290325 - Verendrye's exploration of the Great Plains region

The Empire Builders episode of March 25, 1929, featured a dramatization depicting the exploration of the northwest United States by Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye (11/17/1685 to 12/5/1749).

 

 

 

His quest for the Pacific Ocean took place in the 1740’s. Verendrye and his team of explorers (which included two of his sons) are believed to be the first Europeans to set eyes on the Rocky Mountains north of New Mexico.

The town of Verendrye, North Dakota, is named for this French-Canadian explorer. The town, with a Great Northern Railway station located there, was originally named Falsen. Falsen station was established, and evidently the town founded, in 1912. It was situated between Simcoe and Karlsruhe, two other stations introduced by the railroad. The origin of the name Falsen is not known.

Ralph Budd, President of the Great Northern Railway (circa 1931). Author's collection

In 1925, the Great Northern Railway sponsored the first of two ambitious historical expeditions. The GN’s president, Ralph Budd, was an enthusiastic amateur historian of the American northwest. He maintained an extensive library of books and maps on the topic in his home in St. Paul, Minnesota. The 1925 expedition was called the Upper Missouri Historical Expedition. Special invitations were made up and delivered to a wide range of authors, college historians, and politicians who might have a sympathetic position about the expedition. While the event was clearly orchestrated as something of an advertising campaign for the railroad, there is no doubt that Ralph Budd possessed a sincere interest in observing and memorializing this rich history.

The Upper Missouri Historical Expedition was conducted July 16-21, 1925. Prior to the event, the Great Northern Railway, on February 3, 1925, changed the name of Falsen station to Verendrye. The name of the town soon followed suit. Both the Upper Missouri Historical Expedition and the Columbia River Historical Expedition, conducted the following year, provided extensive inspiration for stories to be told through the vehicle of the Empire Builders radio series. Continuity writer Edward Hale Bierstadt (a nephew of famed western landscape artist Albert Bierstadt) focused much of his effort during the radio show’s first season on stories based in historical fact. It is almost a certainty that Ralph Budd supplied Bierstadt with a complete set of booklets printed and distributed by the railroad, in connection with the historical expeditions. The majority of these booklets were written by Grace Flandrau (1886-1971).



Cover of GN's booklet on the Verendrye Quest, published circa 1925

One title from the GN’s historical booklet collection, authored primarily by Flandrau, is “The Verendrye Overland Quest of the Pacific.” This booklet – and what appears to be a complete collection of all the GN historical booklets referred to here – have been scanned as PDFs and can be found at this remarkable web site, “Streamliner Memories,” maintained by Randal O’Toole, a railroad historian and enthusiast from Oregon.

One of the goals of the two historical expeditions sponsored by the Great Northern Railway was to commemorate the accomplishments of several early explorers and other historical protagonists of the northwest. As the company of participants in these historical expeditions traveled the line of the GN on a special Great Northern passenger train, stops were made to honor the key principals with speeches and, in some cases, permanent monuments. At Verendrye, a monument to David Thompson was dedicated by the GN Railway during the historical expedition, and speeches were made about both Thompson and Verendrye. One such presentation was made by a man named Doane Robinson, superintendent of the South Dakota State Historical Society. Mr. Robinson was an acknowledged scholar on the topic of the Verendryes and their exploration of the Dakota area. He also had a key part to play in bringing the so-called “Verendrye Tablet” into the realm of other historians and scholars.

Verendrye tablet, dug out of the ground near Pierre, South Dakota, in 1913. South Dakota State Historical Society photo

One day in February, 1913, some school kids from Pierre, South Dakota, were out playing on a hill near Fort Pierre. They were all about 13 or 14 years old. They were Hattie Foster, George O’Reilly, and Ethel Parish (the accounts vary, but there may have been 3 or 4 more friends with them at the time).

Hattie Foster (center) and George O'Reilly (right) were instrumental in uncovering the Verendrye tablet, known to exist but thought to be lost forever. South Dakota State Historical Society photo, probably taken in 1933

It was a Sunday – February 16^th – and at one point Hattie spotted something sticking out of the ground. She kicked at it and realized it was dense and did not easily move. The three soon dug it free from the ground. What they had was a lead tablet, about eight and a half inches long, six inches across, and about an eighth of an inch in thickness.

