The Black Hills of South Dakota

Fascinating marketing material for an early 1940’s trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota.

By the time this promotional pamphlet was published by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad in 1941, the rail travel network in the United States had become saturated. Declining numbers of passengers coupled with a myriad of transportation options saw railroads scrambling to capture greater pieces of a shrinking pie. As a result, elaborate marketing material was not uncommon, as this ten page booklet can attest.

It is filled with photographs and descriptive text that provides a wonderful, if romanticized, overview of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad line to the Black Hills. While amenities such as the Pullman service cars are advertised, the real emphasis is on the various regional attractions that can be reached by the railroad.

A black and white pictorial map can be found as the centerfold, in which numerous landmarks are charmingly illustrated and labeled. One can imagine that the number of tourists traveling west shrank drastically during the war, but nonetheless the verso shows how the CB&Q looked to capitalize on the popularity of the region. “Only via the Burlington can you include the Black Hills without additional rail fare in connection with vacation trips to or from Yellowstone National Park…dude ranches, Glacier National Park, the Pacific Northwest, or Alaska.”