Northern Pacific Railway

TheNorthern Pacific Railway(reporting markNP) was an importanttranscontinental railroadthat operated across the northern tier of thewestern United States, fromMinnesotato thePacific Northwest. It was approved and chartered in 1864 by the38th Congress of the United Statesin the national / federal capital ofWashington, D.C., during the last years of theAmerican Civil War(1861-1865), and given nearly 40 million acres (62,000 sq mi; 160,000 km) of adjacentland grants, which it used to raise additional money inEurope(especially in President Henry Villard's home country of the newGerman Empire), for construction funding.
Construction began in 1870 and the main line opened all the way from theGreat Lakesto thePacific Ocean, just south of theUnited States-Canada borderwhenUlysses S. Grant, drove in the final "golden spike" completing the line in westernMontana Territory(futureState of Montanain 1889), on September 8, 1883. The railroad had about 6,800 miles (10,900 km) of track and served a large area, including extensive trackage in the western Federal territories and later states ofIdaho, Minnesota,Montana,North Dakota,Oregon,Washington, andWisconsin. In addition, the N.P. had an international branch running north toWinnipeg, capital of the province ofManitoba, in the newly organizedCanada. The main activities were shipping wheat and other farm products, cattle, timber, and minerals; bringing in consumer goods, transporting passengers; and selling land.
The Northern Pacific was headquartered in Minnesota, first inBrainerd, then in the state capital ofSaint Paul. It had a tumultuous financial history; the N.P. merged with other lines over a century later in 1970 to form the modernBurlington Northern Railroad, which in turn merged with the famousAtchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railwayto become the renamedBNSF Railwayin 1996, operating in the western U.S.
The 38thUnited States Congresschartered the Northern Pacific Railway Company on July 2, 1864, with the goals of connecting theGreat LakeswithPuget Soundon the northwestern coast of theUnited Stateson thePacific Ocean, opening vast new lands for farming, ranching, lumbering and mining, and linking the federal territory of Washington and state of Oregon to the rest of the country (plus connecting thenorthern Great Plainsof centralCanadato thenorthern states of the U.S. and especially itsMidwesternbig cities, manufacturing centers and markets.
The U.S. Congress granted the Northern Pacific Railroad a generous potential bonanza of 60 million acres (94,000 sq mi; 240,000 km) of land adjacent to the line in exchange for building rail transportation to an undeveloped western territory.Josiah Perhamwas elected its first president on December 7, 1864.It could not use all the land and in the end took just under two-thirds of the allotted grant of 40 million acres.
For the next six years, backers of the road struggled to find financing. ThoughJohn Gregory Smith, succeeded Perham as second president on January 5, 1865, groundbreaking did not take place until February 15, 1870, at Carlton, Minnesota, 25 miles (40 km) west ofDuluth(western port town onLake Superiorof theGreat Lakes). The backing and promotions of famedNew York City/Wall StreetfinancierJay Cooke, in the summer of 1870 brought the first real momentum to the railway company.
Over the course of 1871, the Northern Pacific pushed westward from Minnesota into theDakota Territory(present-day state ofNorth Dakota). Surveyors and construction crews had to maneuver through swamps, bogs, and tamarack forests. The difficult terrain and insufficient funding delayed by six months the construction phase in Minnesota.The N.P. also began building its line north fromKalama, Washington Territory, on theColumbia Riverjust outside ofPortland, Oregon, towards thePuget Sound. Four small construction locomotive engines were purchased, theMinnetonka,Itaska,OttertailandSt. Cloud, the first of which was shipped to Kalama by ship all around the continent ofSouth Americaand theCape Hornto the Pacific Ocean. In Minnesota, theLake Superior and Mississippi Railroadcompleted construction of its 155-mile (249 km) line stretching fromSaint Pauleast toLake Superiorat Duluth in 1870. It was leased to the Northern Pacific line six years later in theAmerican Centennial celebration yearof 1876 and was eventually absorbed by the Northern Pacific. The famedNorth Coast Limitedwas the Northern Pacific's flagship passenger train and the Northern Pacific itself was built along the trail first blazed by the famedLewis and Clarkexpedition first exploring the newLouisiana Purchaseand the further American West in 1804 and 1805.
