In 1793, British explorer Alexander MacKenzie led the first party of Europeans across North American by land. When they first sighted the Pacific, MacKenzie said he painted the words “Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, the twenty-second of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three” on a rock.

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In 1923, a British Columbia land surveyor named R.P. Bishop claimed to have found MacKenzie’s rock, although by then the paint had all disappeared. Bishop physically inscribed “Alex MacKenzie from Canada by land 22 July 1793” on the rock; note this is worded differently from the phrase reported by MacKenzie. In a 1925 report about Bishop’s discovery, historian Frederic William Howay asserts that the rock identified by Bishop is “beyond doubt” MacKenzie’s rock. Although I’m willing to doubt it, the area has been made into a provincial park. Continue reading →

“The first christening of land in British Columbia” refers to the first time a European saw and named a piece of land in what would become British Columbia. The fact that thousands of Native Americans already lived there and had plenty of names for various landmarks was practically ignored by CN in this 1934 menu.

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According to the menu’s back cover, in 1774 a Spanish explorer named Don Juan Perez sailed from Monterey, Mexico north as far as Queen Charlotte Island, naming a point on that island Santa Margarita. The name did not stick as it is now called North Point. Neither Perez nor his crew bothered to land on the island or anywhere else in what is now British Columbia, but they did meet many natives who canoed to their ship to engage in trade but otherwise were undeserving of mention on this menu. Continue reading →

Here’s another Alaska steamship dinner menu whose cover, like yesterday’s, has more to do with the Caribbean than with the North Pacific. Barbados was claimed by the Portuguese in the 1500s but then abandoned after they enslaved most of its population and the rest fled to other islands. This menu glosses over that fact, saying the Portuguese left behind some pigs but otherwise “left the island in all other respects, as they had found it.”

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According to this menu, the British then discovered and claimed the unpopulated island in 1605. Wikipedia says it was 1625, though that may have been when the English first started to settle the island. In any case, many of the “settlers” were indentured servants or African slaves, so the English do not look much better in today’s eyes than the Portuguese. Continue reading →

We’ve previously seen this cover on a 1927 menu that was used for a tour group. Today’s menu was used on a trip by Rockford, Illinois Shriners to the 56th annual Imperial Council in Toronto, which took place in 1930.

Click image to download a 2.2-MB PDF of this menu, which was contributed by Brian Leiteritz.

Canadian National took advantage of such tours and trips to propagandize participants about the importance of railroads. The 1927 menu had a page defending railroad rates. In today’s, the same page brags about CN’s 23,000 miles of rail lines, its steamships, telegraph, express, and other services. While the inside covers of the 1927 menu were blank, this one has ads for CN hotels and Alaska cruises. Continue reading →