Most Fredheads know about the fabled Montezuma hotel—the Harvey company’s first major resort, in Las Vegas, NM, which opened in 1882, burned down in 1884, was rebuilt (with a new design by famed Chicago architects Burnham & Root) in 1885 and promptly burned down again the same year (while Fred’s wife and family were staying there), and then was rebuilt again.

While Fred Harvey only ran the hotel for its first few years—a fact newly established in Appetite for America—the building and Las Vegas itself (where the company ran trackside hotels and restaurants for decades) have an incredibly strong Harvey heritage.

So we were thrilled to be invited to lecture there–and even sleep over in one of the handful of private guest rooms. (They also added Harvey-inspired dishes in the dining hall.)

The Montezuma was a shell for years, abandoned by the railroad at the turn of the century, but it was saved by United World College of the American West, which took it over, lovingly (and expensively) restored it, and made it the cornerstone of its remote US campus for 200 international high school students. The building and the campus are absolutely stunning, yet it’s rare that the public gets to see them. But the college not only invited me to give a talk, but offered a public tour of the facility (something I hope they start doing more often, now that interest in Fred is rising.)

It was a really special night, one of the most engaged and feisty crowds we’ve ever had–including kids as young as grade-schoolers who had done school projects on Harvey Girls, and Las Vegas lifers who remembered well when the Montezuma was abandoned and sad. Had more conversations, during and after the Q&A, about delicate political issues in the book than ever before. A fascinating woman named Brown Bear, who works at the local Tome on the Range bookstore (which handled books at the event), pulled me aside after helping with the signing to let me know of one line in the book that really bugged her–and rightly so. On page 67 I list among the citizens of Las Vegas in the 1800s “immigrants from Mexico” which, as she pointed out, is epically politically incorrect (the Mexicans were, of course, there first. Oy. Thank goodness for next editions.)

Also, in line, a kid who couldn’t have been more than 13 or 14 asked me whether the idea of “Civilizing the West” didn’t also have some negative connotations. I agreed that it did, and asked that after he read the book, he get back to me and see if he felt I was even-handed about those issues.

None of this intellectual engagement is surprising, because the UWC is such an ambitious and thought-provoking place. Thanks again to everyone involved in bringing us there, especially our new friend Tim Crofton–the theatre arts instructor who took great care of us and gave an utterly hilarious introduction explaining all the similarities between himself and Fred–and his son Ruaidhri (pronounced “Rory”), who is quickly becoming the Fred Harvey history expert of the Montezuma, and now runs the public tours of the place and is building a little Harvey/Montezuma Castle museum. He is, I believe, the next generation of Fredhead.

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