The kids did not realize the tablet had any historical value, but to them it had scrap value. One account says George declared he would trot it over to a print shop in town, which was always willing to buy scrap lead. Before he could do this, however, fate stepped in, in the form of two state legislators that George came across that evening. They took a gander at the tablet, saw that it was something special, and promptly called in state historian Doane Robinson, who was already a leading scholar on the life and adventures of Pierre de la Verendrye. He immediately recognized the significance of what the kids had discovered.

Some of the tablet was clearly prepared prior to the Verendrye expedition, with additional text carved into the lead surface before it was buried. Robinson was well-acquainted with the story of the Verendryes burying the tablet. The text was mostly in either French or Latin. Robinson had it translated. Some of the text indicated it was buried by Verendrye and his sons on March 30, 1743.

Both sides of a souvenir replica of the Verendrye tablet. The souvenir was also made of lead, but was just 3.25 by 2.5 inches. Author's collection

The Upper Missouri Historical Expedition was limited to about 75 invited participants. A souvenir replica of the Verendrye tablet was produced for the expedition members. Presumably, each one received one of these replicas.

 

National Park Service photo

 

In 1933, the South Dakota State Historical Society placed a monument on the site where the tablet had been discovered in 1913.

 

Another feature of the March 25, 1929, broadcast of Empire Builders was the appearance of a guest performer and direct descendent of Pierre de la Verendrye: Miss Juliette Gaultier de la Verendrye, a mezzo-soprano. She was a student of Vincenzo Lombardi, one of Enrico Caruso’s teachers.

290318 - Spokane House and the Davenport Hotel

The March 18, 1929, broadcast of Empire Builders was the second in a three-part set of stories highlighting historical aspects of early exploration and settling by Anglos of the American Northwest.

Unfortunately, we do not have much to go on but a brief synopsis of the broadcast, as the continuity for this date is not yet located (at least not by me). Here’s how GN publicist Malcolm Breeze described the episode in the March, 1929, edition of the Great Northern Goat magazine:

“… It will be a dramatization of the pioneer life in the Inland Empire: first telling something of the fur traders at Spokane House, the earliest trading post in this area and one famed for its hospitality, dances and horse racing, and then moving on to the days of the Indian wars and treaties, finally winding up with the modern aspects of the Spokane area.”

Monument to David Thompson, at Verendrye, ND, as depicted on a souvenir postcard distributed by the Great Northern Railway. The monument was erected by the GN during the 1925 Upper Missouri Historical Expedition.

Spokane House, a fur trading post, is regarded as the first White settlement in the state of Washington. Founded in 1810 by the North West Company (under the direction of the British explorer/surveyor David Thompson), the post was the North West Company’s farthest outpost at that time in the Columbia River region. Subsequently, John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company moved into the Spokane area in 1812, building and operating their own competing fur trade outpost which they named Fort Spokane.

The two year fur-trading monopoly enjoyed by Spokane House evaporated. With news of the War of 1812 reaching this wilderness outpost in the Spring of 1813, men of the Astor-owned Pacific Fur Company switched their concerns to protecting the continued operation of Fort Astor on the Pacific coast, and sold out their interest in Fort Spokane (at a significant loss) to the North West Company. The Brits took over the larger facilities comprising Fort Spokane, but renamed their post Spokane House.

Hudson’s Bay Company took over the North West Company in 1821 and switched the post’s name back to Fort Spokane, but within three years the post was abandoned, and local fur trade operations were relocated to the new Fort Colvile, named for a Hudson’s Bay Company director, Andrew Colvile (or Colville).

In addition to Spokane House, the story of the Davenport Hotel was evidently woven into the evening’s presentation. Before you come to the conclusion that focusing part of an expensive radio program on a commercial hotel in Spokane is an irrational idea, let's review a little about this remarkable establishment. Although you might suspect the Great Northern Railway had a stake in the hotel, it did not. However, there were certainly some ties between the hotel and the railroad company.

 

When the Davenport Hotel celebrated its grand opening in September of 1914, GN President Louis W. Hill arranged for a contingent of Blackfeet Indians, under contract to the railroad and often touted as “Glacier Park Indians,” to not only appear at the hotel, but to pitch their teepees on the hotel’s roof as a publicity stunt.

For many years, the GN and several other railroads serving Spokane operated city ticket offices out of the Davenport. J.S. Bock was General Agent for the GN during the years Empire Builders aired.