The Northern Pacific reachedFargo, Dakota Territory (now North Dakota)on the border between Dakota Territory and Minnesota early in June 1872. The following year, in June 1873, the N.P. reached the shores of the upperMissouri RiveratEdwinton, Dakota Territory (now the state capital of Bismarck, North Dakota). In the west sector, the N.P. track extended 25 miles (40 km) north from Kalama. Surveys were carried out in the Dakota Territory protected by 600 troops of the horse cavalry of theUnited States Army, under command of Civil War hero, GeneralWinfield Scott Hancock, nicknamed "Hancock the Superlative" but defeatedDemocratic Partycandidate in the1880 presidential election.
Fabricating shops and foundries were established in Brainerd, Minnesota, a town named by the N.P. second President John Gregory Smith forLawrence Brainerd, the father of his wife Anna Elizabeth Brainerd and a close friend and colleague. It was here further back on the line where the Railway established its first temporary offices and headquarters. A severe stock market crash and financial collapse in the East after 1873, led by theCredit Mobilier Scandaland theUnion Pacific Railroadstock fraud, caused a nationwide economic recession and financial panic in New York City's Wall Street financial district, stopping further railroad building for twelve years during the latter 1870s and early 1880s.
In 1886, the company restarted and put down 164 miles (264 km) of main line across the northern Dakotas, with an additional 45 miles (72 km) from the west in Washington Territory. On November 1, GeneralGeorge Washington Cass(formerly of the U.S. Army), became the third president of the company. General Cass had been a vice-president and on the board of directors earlier of thePennsylvania Railroad, one of the major dominant Eastern lines and would lead the Northern Pacific through some of its most difficult times in the later 19th century.
Attacks on survey parties and construction crews as they approached the Yellowstone region bySioux,Cheyenne,Arapaho, andKiowanative warriors in northern Dakota and Minnesota Territories became so prevalent that the company received protection from additional mounted troops in units of the U.S. Army.
In 1886, the Northern Pacific also opened colonization / emigration offices inEuropeespecially the newly unifiedGerman Empireand north to the kingdoms ofScandinavia, with good reliable steamship lines, attracting Nordic farmers with package deals of cheap land and transportation and purchase deals in the similar cold higher latitudes of climate of the north-centralNorth Americacontinent, but with richer unplowed expansive soil. The success of the N.P. was based on the abundant crops of wheat and other grains already grown and the attraction to settlers of the lowerRed River Valleyof the Red River of the North, Minnesota, Missouri and Mississippi Rivers basins along the Minnesota-Dakota border in the decade between 1881 and 1890.
The Northern Pacific reached Dakota Territory at Fargo in 1872 and began its career as one of the central factors in the economic growth of the future Dakotas Territory and later its twin states North and South. The climate, although very cold in the continental interior heartland was still suitable for wheat, which was in high demand in the eastern and Mid-Western rapidly developing industrial cities of the United States and even growing exports overseas to Europe. Most of the settlers were German and Scandinavian immigrants who bought the land cheaply and raised large families. They shipped huge quantities of wheat to Minneapolis, then Milwaukee, Chicago and St. Louis connected by rail. while buying all sorts of farming equipment and home supplies (some ordered and delivered through the beginnings of published mail-order catalogs from the big cities warehouses, to be shipped in by rail.
The N.P. used its federal land grants as security to borrow money to build its system.The federal government kept every other alternate section of land, and gave it away free to native and immigrant homesteaders / farmers under theHomestead Actof 1862. At first the railroad sold much of its holdings at low prices to land speculators in order to realize quick cash profits, and also to eliminate sizable annual tax bills. By 1905, the railroad company's land policies changed, after it was judged a costly mistake to have sold much of the land at wholesale prices. With better railroad service and improved more educated and scientific methods of farming and soil conservation in future decades in the special unique conditions on the Great Plains. The Northern Pacific then easily sold what had been heretofore termed "worthless" land directly to farmers at good prices. By 1910 the railroad's holdings in the new state ofNorth Dakotahad been greatly reduced.
