291028 Topic: Wenatchee and National Apple Week

The main route of the Great Northern Railway was essentially from St. Paul, Minnesota, west across North Dakota, Montana, the northern Idaho panhandle, and across Washington to Everett and Seattle. There were many alternate routes and branch lines, as well as routes where reciprocal traffic rights were arranged, such as the line of the Spokane, Portland, and Seattle Railway (jointly controlled by the GN and the Northern Pacific Railway, which shared office space in an adjacent area of the same St. Paul office building as the GN).

Throughout its corporate existence – from about 1890 until the 1970 merger that created Burlington Northern – the Great Northern Railway enjoyed a significant amount of commercial success due to well-considered diversification. Some of this diversification was represented by the types of raw materials and products shipped on the railroad, and some was represented by various modes of transportation utilized to move both freight and passengers. In addition to the obvious railroad operations, the GN also operated a number of ships on the Great Lakes and across the Pacific Ocean. They also briefly operated a bus line in Minnesota that became a predecessor to the Greyhound Bus Company. In the late 1920s, the railroad even gave strong consideration to entering into a business relationship with Northwest Airways. The GN developed an extensive presence in the Mesabi iron range in northern Minnesota. The railroad provided one of the most significant conduits of wheat and other grains from the vast agricultural areas of North Dakota and Montana, as well as livestock from the ranges in those territories. Timber and various timber products were shipped in large quantities from the Pacific Northwest to eastern markets.

 

Among these “commercial districts,” if you want to call them that, was the apple growing region in the vicinity of Wenatchee, Washington. Commercial apple growing caught on early in the Wenatchee valley (“early” for that part of the country – about the 1880s), due to large and accessible areas with rich soil, ample sunlight, cool nights, and abundant fresh water (albeit made more practical once an irrigation project channeled much of the local water resources to the orchards where the water was put to greatest use).

The broadcast of October 28, 1929, was a story of the Wenatchee apple harvest. The Old Timer began the skit by convincing a New York playwright named Morton to come out west with him. The two were enjoying apples purchased from a street vendor in New York City (the Big Apple, ironically), when Morton got a notion to get out of the city for a while by finding the place where the tasty apple originated. The Old Timer checked the apple box for a label, and confirmed his suspicion as to where the apples were from:

An illustration of the Old Timer, actor Harvey Hays

PIONEER:        . . . Now let me see th’ box they come in.… Um huh! Jest as I thought. They’re Wenatchee apples.

MORTON:       Wenatchee? Where’s that?

PIONEER:        Wenatchee is one of th’ prettiest little cities you ever saw, out in th’ state of Washington. They call it th’ apple capital of th’ world. I was kinda figgerin’ on stoppin’ off there on my way out to Seattle. Got an old friend out there – old Joe Trent – an’ he wants me to come an’ visit a spell with him.

MORTON: That settles it! We’ll both go to Wenatchee! Is it a go, old top? (SLAPS HIM ON BACK)

PIONEER: Sure it’s a go, but you don’t need to knock my apple outta my hand!

MORTON: Oh, chuck that! I’ll buy you another apple – in Wenatchee.

The Wenatchee apple harvest story evolved into a romance between Morton (the New Yorker), and the daughter of the Old Timer’s friend, Joe Trent. Shirley Trent cooked up a delicious dinner for everyone, topped off with a scrumptious apple cobbler. When asked how she learned to make such a tasty dessert, she said she found the recipe in a booklet distributed by the Great Northern Railway. At the conclusion of the program, the announcer and the Old Timer discussed the booklet:

ANNOUNCER: That girl in tonight’s story did pretty fast work with that apple cobbler and I’m thinking there’re a whole lot of young ladies listening who will want to know whether there really is a magic formula for those cobblers. In your story you said the Wenatchee folks had prepared a little souvenir for Empire Builders listeners which contained apple recipes and pictures of the Wenatchee country. Was that just a part of your story or can they really get it by sending for it?

 PIONEER:         Dog my cats. Yes! Just by sending a request to the Great Northern Railway at St. Paul, Minnesota.

The delectable aroma of freshly baked apple cobbler wafted through the ether that evening and, via radio sets and vivid imaginations, permeated homes throughout much of the country. The ensuing flood of requests for the GN’s Wenatchee apple booklet was concrete testimony to the growing level of interest in the Empire Builders radio series.

 

Over the years I’ve acquired quite a number of collectibles and artifacts of the Great Northern Railway. I have at least a few different booklets or flyers distributed by the GN to promote Wenatchee and the apple industry. However, I still don’t have firm proof of what the booklet was that the GN distributed in connection with this radio show.

 I would be enormously grateful for any information that would help solve this mystery.

Please let me know if you have a copy of, or are familiar with, a publication that fits the description mentioned in this episode of Empire Builders. The continuity does not clearly say the item was published by the GN, nor does it even say it was published for the GN. Instead, the announcer states “the Wenatchee folks had prepared a little souvenir” that contained “apple recipes and pictures of the Wenatchee country.”

Among the items in my collection are a couple of die-cut booklets (apple shaped) that the GN put out. One of these appears to be from about 1933, and is therefore not early enough.

 

Circa 1933 apple booklet. Author's collection.

 

The Minnesota Historical Society has vast holdings of material (including advertising samples), and a couple files listed in their online finding aid seem to be promising [Location 133.H.8.5B, Box 10]:

 

File No. 1143. Wenatchee Apples, Dining Car Dept. National Apple Week, 1929. Daily.

File No. 1145. The Story of Wenatchee Apples. Booklet

 

The second item, located in File 1145, is similar to the 1933 edition of the apple-shaped booklet that I have, but it appears to be situated among other items produced in 1929. In any event, I don’t get to the Twin Cities very often, so it may be awhile before I can look into this.

I’d love to be able to post the apple cobbler recipe from the booklet distributed to listeners of Empire Builders back in 1929, but at this time I cannot. Maybe someday I’ll find it. If you can help, please drop me a line.