One of Spokane’s earliest commercial radio stations – KHQ – broadcast from a studio on the fourth floor the Davenport Hotel, beginning in 1925. And when the GN’s Empire Builders radio series took to the airwaves, KHQ was the NBC affiliate in Spokane that citizens of the Inland Empire tuned in to hear the show.

The architect of the Davenport Hotel was a man named Kirtland Cutter. In addition to the Davenport, Cutter also offered initial designs for or served as architect for a number of structures built by the Great Northern Railway in Glacier National Park.

 

 

The Recorded Sound Collection of the Library of Congress - an editorial about digitizing NBC documents

I'd like to share some observations about some experiences I've had at the Library of Congress. On the one hand, I've been amazed at the treasures found there, even in regard to such an obscure piece of radio history as the Empire Builders series. However, I've encountered some obstacles that I find really disturbing. I'm hoping that by explaining what I've run into, perhaps someone reading this blog can weigh in and let me know if I'm barking up the wrong tree here or not.

Many of the continuities for the Empire Builders series were archived by NBC on microfilm (the NBC Masterbooks) back in the 1950’s, as I understand it, which was then transferred to new microfilm in the 1970’s by the Library of Congress (or done by NBC prior to being gifted to the LOC). The LOC recently has been digitizing all of these microfilm files onto microform data, but my own experience with this 3^rd-generation replication is disappointing in the extreme.

I can’t say with certainty, but it is my impression that the most recent effort to digitize the material has resulted in an abhorrently poor quality of washed out imagery – completely useless. The 2^nd generation microfilm from the 1970’s – available to researchers up until about a year ago – certainly had its own shortcomings. But again in my own experience, it seems like the digitization has washed out the marginally readable images to a point that they cannot be read at all, in many cases.

Personally, I really think the LOC should have insisted on some form of quality control assurances from whomever they hired to ruin, er, digitize the microfilm. Maybe they did, but what I’ve seen does not give me a warm fuzzy about it. At best, some of the material is still legible and can be saved by a researcher onto a thumb drive, or emailed to oneself (albeit a wonderful gain in convenience and expense over the laborious and costly alternative of printing the material off an antiquated microfilm reader one page at a time). However, if the result is that a significant percentage of the material is now completely unusable, we have gained nothing and lost much.

If you have had a different experience with this material, I would appreciate your sharing what you know about the NBC Masterbooks at the LOC. It’s extremely costly to me, in both time and money, to travel to the LOC and spend days at a time trying to find and retain copies of the materials that I earnestly want to work with. I can’t afford to keep going there if the results promise to be so abysmal.

290311 - Topic: California

 

The Empire Builders broadcast of March 11, 1929, kicked off another trilogy of sorts. For three consecutive weeks, the program featured historical stories of various regions of the Northwest. Some radio logs published in newspapers of the day even listed the show content as simply “The Northwest.”

The first of these three “Northwest” stories featured three vignettes of its own. The program was comprised of three sketches of California: one about the San Carlos Mission (1770); another telling the tale of the famed Gold Rush of 1849; and finally a presentation about modern-day California.

The March 9 edition of the Havre (Montana) Daily News gave this preview of the broadcast:

Three episodes in the history of California will be the home of the "Empire Builders" program to be broadcast Monday evening, March 11 over the NBC chain. The events will be dramatized with a background of appropriate music.

The first scene will be laid in San Carlos Mission, Monterey, founded 1770, by Gaspar Portola, of the Franciscan Order. It will portray the life of that time and the work of these Spanish missionaries among the Indians of California.

The second scene will bring the Americans on the scene. The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill brought the gold rush of '49, and Americans by thousands were coming to the new "El Dorado."

 

The mission at Monterey was first known as the Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo. Later, it was called Mission Carmel. Gaspar de Portolá de Rovira (1716–1784) was the governor of Baja, and founding governor of Alta California (an area that encompassed what was to become the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, the western portion of Colorado, and part of southwestern Wyoming). After its beginnings near Monterey in 1770, the mission was relocated about a year later to its present site at Carmel.

 

 

Old postcard image of Mission Carmel.

To this day, the Mission Carmel is still standing. Likewise, the legacy of Don Portola lives on, as his impact on the early development of California is reflected in many place names. One of these, of course, is the California city of Portola, home to the Western Pacific Railway Museum. This makes for an intriguingly circular relationship between Mission Carmel, Don Portola, the WP Railway museum, and the general preservation of history – railroad related and otherwise.