In 1873, Northern Pacific made impressive strides before a terrible stumble. Rails from the east reached theMissouri Riveron June 4. After several years of study,Tacoma, Washington Territorynear the Pacific Coast and Puget Sound for waterborne shipping port facilities was selected as the road's western terminus on July 14, 1873.
For the previous three years the financial house of Jay Cooke and Company in New York City had been throwing money into the construction of the Northern Pacific. As with many westerntranscontinentals, the staggering costs of building a railroad into a vast wilderness prairie had been drastically underestimated. Cooke had little success in marketing the N.P.R.R. bonds in Europe and overextended his house in meeting overdrafts of the mounting construction costs. Cooke overestimated his managerial skills and failed to appreciate the limits of a banker's ability to be also a promoter, and the danger of freezing his assets in the bonds of the Northern Pacific.Cooke and Company went bankrupt on September 18, 1873. Soon the financialPanic of 1873engulfed the United States, business and financial community extending to numerous industries beginning an economic depression that was one of the worse in American history prior to the infamousGreat Depressionof the 1930s, sixty years into the future. The downturn ruined or nearly paralyzed newer railroads throughout the country.
The Northern Pacific however luckily survived bankruptcy that year, due to austerity measures put in place by President Cass. In fact, working with last-minute loans from DirectorJohn C. Ainsworthof Portland, the Northern Pacific still completed the line north along the Pacific Ocean and U.S. west coast from Kalama to Tacoma, a distance of 110 miles (180 km), before the end of 1873. On December 16, the first steam locomotive train arrived in Tacoma. But by the next year in 1874 the company was approaching insolvency.
Northern Pacific slipped into its firstbankruptcyon June 30, 1875. President Cass resigned to become the court-appointed receiver of the company, andCharles Barstow Wrightbecame its fourth president.Frederick Billings, namesake of futureBillings, Montana, formulated a reorganization plan which was put into effect.
Throughout 1874 to 1876, elements of the7th Cavalry Regimentof the U.S. Army under the command of Lieutenant ColonelGeorge Armstrong Custer, operating out ofFort Abraham LincolnandFort Ricein the Dakota Territory conducted expeditions to protect the railroad survey and construction crews in Dakota and Montana Territories.
In 1877, construction resumed in a small way. Northern Pacific pushed a branch line southeast from Tacoma toPuyallup, Washingtonand on to the coal fields aroundWilkeson, Washington. Much of the coal was destined for export through Tacoma toSan Francisco, California, where it would be thrown into the fireboxes ofCentral Pacific Railroad'ssteam engineslocomotives.
This small amount of construction was one of the largest projects the company would undertake in the years between 1874 and 1880. That same year the company built a large shop complex atEdison, Washington(now part ofsouth Tacoma metropolitan area). The Edison Shops became the largest on the system for building and repairing freight cars due to the easy access of cheap lumber. The Brainerd Shops to the east remained as the largest locomotive repair facility throughout the steam era. Another shops / foundry site was located at the center mid-way of the mainline inLivingston, Montana, which became the primary diesel engine maintenance facility after 1955. InSt. Paul, Minnesotawere the Como Shops, which maintained most of the passenger car fleet, and the Gladstone Shops, which closed in 1915.
On May 24, 1879,Frederick H. Billingsbecame the fifth president of the company. Billings' tenure would be short but ferocious. Reorganization, bond sales, and improvement in the U.S. economy allowed Northern Pacific to strike out across the upperMissouri Riverby letting a contract to build 100 miles (160 km) of railroad west of the river. The railroad's new-found strength, however, would be seen as a threat in certain quarters.
