Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1871-03-31
The Northern Pacific Railroad.
BY SCHUYLER CoLFAX, vICE-PRESIDENT OF
THE UNITED STATES.

THE UNITED STATES.
From the New York Independent.
Midway across the continental the
head of twelve hundred miles Of Lake
navigation-a thousand miles from But
falo, the western terminus OF the Erie
Canal, and as near to it 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 endowed
by the Government, is already being
pushed rapidly westward, under its en-
ergetic controllers and before the snow
flies next Fall, it will be completed to
the western line of Minnesota, where 1T
crosses the Red River of the North
which runs northward to Lake Wlnnl-
peg-and one-eighth of it's 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 directions, and
long before the nation celebrates It's
Centennial Anniversary of lndepend-
ence, the Lakes will be united by iron
bands with the Mediterranean of our
Northwest, Puget Sound.
| vi U1l6 dUSplCiOuS llIlIuCllSO VI NAAAS
enterprise. which but few years ago
would have been considered 50 daring,
the most sanguine of It's friends have
scarcely yet full realization. Even
taking Chicago as q starting point, it
will be (via st. Paul, where an arm OF
the Northern Pacific Railroad is reach
ed) two hunered miles less to Puget
Sound than to San Francisco. Besides
this, vessels from the Golden Gate to
! China sail on what is called the grand
circle, instead of in straight line !;
and anyone testing this by string on
a 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
northward towards the Pole. Hence,
when they have sailed eight hundred
miles from San Franciaco they are only
one hundred miles from the entrance
to Puget Sound; and this striking fact
shows the advantages this route will
have in commanding the through 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 Eu-
rope. a. .,t
Nor is this ALL Development is the
great duty of the Republic, after all its
recent trials. Resources are 5he gift
of the Creator. Developing them de-
pends on the work of man. Along the
line of the Northern Pacific Railroad,
as it follows up the water courses, the
Missouri and the Yellowstone on this
side, and descends by the valley of the
Columbia on the other, vast body OF
agricultural 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 range in winter. Here, if climate
and fertility of soil produce their nat
ural result, when railroad facilities
open this now isolated region to settle
ment, will soon be seen waving grain
fields, and happy homes, and growing
towns; while ultimately a Gordon of
prosperous States, teeming with popu-
iation. and rich in industry and conse-
quent wealth, will occupy that now un-
developed and almost inaccessible por-
ton of our continental area.
But this road is fortunate also III Its
pathway across the two ranges of noun
tains which tested so severely the Pacific
Railroads built on the central line, and
the overcoming of which reflected such
we'll deserved honor on their energetic
builders. At the Deer Lodge Pass, in
Montana, where it crosses the Rocky
Mountains, its altitude above the sea is
$500 feet less than the Union Pacific
Railroad at Sherman, which is said tc
be the highest point at which locomo
tive can be found in the world. And
on the Pacific side of the continent it i
even more fortunate. From Arizona ur
to the Arctic Circle the Columbia is the
only river which has torn its way through
, that mighty range, the Andes of Nortf
, America, which in California is knowr
f as the Sierras, but which in Oregon
, changes its name to the Cascades
Nature has thus provided a pathway TO
, the Northern Pacific Road through