The story of Sutter’s Mill always garners the wistful attention of anyone wanting to envision a chance to gain great riches. Many miners did strike it rich in the California Gold Rush – others failed miserably. Either way, it was a notable milestone in the historical evolution of the state of California. The press release issued by the Great Northern Railway for this broadcast described the juxtaposition of their story of mission days with the 1849 gold rush. The presser said: “care-free indolence of the Spanish dons gave way to the tempestuous driving force of the Argonauts.”

 

Uhm… Okay.

The press release concluded with this tempting teaser: “lastly will come California, with its thriving cities, picturesque beaches, forest monarchs and lofty mountains, and with this episode the radio audience will hear a short message from one of the state’s leading citizens.” The presser did not name said leading citizen, which makes me think they weren’t exactly sure who they would be able to put in front of a microphone for this.

Many researchers and chroniclers of old time radio acknowledge that Empire Builders was a very early example of a weekly dramatic program. It played a key role in ushering in a wave of popular entertainment that enjoyed a remarkable new entrée into the homes of millions of Americans. However, there seem to be mixed feelings as to whether the show enjoyed excellent, adequate, or abysmal sound effects and presentation. It is difficult to understand how any of these authors – at least the ones I’ve come across so far – could come to the conclusions that they’ve offered. With only nine recordings of the show currently available to us, our ability to assess the show’s quality is very limited. One must also bear in mind these are at least 3^rd or 4^th generation sound recordings we’re working with. In the 1929-31 timeframe, good sound recording technology (to record a live radio broadcast) just wasn’t very advanced. Whatever form of recording device was used at the time most likely picked up the broadcast off a receiver and then transcribed it onto a platter of some kind. I’m no expert on this topic, but I know there were different types of discs used at different times, and they had a variety of both strengths and weaknesses. But whatever kind they used, apparently they survived long enough for someone to locate copies of them in the 1980s, from which it appears reel-to-reel tapes were probably made, and finally from these we now have digital copies. Sounds to me like these recordings were rode hard and put away wet, as a Montana cowboy might describe his tired old horse.

What we do still have are some of the continuities, some press releases, and some contemporary write-ups. Those write-ups are in the form of inter-office letters, telegrams and other correspondence from GN offices along the line, unsolicited listener feedback in the way of letters written and mailed in to the GN offices in St. Paul, and the occasional newspaper review.

Listener feedback was naturally sporadic and uncontrolled. It was generated by the urge of a particular person who, for whatever reason, felt compelled to share their thoughts. The GN did not take a very scientific or well-organized approach to collecting this kind of critical review, but they did archive some of the feedback. Typically, positive feedback told them little that was actionable. If people keep telling you the program is great, that can be some nice, positive affirmation. It might suggest the value of just continuing whatever is being done (don’t fix what ain’t broke), but negative criticism usually offers food for thought regarding possible improvements. After the March 11, 1929, broadcast, the feedback collected and retained by the GN was negative, although the existing GN corporate records only contain one source for comments.

That source was a telegram sent by Carl “C.A.” Gerken to Bob Mills, head of the GN’s advertising department. Gerken represented the GN in San Francisco and possibly Los Angeles, so it is likely that St. Paul gave due consideration to any feedback he passed along concerning the California episode. Gerken reported there was very little reaction to the show in the papers but he wrote in his telegram: COMMENTS HEARD ON STREET WERE LARGELY UNFAVORABLE DUE TO SUCCESSION OF BLOODY EPISODES FRANKLY WAS VERY MUCH DISAPPOINTED

 

The content of the program might not have appealed to some listeners, but it strikes me the presentation was at least adequate. You can’t really “hear” blood. Seems to me the person complaining must have at least been successful in visualizing what they were hearing, and that’s good radio.

 

 

 

290304 Lewis & Clark: The Whale at Seaside (Part 3 of 3)

The third part in the Lewis & Clark trilogy wrapped up the story of the Corps of Discovery by describing the last part of their journey west, all the way out to the coast, and then some incidents in the story of their return trip.

Once more, the February, 1929, issue of the Great Northern Goat magazine carried a brief explanation of the episode:

“The first March program will revert back to Lewis and Clark, telling something of their experiences while on the Pacific Coast and their adventures on the return journey, particularly Captain Lewis’ fight with the Indians in the upper Marias River country.