German-born former war correspondent / journalist and later newspaper / magazine publisherHenry Villard(6th President N.P.R.R. 1881-1884), had raised capital for western railroads in Europe (especially in the recently unifiedGerman Empire), from 1871 to 1873. After returning to New York City in 1874, he invested on behalf of his clients in railroads inOregon. Through Villard's work, most of these lines became properties of the European creditors' holding company, theOregon and Transcontinental Company.
Of the lines held by the Oregon and Transcontinental, the most important was theOregon Railway and Navigation Company, which ran east fromPortland, Oregonalong the left bank of theColumbia Riverto a connection with theUnion Pacific Railroad'sOregon Short Lineat the confluence of the Columbia River and theSnake RivernearWallula, Washington. The Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines had completed the first trans-continental route 12 years earlier in 1869.
Within a decade of his return, Villard was head of a transportation empire in thePacific Northwestthat had but one real competitor, the Northern Pacific Railroad. The Northern Pacific's trans-continental route completion threatened the holdings of Villard in the Northwest, and especially in Portland. Portland unfortunately could possibly become a second-class city if thePuget Sound's deeper and larger ports at Tacoma and nearbySeattle, Washington, were further developed and connected to the East by rail.
Villard, who had been building a monopoly of river and rail transportation inOregonfor several years, now launched a daring raid. Using his European connections and a reputation for having "bested"Jay Gouldin a battle for control of theKansas Pacific Railroadyears before, Villard solicited and raised $8,000,000 million dollars from his associates. This was his famous "Blind Pool," Villard's associates were not told what the money would be used for. In this case, the funds were used by him to purchase control of the Northern Pacific.
Despite a tough fight, Billings and his backers were forced to capitulate; he resigned the presidency June 9, 1881.Ashbel H. Barney, formerPresident of Wells Fargo & Company(bankers and famous Western stagecoach line), served briefly as interim caretaker of the railroad from June 19 to September 15, when Villard was elected sixth president by the stockholders. For the next two years, Villard and the Northern Pacific rode the whirlwind.
In 1882, 360 miles (580 km) of main line and 368 miles (592 km) ofbranch linewere completed, bringing totals to 1,347 miles (2,168 km) and 731 miles (1,176 km), respectively. On October 10, 1882, the line fromWadena, Minnesota, toFergus Falls, Minnesota, opened for service. The upperMissouri Riverwas bridged with a million-dollar span on October 21, 1883. Until then, crossing of the Missouri had had to be managed with a ferry boat service for most of the year; in winter, when ice was thick enough, rails were laid across the river itself.
FormerUnion ArmyGeneralHerman Haupt, another veteran of theCivil War, builder then of the wartimeUnited States Military Railroadlines and the civilianPennsylvania Railroad, organized the Northern Pacific Beneficial Association in 1881. Inspired by the progressive medical care and insurance program then being introduced in the German Empire in Europe and a forerunner of the modernhealth maintenance organization, the N.P.B.A. ultimately established a series of four medical hospitals across the N.P.R.R. route system inSaint Paul, Minnesota;Glendive, Montana;Missoula, Montana; andTacoma, Washington, to care for its railroad employees, retirees, and their families.
On January 15, 1883, the first N.P.R.R. train reachedLivingston, Montana, at the eastern foot of theBozeman Pass. Livingston, like Brainerd and South Tacoma before it, would grow to encompass a largebackshophandling heavy repairs for the Northern Pacific Railroad equipment. It would also mark the east–west dividing line on the Northern Pacific route system.
Villard pushed hard for the completion of the Northern Pacific in 1883. His crews laid an average of a mile and half (2.4 km) of track each day. In early September, as the line neared completion. To celebrate, and to gain national publicity for investment opportunities in his region, Villard chartered four trains to carry guests from the East toGold Creekin westernMontana TerritoryNo expense was spared, and the list of dignitaries included Frederick Billings, former 18th PresidentUlysses S. Grant(served 1869-1877), only two years before his tragic death from cancer, and Villard's in-laws, the family of famed longtime abolitionistWilliam Lloyd Garrison, who had just died four years earlier. On September 8, 1883, the Gold Spikewas driven near Gold Creekin theMontana Territory.
