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

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

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

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

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/

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/ [2] http://www.grandcanyonlodges.com/lodging/el-tovar/

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Hard to imagine Barstow that green and scenic.