Pheasant Canteen
A Brief History:
On August 19, 1943 concerned citizens in the Aberdeen community opened the Red Cross/USO Canteen in the depot of Chicago-Milwaukee RR to provide free lunches and assistance to hundreds of troops traveling through Aberdeen on special trains. This unique service continued for 2 ½ years until March 22, 1946 when the last troops were served.
During those 30 months more than 586,000 service men and women were served delicious home-made lunches.  An average of 500 troops arrived on a 4-6 trans each day. Sometimes as many as 1,500 troops came on a single day and into the night.
The menu began with the ground ham sandwiches, cake, cookies, donuts, fresh fruit, pie, milk, and coffee. A birthday cake was always ready for anyone celebrating a birthday. In December of 1943 some farmers began bringing pheasants to the canteen workers and the pheasant sandwich became a significant part of the menu. When the troops passed the word along to friends and family about Aberdeen they referred to the “Pheasant Canteen.” At one time nearly 1,000 birds were in storage for the canteen workers.
The generosity of the people was almost unbelievable. Most of the food was donated. Various groups organized fundraisers to support the canteen. Volunteers who prepared and served the food came from nearly 40 communities. Pheasant hunts were organized and the Chicago-Milwaukee RR transported many donations to Aberdeen. The cost to operate the canteen averages $560 per month for additional supplies, which were not donated.
During the holidays there was a lighted Christmas tree and on December 24,25, and 36 troops received a Christmas gift. At Easter, colored eggs were prepared.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower and presidential candidate Harry S. Truman were served at the canteen.
The canteen was officially closed and the space was vacated on March 31, 1946. Funds remaining the canteen account were deposited in the Brown County Red Cross Disaster Fund and remain there today.
WWII Red Cross Canteen Exhibit 
A WWII Red Cross Canteen Exhibit is being planned and will be featured in the newly restored Historic Milwaukee Depot at 1 N. Main Street in Aberdeen, South Dakota. The fond memories and a proud sense of history are the reasons a team of Red Cross members and volunteers are workign to bring history back to life. It will offer a focal point for the remaining volunteers and the current Red Cross volutneers to meet and remember this footnote in Aberdeen's history.
A reception was held for the 60th anniversary of the closing of the WWII Red Cross Canteen in March 2006 at the Depot. Several hundred area residents, including a number of veterans were treated to pheasant sandwiches, donuts and other treats.
The WWII Red Cross Canteen will preserve an important part of Aberdeen's history by showing the younger generation what the community did for the soldiers, and to keep Aberdeen's unique heritage alive. The WWII Red Cross Canteen will honor the 600,000 service men and women who passed through Aberdeen on their way to war and to remember the dedicated volunteers from the surrounding area who made the soldiers, if only for a short time, feel special, appreciated and loved.
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