Villard's fall was swifter than his ascendancy. Like Jay Cooke, he was now consumed by the enormous costs of constructing the railroad. Wall Street bears attacked the stock shortly after the Golden Spike, after the realization that the Northern Pacific was a very long road with very little business. Villard himself suffered a nervous breakdown in the days after the driving of the Golden Spike, and he left the presidency of the Northern Pacific in January 1884.
Again, the presidency of the Northern Pacific was handed to a professional railroader,Robert Harris, former head of theChicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. For the next four years, until the return of the Villard group, Harris worked at improving the property and ending its tangled relationship with the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company.
Throughout the mid-1880s, the Northern Pacific pushed to reach Puget Sound directly, rather than by means of a roundabout route that followed the Columbia River. Surveys of theCascade Mountains, carried out intermittently since the 1870s, began anew.Virgil Bogue, a veterancivil engineer, was sent to explore the Cascades again. On March 19, 1881, he discoveredStampede Pass. In 1883,John W. Sprague, the head of the new Pacific Division, drove the Golden Spike to mark the beginning of the railroad from what would becomeKalama, Washington. He resigned a months later due to impaired health.
In 1884, after the departure of Villard, the Northern Pacific began building toward Stampede Pass from Wallula in the east and the area of Wilkeson in the west. By the end of the year, rails had reachedYakima, Washingtonin the east. A 77-mile (124 km) gap remained in 1886.
In January of that year, Nelson Bennett was given a contract to construct a 9,850-foot (1.9 mi; 3.0 km)tunnel under Stampede Pass. The contract specified a short amount of time for completion, and a large penalty if the deadline were missed. While crews worked on the tunnel, the railroad built a temporaryswitchbackroute across the pass. With numerous timber trestles and grades which approached six percent, the temporary line required twoM class2-10-0s—the two largest locomotives in the world (at that time)—to handle a tiny five-car train. On May 3, 1888, crewsholed throughthe tunnel, and on May 27 the first train passed through directly to Puget Sound.
Despite this success, the Northern Pacific, like many U.S. roads, was living on borrowed time. From 1887 until 1893, Henry Villard returned to the board of directors. Though offered the presidency, he refused. An associate of Villard dating back to his time on the Kansas Pacific,Thomas Fletcher Oakes, assumed the presidency on September 20, 1888.
In an effort to garner business, Oakes pursued an aggressive policy of branch line expansion. In addition, the Northern Pacific experienced the first competition in the form ofJames Jerome Hilland hisGreat Northern Railway. The Great Northern, like the Northern Pacific before it, was pushing west from the Twin Cities towards Puget Sound, and would be completed in 1893.
Mismanagement, sparse traffic, and thePanic of 1893sounded the death knell for the Northern Pacific and Villard's interest in railroading. The company slipped into its second bankruptcy on October 20, 1893. Oakes was named receiver andBrayton Ives, a former chairman of theNew York Stock Exchange, became president.
In 1894, the10th Cavalry Regimentof the U.S. Army was involved in protecting property of the Northern Pacific Railroad from striking workers.
For the next three years, the Villard-Oakes interests and the Ives interest feuded for control of the Northern Pacific. Oakes was eventually forced out as receiver, but not before three separate courts were claiming jurisdiction over the Northern Pacific's bankruptcy. Things came to a head in 1896, when firstEdward Dean Adamswas appointed president, then less than two months later,Edwin Winter.
Ultimately, the task of straightening out the muddle of the Northern Pacific was turned over toJ. P. Morgan. Morganization of the Northern Pacific, a process which befell many U.S. roads in the wake of the Panic of 1893, was handed to Morgan lieutenant Charles Henry Coster. The new president, beginning September 1, 1897, wasCharles Sanger Mellen.
