This review is based on information obtained from The Harvey Girls: Women who opened the West, by Lesley Polling-Kempes (Marlowe & Company), also recipes from the cookbook during their time, The Harvey House Cookbook: Memories of Dining along the Santa Fe Railroad, (Longstreet Press) by George H. Foster and Peter C. Weiglin. Their bottom line states, "Train travel and the Santa Fe [railroad]—Harvey hotels comprised a way of life now gone, and those who remember it lament its passing."

Fred Harvey lived from 1835 to 1901 and had an uncanny sense for what would solve food problems as a country moved itself southwestward. During this time, he established restaurants, lunchrooms and hotels throughout the southwest from Chicago to California. These were all linked up with the Santa Railroad, and once the line put on dining cars, Harvey served foods there, as well. The introduction of the automobile hurt the train business. After this, Harvey catered to this travel with destination resorts, national park trips, packaged motor trips plus the marketing of southwestern Indian handcrafts. After World War II, passenger trains were largely curtailed and government subsidies

Harvey is famed for his Harvey Girls. He frequently found it difficult hiring a good force of men for his food service. This brought him to introduce women into these jobs. Known as the Harvey Girls, he paid them $17.50 per month and provided free room, board and clean uniforms. The women were recruited through newspaper ads from the northeast. They needed to be of good moral character, have an eighth-grade education, have good manners, be neat and arcticulate. They agreed to six-month contracts during which they would not marry and would abide by all company rules. They also received a railway pass. The work was not easy. Trays were heavy; schedules were tight. However, the women tended to like the work and brought a new respectability to waitressing, particularly in an unrefined area of the country. Later, as a group they were credited with bringing higher standards to the west and many went on to raise prominent families. A Harvey Girl Historical Society exists, and there is a museum at (909) 943-3020.

Here’s a few of the recipes all of the Fred Harvey Houses served to their appreciative diners. This was also one of the earliest introductions of southwestern North American food to first-timers to new areas in the U.S.