The Indian Detour

The Indian Detour was a Southwestern excursion offered by the Fred Harvey company starting in the 1910s-1920s. The tour offered guests the opportunity to see parts of the Southwest that were generally inaccessible or hard to reach. Guests who chose to take such tours would have departed from one of the Fred Harvey destination hotels, such as La Fonda in Santa Fe or La Casteñeda in Las Vegas, in a "Harveycar" driven by a male driver. The driver would have been accompanied by a female tour guide who knew about the Southwestern landscape and local Native American cultures.

The Belen Harvey House Museum currently has an exhibit on Charley Seerey, a former Indian Detour driver who was local to Belen. The museum also has in its collection a souvenir book showcasing some of the destinations guests on the Detours would have seen. Flip through that book below!

The Great Southwest

Indian Detours was just one of the ways the Fred Harvey Company encouraged the exploration of the Southwest. It also printed postcards and books that showed photos of the Southwest's Native Americans peoples, lands, architecture, and nature. These photos were often hand-pasted into the books, which were sometimes handbound with twine. The photos were novelties in a time unlike today, when not many people had access to cameras or the "perfect photo opportunity."

The Belen Harvey House Museum currently has several of these books on exhibit. Flip through one of these new books below or click on one of the photos below it to enlarge it!