Though James J. Hill had purchased an interest in the Northern Pacific during the troubled days of 1896, Coster and Mellen would advocate, and follow, a staunchly independent line for the Northern Pacific for the next four years. Only the early death of Coster from overwork, and the promotion of Mellen to head the Morgan-controlledNew York, New Haven and Hartford Railroadin 1903, would bring the Northern Pacific closer to the orbit of James J. Hill.
In the late 1880s, the Villard regime, in another one of its costly missteps, attempted to stretch the Northern Pacific from the Twin Cities to the all-important rail hub ofChicago, Illinois. A costly project was begun in creating a union station and terminal facilities for a Northern Pacific which had yet to arrive.
Rather than build directly down to Chicago, perhaps following the Mississippi River as theChicago, Burlington and Quincyhad done, Villard chose to lease theWisconsin Central. Some backers of the Wisconsin Central had long associations with Villard, and an expensive lease was worked out between the two companies which was only undone by the Northern Pacific's second bankruptcy.
The ultimate result was that the Northern Pacific was left without a direct connection to Chicago, the primary interchange point for most of the large U.S. railroads. Fortunately, the Northern Pacific was not alone.James J. Hill, controller of theGreat Northern Railway, which was completed between the Twin Cities and Puget Sound in 1893, also lacked a direct connection to Chicago. Hill went looking for a road with an existing route between the Twin Cities and Chicago which could be rolled into his holdings and give him a stable path to that important interchange. At the same time,E. H. Harriman, head of theUnion Pacific Railroad, was also looking for a road which could connect his company to Chicago.
The road both Harriman and Hill looked at was the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy. To Harriman, the Burlington was a road which paralleled much of his own and offered tantalizing direct access to Chicago. For Hill as well, there was the possibility of a high-speed link directly with Chicago. Though the Burlington did not parallel the Great Northern or the Northern Pacific, it would give them a powerful railroad in the central West. Harriman was the first to approach the Burlington's aging leader, the irascibleCharles Elliott Perkins. The price for control of the Burlington, as set by Perkins, was $200 a share, more than Harriman was willing to pay. Hill met the price, and control of the Burlington was divided equally at about 48.5 percent each between the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific.
Not to be outdone, Harriman now came up with a crafty plan: buy a controlling interest in the Northern Pacific and use its power on the Burlington to place friendly directors upon its board. On May 3, 1901, Harriman began his stock raid which would become known as the Northern Pacific Corner. By the end of the day, he was short just 40,000 shares of common stock. Harriman placed an order to cover this, but was overridden by his broker,Jacob Schiff, ofKuhn, Loeb & Co.Hill, on the other hand, reached the vacationing Morgan in Italy and managed to place an order for 150,000 shares of common stock. Though Harriman might be able to control the preferred stock, Hill knew the company bylaws allowed for the holders of the common stock to vote to retire the preferred.
In three days, the Harriman-Hill imbroglio managed to wreak havoc on the stock market. Northern Pacific stock was quoted at $150 a share on May 6 and is reported to have traded as much as $1,000 a share behind the scenes. Harriman and Hill now worked to settle the issue for brokers to avoid panic. Hill, for his part, attempted to avoid future stock raids by placing his holdings in theNorthern Securities Company, a move which would be undone by theSupreme Courtin 1904 under the auspices of theSherman Anti-Trust Act. Harriman was not immune either; he was forced to break up his holdings in theUnion Pacific Railroadand theSouthern Pacific Railroada few years later.
In 1903, Hill finally got his way with the House of Morgan.Howard Elliott, another veteran of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, became president of the Northern Pacific on October 23. Elliott was a relative of the Burlington's crusty chieftain Charles Elliott Perkins, and more distantly the Burlington's great backer,John Murray Forbes. He had spent 20 years in the trenches of Midwest railroading, where rebates, pooling, expansion and rate wars had brought ruinous competition. Having seen the effects of having multiple railroads attempt to serve the same destination, he was very much in tune with James J. Hill's philosophy of "community of interest," a loose affiliation or collusion among roads in an attempt to avoid duplicating routes, rate wars, weak finances and ultimately bankruptcies and reorganizations. Elliott would be left to make peace with the Hill-controlled Great Northern; the Harriman-controlled Union Pacific; and, between 1907 and 1909, the last of the northern transcontinentals, theChicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, more commonly known as the Milwaukee Road.
