Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1871-04-06
THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD.
BY SCHUYLER CoLFAX.

Oh tne Erie LANAI. anu rs near W IL
by water as Chicago hundred
miles west of the longitude of St.
Louis or Galena-is the young city
of Duluth, the initial point of the
Northern Pacific Railroad. That
great work, so magnificently en-
dowed by the Government, is al
ready being pushed rapidly westward
under its energetic controllers; and
before the snow falls next fall, it will
be completed to the western line of
Minnesota, where it crosses the Red
River of the North-which runs
northward to Lake Winnipeg-and
one-eighth of its distance to the
Pacific Ocean will have been accom-
plished. Commencing, too, this
season on its western line, the work
will be prosecuted from both direc-
tions, and long befor the nation eel
ebrates its Centennial Anniversary
of Independence, the lakes will be
united by iron bands with that Med
iterranean of our Northwest, Puget
Sound.
OF the auspicious influence of
this enterprise, which but "a few years
ago would have been considered so
daring. the most sanguine of its
friends have scarcely yeta full real
ization. Even taking Chicago as the
starting point, it will be (yia st.
Paul, where an arm of the Northern
Pacific Railroad is reached) two
hundred miles less distance to Puget
Sound than to San Francisco. Be
sides this, vessels from the Golden
Gate to China sail on what is called
the grand circle, instead of in
straight line; and any one testing
this by string on globe will be
surprised at the result, if they have
not previously studied the effect of
the rotundity of the earth, and its
diminished protuberance as you go
towards the Pole. Hence, when
they have sailed eight hundred
miles from San Francisco, they are
only one hundred miles from
the entrance to Puget Sound; and
this fact shows the advantages this
line will have IN commanding the
traffic of Asia with our Atlantic
States, or that portion of it which
will pass over the soil of this nation
on its road to Europe.
Nor is this all, development is the
great duty of the Republic, after all
its recent trials. Resources are the
gift Of the Creator. Developing
them depends upon the work of man.
Along the line of the Northern
Pacific Railroad, as it follows up the
water courses, the Missouri and
Yellowstone of this side, and de-
scends the valley Of the Columbia
on the other, a vast body of agricul-
tural land is waiting for the plough,
with climate almost exactly the
same as that of New York, except
that, with less snow, cattle, in the
larger portion Of it, can subsist On
the open rang in winter. Here, if
climate and fertility of soil produce
their natural result, when railroad
facilities open this now isolated
reigon to settlement, will soon be
seen waiving grain fields, and happy
homes, and growing towns; while
ultimately Gordon of prosperous
States, teeming with population,
and rich industry and consequent
wealth, will occupy that undeveloped
and almost inaccessible portion of
our continental area.
But this road is fortunate also in
its pathway across the two ranges of
mountains which tested so severely
the Pacific Railroads built on the
central line, and the overcoming of
which reflected such well deserved
honor on their energetic builders.
At the Deer Creek Lodge Pass, in
Montana, where it crosses the Rocky
Mountains, its attitude above the
sea is $500 feet less than the Union
Pacific Railroad at Sherman, which
is said to be the highest point at
which locomotive can be found in
the world. And on the Pacific side
Of the Continent it is even more
fortunate. From Arazonia up to |
the Arctic Circ.e to the Columbia is |
the only river which has tori its |
way through that mighty range, the
Andes of North America, which in |
California is known as the Sierras,
but which in Oregon changes its
name to the Cascades. Nature has
thus provided a pathway through
these mountains for the Northern
Pacific Railroad, the scaling of
which, on the other line, at an ele-
walton of over seven thousand feet
a most wonderful triumph of en-
gineering), cost the Central Pacific
Company millions Of dollars, and
compelled them, for seventy miles,
to maintain q grade of over one
hundred feet to the mile-twice the
maximum of the Northern Pacific
at the most difficult point on the en-
tire route.
1t is fortunate, also, in its ter
minus on the Pacific coast. No one
who has not been there can realize
the beauty of Puget Sound and its
surroundings. One hundred miles
long, but so full of inlets and straits
that its navigable shore line meas
ures seventeen hundred and sixty
miles, dotted with lovely inlets, with
gigantic trees almost to the waters
edge, with safe anchorage every
where, and stretching southwark
without shoals or bars, from the
Straits of Fuca to the capital GEN.
ter Of Washington Territory, it will
be a magnificent entrepot for the
commerce of the grandest ocean of
the world, the Pacific.
The land grant of the United
States, exceeding fifty millions of
acres in the wheat region of our ma
ton (ten times as large as the area
of Massachusetts J, is doubtless suf-
ficient for the completion of the
road; but, besides this, millions of
private means are already invested
in it. The bonds based on the land
grant, and mortgage ON the road
in addition, are being sold as rapidly
as the money is needed; and, as an
investment yielding about eight per
cent. in currency, rank already with
the best class of railroad securities.
And thus the good work will go on