of the Dells of the Wisconsin River.


The Olympian on Short Line Bridge, Between St. Paul and Minneapolis

Minnehaha Falls, Minneapolis, Minn.

Missouri River Bridge at Mobridge, S. Dak.

"King of the Rails".

One of the Many Graceful Curves, Montana Canyon.

Eagle Nest Tunnel.

Crossing the Missouri River, Lombard, Mont.

Source of the Missouri River, Three Forks, Mont.

Magnificent Gallatin Gateway Inn, Montana

The Olympian on the Summit of the Rocky Mountains.

Crossing the Divide, Bitter Root Mountains, Idaho

Crossing the Spokane River. Spokane, Wash.

Bridge over Columbia River, Beverly, Wash.

Kittitas Valley, Wash.

The Olympian leaving Tunnel on the Yakima River

The Olympian in the Cascades.

Snoqualmie Falls, Cascade Mountains, Wash.

The Olympian on West Slope of the Cascade Mountains, Wash.

Paradise Inn, Mt. Rainier National Park, Wash.

continued from slide 4:
" . . .From Seattle to Tacoma the line lies among the berry fields of the famous Puyallup and White River Valleys, with hills and forests closing in the horizon. Away in the southeast towers the great white cone of Mount Rainier the crowing attraction of the sound cities, is situated a half day's ride from either Seattle or Tacoma. Having an altitude of 14,480 feet, or nearly three miles, Mount Rainier is easily the king of all mountains of this vicinity. This majestic peak is the most titanic extinct volcano in America outside of Alaska. . . . 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. . . ."

You might enjoy viewing these images as a slideshow here .