
How a Fine-Dining Empire Made the Southwest Palatable to Outsiders (2016) - samclemens
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/railway-paradise/
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strictnein
They say "never read the comments", but then you'd miss something like this:

> "Daggett Harvey Says: 'Except for some small details, one of the best most
> comprehensive description and history of the Fred Harvey system I have ever
> seen. Well Done'

> Daggett Harvey, the last Harvey to work for Fred Harvey

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akgerber
Often, the more niche the site, the better the comments are.

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TrainedMonkey
It is almost as if something is lost when communities become mainstream and
lose their personality.

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staplers
[https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths](https://meaningness.com/geeks-
mops-sociopaths)

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Spooky23
The Harvey Houses are really fascinating. Highly recommend the book “Appetite
for America” which is a biography of Harvey and history of the restaurants.

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Stratoscope
Appetite for America is a great book, I couldn't put it down.

The movie "The Harvey Girls" is a lot of fun too:

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038589/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038589/)

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jonah
My brother-in-law is the director of sustainability at the company which
operates Bright Angel[1] and El Tovar[2] at the Grand Canyon.

It so happens they're there this week for the company's annual meeting. Timely
article.

They may not have exactly the same employment policy today, but working at the
National Park concessions is still an interesting opportunity for young people
(from around the world). Fresh out of college, my sister worked at Yellow
Stone. There were other young people from all over. As a naturalist and
photographer, she really enjoyed living 200 yards from Old Faithful for a
summer.

[1] [http://www.grandcanyonlodges.com/lodging/bright-
angel/](http://www.grandcanyonlodges.com/lodging/bright-angel/) [2]
[http://www.grandcanyonlodges.com/lodging/el-
tovar/](http://www.grandcanyonlodges.com/lodging/el-tovar/)

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msisk6
My son and his girlfriend (now wife) worked over-winter in Yellowstone for
Xanterra after college and they really enjoyed the experience.

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jonah
After Yellowstone, she transferred to Crater Lake where she met her now
husband.

I visited them there in the middle of winter - that was a neat experience,
exploring the shuttered park with 30 feet of snow on the ground.

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ASpring
What a hard-hitting finish! How many of us will create amazing things and then
see them destroyed as time marches on?

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MandieD
That was a really cool read, especially after visiting the Grand Canyon and
driving from there through Four Corners and Mesa Verde to Santa Fe. Mary
Colter's Desert View tower is still in good shape at the Grand Canyon, and I
wish we'd checked out her hotels that are still there.

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jcrawfordor
I live in Albuquerque, where the Alvarado is emblematic of much of our modern
relationship with early 20th century history. Shortly after the Alvarado
closed it was razed and the space was used to build a parking lot for the
adjacent train station and city buildings; just a few decades later the city
put up a transit center in the same place called the Alvarado and designed in
the same fashion as the hotel. It features historic plaques about notable
visitors to the Alvarado. Today, the Alvarado station is a major part of the
state's attempt to build a viable commuter rail service (the Rail Runner).

It's amusing and also rather sad to watch these attempts to bring back what we
had about one hundred years ago.

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pmcjones
I had the good fortune to take the AT&SF El Capitan between Los Angeles and
Dodge City at Christmas 1956 (when I was 7). The elegant dining car (run by
Fred Harvey) was just one part of an experience I've never forgotten.

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scottshea
I wanted to second the comments from the, um, comments in the article about La
Posada in Winslow being restored. It is beautiful inside and the restaurant is
amazing

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noetic_techy
Hard to imagine Barstow that green and scenic.