The Northern Pacific steadily improved after the turn of the century. Together with the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific also gained control of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, gaining important access to Chicago, the central Middle West andTexas, as well as theSpokane, Portland and Seattle Railway, an important route through eastern and southernWashington. Its physical plant was upgraded continuously, with double tracking in key areas and automatic block signaling along its entire main line. This in turn gave way to centralized traffic control, microwave communications, and radio communications as time progressed.
The Northern Pacific continuously maintained and upgraded its equipment and service. The road helped pioneer the4-8-4Northern type steam engine and the2-8-8-4Yellowstone. It was also among the first railroads in the country todieselize—beginning withGeneral Motors’ FTsin 1944—albeit among the last to complete dieselization, not doing so until 1960 owing to low cost (albeit low quality) coal reserves in Wyoming.
The Northern Pacific's premier passenger train, theNorth Coast Limited, was among the safest and finest in the nation, suffering only one passenger fatality in nearly seventy years of operation.
By 1900, most of the remaining land-grant holdings were located west of Montana, in the "western district". The railroad still hoped to sell this land, both to provide operating funds and to populate the region to provide new markets to sustain the railroad. Nearly all the good farmlands had been sold, leaving large tracts of grazing land or timber. The grazing acreage was poor quality and difficult to sell. However, the timber lands were of high quality; much of these were sold to FrederickWeyerhaeuser.
In later years,Louis W. Menkbecame president of the Northern Pacific, and then he brought it together with theChicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, theGreat Northern Railway, and theSpokane, Portland and Seattle Railwayon March 2, 1970, to form theBurlington Northern Railroad.The merger was allowed despite a challenge in the Supreme Court, essentially reversing the outcome of the 1904 Northern Securities ruling. A 900 mi (1,400 km) portion of the former Northern Pacific mainline in Montana was spun off to form theMontana Rail Link. However, as of January 10, 2022,BNSFterminated its lease of the former Northern Pacific right-of-way to theMRLwhich is set to return to the direct management of theBNSF.
In 1949, the Northern Pacific's headquarters in Saint Paul presided over a system of 6,889 miles (11,087 km), which 2,831 miles (4,556 km) of main line, 4,057 miles (6,529 km) of branch line under seven operating divisions.
Headquartered inDuluth, Minnesota, the Lake Superior Division's main routes were from Duluth toAshland, Wisconsin, Duluth toStaples, Minnesota, and Duluth toWhite Bear Lake, Minnesota. The division encompassed 631 route miles: 356 in main line and 274 in branches.
Headquartered inSt. Paul, Minnesotain the company'sRailroad and Bank Building, the St. Paul Division's main routes were from Saint Paul to Staples, Saint Paul to White Bear Lake, and Staples toDilworth, Minnesota. The division encompassed 909 route miles: 310 in main line and 599 in branches.
Headquartered inFargo, North Dakota, the Fargo Division's main routes were from Dilworth toMandan, North Dakota. The division encompassed 1,167 route miles: 216 in main line and 951 in branches.
Headquartered inGlendive, Montana, the Yellowstone Division's main routes were fromMandan, North Dakota, toBillings, Montana, and from Billings toLivingston, Montana. The division encompassed 875 route miles: 546 in main line and 328 in branches.
Headquartered inMissoula, Montana, the Rocky Mountain Division's main routes were from Livingston toParadise, MontanaviaHelena, MontanaandMullan Pass, and fromLogan, Montana, toGarrison, Montana, viaButte, Montana, andHomestake Pass. The division encompassed 892 route miles: 563 in main line and 330 in branches. It was home to the principal central district repair facility at Livingston, Montana.
Headquartered inSpokane, Washington, the Idaho Division's main routes were from Paradise, Mont., toYakima, Washington, viaPasco, Washington. The division encompassed 1,123 route miles: 466 in main line and 657 in branches.
