St. Cloud visiter [sic]. [volume] (St. Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1857-1858, 1858-07-22
Northern Route.

We give the following able article from
the Pioneer& Denocsot on the natural land
route from the Atlantic to the Pacific
coast. Itafords much food for reflection;
and presents a very important chain of facts.
We have little doubt. that the first railroad
that shall connect our eastern and western
seaboards> will be this Northern route; but
the line now in process Of construction from
Saltwater to Brcokinridge on the Red
River will be completed in a few years with
connections that will sive;a continuous rail-
road from the Schuylkill to the Otter
Tail.
! Once there, and y way will soon open TO
proceed. One thing in this connection is
worthy Of note. The present Rcd River
tsaee might he principally storncd IN St.
Cloud, *av;n1 'l> ca:!s ninety mikes oi the
worst pa'i of the i,1a',; also the expense and
delay Of fcg4.yagc. The merchants OF oul
ihvc- yea;~old. city '.sve :,cco 50 ,usv accu-
! ''ii's lands al" buying 'owa sizes TIA; H.:
caiilal employee; in other os:ness is alio~
:e,r;her insufficient 10 supply ;he demand
Tor merchandise. IF it were MT 50, ST.
Cloud would, iii 3r,ot measure, relieve
~. P:"l fiom iile presence of The Rel
River i:Hi.l>. The nIc., have shown a dis
!o>: ioi., his s"i''''a, 10 ;',c'ase here; anil
Lave dealt win or: merchants more than
ii1ev dill last year. although their stock Of
Goods is quite inferior TO what ii t,len WAS.
4 few enterp,;:inS merchants will; a
moderate capital. added 10 out present b"-
sincss list wouil e'.>.;'le st. Clo:ll to iut'r.
cept toe Red River trade; and to do several
other things which would be very we'll
worth the doing.
Emigrant and Railroad Route
from st. Paul to Puget's Sound.
The iac;s developed in The pending con-
test OF The Canadian people with the Hu'l-
sons Bay Company, for u,e possession Of
ille splendid territorial prize, which has
been so long locked up uuder the aya,iciou>
rule Of that trading monopoly, has awaken
ed an interest in relation to the part of the
British possessions, which lies contiguous
to the northwest boundry of our own State,
scarcely less than if a new Continent had
been discovered.
Fifty years have passed since Lord Sel-
kirk, penetrating throug h the inhospitable
belt Of territory which encloses the waters
Of Hudsons Bay, and passing along tie
same parallels Of latitude from the climate
of Lapland, to the climate of Crimea, from
the Artic sterility Of northern Norway on
Nelson river to the generous soil and lux
uriant vegetation Of Southern Russia OH
Red river, declared that he had found in
the basin of the Winnepeg, and islanded by
artic SHOWS on the north and east and by
barren plains in the south, country with
all the characteristics of the temperate zone
embracing 100000 square miles, and capa-
ble of supporting a population of30, ,00O, 900.
The effort of the Hudson's Bay and North
west Companies to crush the infant colony
planted by him on the Red River, and the
final assertion by these corporations under
the name and charter of the latter of an un-
limited monopoly over this whole region,
with objects adverse to projects Of ofcoloniza-
tion, explain the mystery in which the
physical geography of this country has been
industriously involved; and the facts which
the recent contest has developed, often ex-
torted from the unwilling witnesses of the
company itself, have all the novelty and, in
view of its economical bearings, all the sub
Unity of continental discovery. The a.
gents of the Canadian government have
done for the terra i'ecognita Of Ruperts
Land more than Livingston has done foi
the interior Of Africa, or than Perry did for
Japan. They have added new world to
the domain Of Colonial enterprise.
The discovey-for discovery we must call
It since it ceases to be the secret of a cor
poration-ofa vast fertile plain stretching
uninteruptedly from the valley Of the Red
River to the base Of the Rocky Mountains,
watered across the whole expanse by navi-
gable streams of noble volume, and which
carries the isothermal zone Of St. Paul to the
sources Of the Mackenzie river, opens new
theatre for the colonization of the latter
half of this century, and determines defini-
lively and unalterably tie path of the first
Railway to tile Pacific. The level valley IF
Saskatchewan, which is navigable for 1400
miles from the Rocky Mountains to Lake
Winnipeg, interlocking there with the Wa
ters Of; the Red River. which forms our
northwestern boundry, and adds 500 miles
more to this splendid chain Of inland navi-i
CATION, fxes across these level steppes the
Rest route in the world fol-. Railroad; and
the the Rocky Mountains which divide this
immense plain from the slopes Of the
Pacific shore, afford along the gorges which
connect it with the valley Of Frasear 8 river,
the most practicable passes in the whole
chain. The extraordinary detection Of the
isothermal lines which carry tho climate of