Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1872-11-30
Present Condition of the North Pacific
Railroad.

From the New York Tribune. Oct 20.
1t Is announced that by the middle Of No.
yember this new road will be completed to the
Mi ssouri river 452 miles west of Duluth This
will be an addition of 200 miles since Spring.
Trains have been running daily between Du-
luth and the Red river since April last and
new rolling stock is ready to equip the extern
sion
On the Pacific side in Washington Territory
small section of % 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, it gives
total of 5l7 miles of track laid in little more
than two years from the commencement of
work. When the delays encountered the first
years in making the surveys and deciding on
the best line through the forest region are
considered, the result is marvellous, and
attests the energy with which the work is
| pushed forward. Some idea of the work
complshed will be conveyed by stating that
the finished portion Of the road in November
will exceed in lergth 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 vigor. The
| exploring parties have 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 and
| sing local traffic. 1t intersects the Red
| river at Moorhe ID, from which point new
railroad Is being constructed northward up
the valley to Pembina where it will meet and
| Join line now being built southwark from
| Fort Garry. 1t commands the eastward bound
| freight and travel of the British settlements
| in Manitoba, and also Of the Hudson's Bay
Company 1t is also the outlet of large por
ton of the grain grown in Minnesota.
When the contracts for this season are COM
| pleted, the Company will have permanent
business in the great traffic of the Upper Mis-
souri, river, with all the Government trans
portation i'll 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 200 miles Of
water way from the railroad crossing to Fort
Benton. At the foot of the Rocky Mountains,
IN Westerly Montana, nearly forty steamers
are employed during the season in the trade
of these upper waters.
In April next, at the opening of navigation,
there will be direct communication, east and
west, by rail and river, from Lake Superior, in
longitude 81 degrees, to the populous dis
trcts, in Western Montana, in longitude ITO
degrees. From this point westward it is about
400 miles through the passes of the Rocky
Mountains, to that portion OF the Columbia
river whence it is navigablo to the Pacific.
| The finished sections of road entitle the
Company to about ten million acres of land,
| granted by the Government, constituting all
area about twice the extent of Massachusetts.
| Ten million contiguous acres belonging to the
| Government at the same time rendered
habitable and salable. The lands are situated
on either side of the line, and principally con-
sist of excellent farming land, with the pro-
ductive soil characteristic of all the prairie
region. Settlers have already applied for more
than a quarter of a million of acres. The
| Company has already begun the cancellation
of its seven-thirty first mortgage bond. by the
proceeds of its sales of land, and is accom-
plishing its great work with the utmost sue
cess and economy.
There is prospect of large emigration of
the tenant farmer class from England i'll the
| coming Spring. One colony alone, recently
formed there, through its pioneer agents, Sc
cured a tract in Clay county, Minnesota. of
155, 600 acres directly on the line of railway.
The intended settlement is to be named Yed-
vii, after a town in the West of England,
whence the majority Of the colonists will
come. The first contingent of this colony
numbers about 1000; the remainder will fol
| low in 1873.
The bureau having in charge the Land De-
partment of the road has built and furnished
convenient reception-houses for the free &C.
commodatlon of intending settlers and theil
families while engaged in selecting their farms
One of these is at Duluth, another at Brain
| erd where the road crosses the Mississippi
and third at Moorhead at the crossing OF
the Red river. Emlgrant5 used to trundle
with. their oX-carts oyer forlorn and desolate
praires, and bivouac where the night found
them. 1t is quite different Eow. They arc
carried in comfort to the very sites of theil
future homes,-an 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 til
they begin the foundation of their new ones
under the sunset. Every able-bodied and in
dustrlous man and woman who comes hithel
| makes the nation richer and contributes tt
the general prosperity, and in this view the