Headquartered inTacoma, Washington, the Tacoma Division's main routes were from Yakima to Stuck Junction, near futureAuburn, Washington,Seattle, WashingtontoSumas, Washington, on the border withBritish Columbia, Canada, and from Seattle toPortland, Oregon. The division encompassed 1,034 route miles: 373 in main line and 661 in branches. It was home to the principal west end repair facility at South Tacoma, Washington.
As the railroad expanded, immigrants, families, and single men moved to the Pacific Northwest. Tacoma's population grew rapidly: in 1880 there were 1,098 residents, and in 1889 there were 36,000.
TheNorth Coast Limitedwas the premier passenger train operated by the Northern Pacific Railway between Chicago and Seattle viaButte, MontanaandHomestake Pass. It commenced service on April 29, 1900, served briefly as a Burlington Northern train after the merger on March 2, 1970, and ceased operation on April 30, 1971, the day before Amtrak began service. The Chicago Union Station to Saint Paul leg of the train's route was operated by theChicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroadalong its Mississippi River mainline through Wisconsin.
The Northern Pacific's secondary transcontinental passenger train was theAlaskan,until it was replaced by theMainstreeteron November 16, 1952.TheMainstreeter, which operated viaHelena, MontanaandMullan Pass, continued in service through theBurlington Northernmerger untilAmtrakDay (May 1, 1971). It had been reduced to aSaint Paulto Seattle train after the last run of the formerBurlington RouteBlack Hawkon April 12–13, 1970.
The Northern Pacific also participated in theCoast Pool Trainservice betweenPortlandandSeattlewith theGreat Northern Railwayand theUnion Pacific Railroad. NP and GNCoast Pool Trainslasted until Amtrak.
There were several other passenger trains which were discontinued before the Burlington Northern merger. These included:
Hazen Titus was appointed as the line's dining car superintendent in 1908. He learned thatYakima Valleyfarmers were unable to sell their potato crops because the potatoes they were growing were simply too large; they fed them to the hogs. Titus learned that a single potato could weigh from two to five pounds, but that smaller potatoes were preferred by the end buyers of the vegetable because many people considered large potatoes inedible due to their thick, rough skin.
Titus and his staff discovered the "inedible" potatoes were delicious after baking in a slow oven. He contracted to purchase as many potatoes as the farmers could produce that were more than two pounds in weight. Soon after the first delivery of "Netted Gem Bakers", they were offered to diners on the North Coast Limited beginning in early 1909. Word of the line's specialty offering traveled quickly, and before long it was using "the Great Big Baked Potato" as a slogan to promote the railroad's passenger service. Hollywood stars were hired to promote it.When an addition was built for the Northern Pacific's Seattle commissary in 1914, aRailway Agereporter wrote, "A large trade mark, in the shape of a baked potato, 40 ft. long and 18 ft. in diameter, surmounts the roof. The potato is electric lighted and its eyes, through the electric mechanism, are made to wink constantly. A cube of butter thrust into its split top glows intermittently." Premiums such as postcards, letter openers, and spoons were also produced to promote "The Route of the Great Big Baked Potato"; the slogan served the Northern Pacific for about 50 years.
Presidents of Northern Pacific Railway were:
In search of a trademark, the Northern Pacific considered and rejected many designs.Edwin Harrison McHenry, the Chief Engineer, was struck with a geometric design, aTaijituin theKorean flaghe saw while visiting theKoreanexhibit at theChicago World's Fairin 1893. The idea came to him that it was just the symbol for the long-sought-for trademark. With a slight modification, and rendered in red and black, the symbol became the railroad's trademark.
In 1876, photographerFrank Jay Haynesbegan contract work with the railroad for publicity photographs. In 1881 he met Charles Fee and through his 20-year friendship with Fee, Haynes became known as the "Official Photographer of the N.P.R.R". His "Northern Pacific Views" photographically documented over the years, the routes, destinations, infrastructure and equipment of the railroad.