This will complete the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and on the following week the scene of the broadcast will be in far off California, land of sunshine and flowers.”

 

From the Visitor’s Bureau web site of the coastal town of Seaside, Oregon, we have this story of some of the activities of the Corps of Discovery near that location:

“In February 1806, Captain Lewis, with a party including Sacagawea and her husband Charbonneau, viewed the salt makers' camp and proceeded on to climb Tillamook Head in search of a large beached whale said to be on the sand south of the headland. They found the whale carcass and before returning, named a nearby creek the Ecola, the Indian word for whale. The salt makers' cairn is the westernmost encampment site of the Lewis & Clark Expedition and is an honored monument in Seaside."

 

With a long and arduous journey remaining to return home, the Corps of Discovery needed to restock their exhausted supply of salt to flavor their food and also help preserve some of their meat supplies. This they accomplished by developing a "salt works" at present-day Seaside. 


Photo postcard of the Salt Cairn (salt works) memorial at Seaside, Oregon. This enclosure was erected courtesy of the Great Northern Railway and dedicated on July 21, 1926, during the proceedings of the GN-sponsored Columbia River Historical Expedition.  (postcard from author's collection)

 

Although difficult to make out, this is an enlargement of the set of plaques visible in the photo above showing the Seaside Salt Cairn enclosure. The upper plaque reads "Site of Lewis and Clark Salt Camp 1805-6; Oregon Historical Society  Custodian". The lower plaque says "This enclosure was erected by the Great Northern Railway; A.D. 1926."

 

The NBC continuity writer assigned to this account (usually E.H. Bierstadt during the first season) typically wrote up the dialog, musical bridges, and so forth, and ensured a minute or two was left open at the beginning and ending of the show for the sponsor – the Great Northern Railway – to make whatever promotional pitch they desired. The opening and closing credits, as they were called, were wired to the NBC staff in New York City. This often happened only a day or two before the broadcast aired. The announcer did not usually need much time to rehearse the credits – just time enough for verification of name pronunciations and such, as needed, plus a chance to rehearse the complete production to confirm the overall timing of the show.

The head of the GN’s Advertising Department at the time, W.R. “Bob” Mills, wired the closing credits to Raymond Knight at NBC on March 1, 1929. These exact words might not have been spoken at the conclusion of the March 4, 1929, broadcast, but here is what was submitted to be aired:

“When you travel on the Oriental Limited over the Great Northern Railway to or from the vacation lands of Glacier National Park, Waterton Lakes National Park, Rainier National Park, The Mount Baker region, and the other recreational areas in the Pacific Northwest next summer you will pass a monument at Meriwether, Montana, erected to mark the farthest north point reached by Captain Lewis and his party as narrated in this evening’s program. You are cordially invited to spend your summer vacation this year in the Northwest and travel on the railway built by James J. Hill. Attractive booklets concerning personally escorted tours through this region will be mailed upon application to the Passenger Traffic Department, Great Northern Railway, Saint Paul, Minnesota, or the station to which you are listening.”

The monument at Meriwether was a tribute to Captain Lewis, and was erected near the site of his group’s Camp Disappointment – so named because it was hoped their exploration of the tributaries to the Missouri River would prove to lie north of the 50^th parallel, thus increasing the total coverage of the Louisiana Purchase. This was not the case. Nevertheless, this spot marked the northernmost location of the exploration of the Corps of Discovery. Lewis and the small contingent of men who were travelling with him at this point encountered some young Indian men, probably Blackfeet. A skirmish ensued, and two of the three young men were killed.

Vintage postcard showing the Meriwether Monument as it looked when erected in 1925 near Lewis's Camp Disappointment. (author's collection)

It seems there remains some antipathy toward Lewis & Clark on the part of certain Native Americans. No doubt the explorers’ epic journey signaled less excitement about a growing nation (of mostly transplanted Europeans) than it did a foreboding taste of bad times ahead. Whatever the motivation, there does not seem to be much interest in the Meriwether Monument these days among those who live in the area. Since it was erected by the Great Northern Railway, as part of the proceedings of the Upper Missouri Historical Expedition of 1925, the monument has suffered an ignominious fate. The bullet-ridden, pockmarked surface of the monolith is largely defaced with spray paint graffiti. Not everyone views history from the same perspective.