The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1872-11-22
Present Condition OF the North Pacific
Railroad.
From the New York Tribune, oct. &c.

III il announced tnht ny VI W.
yember this new road will be completed to the
Missouri River, ASP miles west OF Duluth.
This will be an addition of 200 miles since
spring. Trains have been running daily be-
tween Duluth and the Red River since April
last. and new rolling stock is ready 10 equip
the extension
a small section of 20 miles has been some
time in operation. Forty miles more OF track
will be completed before the close of the sea-
son. Adding the completed portion on the
Pacific side TO the Eastern section, II gives
total of 5l7 miles of track laid in little more
than two years from the commencement OF tho
work When the delays encountered the first
year in maxim the surveys and deciding on the
best line through the forest region are con-
sldered, the result Is marvellous. and attests
the energy with which the work IL pushed tor
ward. Some idea of the work accomplished
Will be conveyed by stating that the finished
portion of the road in November will exceed
in length the New York Central, with all its
lateral and branch lines included.
Besides the actual construction, the work OF
surveying and locating the entire line across
the continent has proceeded with vISor. The
NeXploring parties nave fought few scattering
Indians, but have carried their surveys sue
cessfully to the Yellowstone. The portion of
the road now IN operation has a large aud IN
creasing local traffic. Ii lntersects the Red
River at Moorhead, from which point new
railroad Is being constructed northward up the
valley to PembiLo, where il will meet and JON
line now being built southwark from Fort
Garry Ii commands the eastward bound
freight and travel of the British settlements
III Manitoba and also of the Hudson Bay
Company. 1t Ii also the outlet of large por-
ton OF the grain grown III Minnesota.
When the contracts for this season are COM
pleted. the Company will have perman snt
business in the great traffic of the Upper Mis-
souri, River with all the Government trans
portation in the Northwest. few miles be-
yond the point where the railway strikes the
Missouri the river bends to the westward, and
Is navigable for steamboats, for 1000 miles of
water way from the railroad crossing to Fort
denton. At the foot of the Rocky Mountains,
III Western Montana, nearly forty steamers are
employed during the season III the trade OF
these upper waters.
In April next, at the opening OK navigation,
there Will be direct communication, east and
west. by rall and river, from Lake Superior. IN
longitude 81 degrees, 10 the populous districts
IN Western Montana. III longitude ITO degrees.
From this point westward 1t is about 400 miles
through the passes OF the Rocky Mountains to
that portion of the Columbia River whence 1t
Is navigable to the Pacific.
The finished sections of road entitle the
Company 10 about ten million acres of land,
granted by the Government, constituting an
area about twice the extent of Massachusetts,.
Ten million contiguous acres belonging to the
Government are at the same time rendered
habitable and saabe. The lands are situated
on either side of the line, and principally con-
sist of excellent farming lsnd with the pro-
ductive soil characteristic of all the prairie
region. Settlers have already applied for
more than quarter Of million OF acres.
The Company has already begun the cancela-
ton of its seven-thirty first mortgage bonds
by the proceeds of Its sales OF land, and Is ac-
comphshlng its great work with the utmost
success and economy.
There Is a prospect of large emigration OF
the tenant farmer class from England in the
coming spring. One colony alone, recently
formed there through its pioneer agents, Sc
cured tract IN Clay county, Minnesota, of
1o5, 900 acres directly on the line of railway.
The intended settlement is to be named Ieo-
vii, after town in the West of England,
whence the ajority of the colonists will come.
The fret contingeut'of this colony numbers
about 2, 200: the remainder will follow in 1873.
The bureau having III charge the Land De-
partment of the road has built and furnished
convenient reception-houses for the free ac-
commodation of intending settlers and their
families while engagedin selecting their farms.
One of these is at Duluth, another at Brainerd,
where the road crosses the Mississippi, and a
third at Moorhead, at the crossing of the Red
River. Emigrants used to trundle with theI
ox-carts over forlorn and desolate praires,
and blvouac where the night found them. 1t
is quite different now. They are carried III
comfort to the very sites of their future
homes-and the organization of the system is
such that they are protected from imposition
or spoliatiOn from the time they leave their
old homes across the water till they begin the
foundation Of their new ones under the sun
set. Every able-bodied and industrious man
and woman who comes hlther makes the ma
ton richer ahd contributes 10 the general
prosperity, and in this view the condition and
prospects of the road are source of legiti-
mate congratulatlon.