The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-09-07
Completion of a Great Undertaking, Which,
Ten Years Ago, Was Clouded in
Deepest Uncertainty.
The Beginning of the Work and the
Discouragements Encountered.
a New and Fertile Empire Opened to the
Pillow and the Reaper-The Land
and Its Possibilities.
THE GOLDEN SPIKE.
The Ceremony That will Take Place To-
Morrow Near Helena.

The Ceremony That Will Take Place To-
Morrow Near Helena.
Tomorrow the golden spike will be driven
and the formal opening of the Northern Pa
cific announced to the world. The actual
completion of the road occurred on Aug. 81,
when, between daylight and midafternoon
300 men, in the presence OF over ], 900 people,
laid nine miles of road. They worked in two
divisions, each striving to be first at the mid
way flag at independence creek, between
Missoula and Helena. In Juror of enthusi-
asm and amid wild shouts the last rail was
laid, and the decorated engines crossed the
gap, blowing deafenng pecan. On Aug. %
the first through train left Portland, and in
four days was at St, Paul.
Tomorrow the Willard party nearly 400 in
number, and comprising official representatives
of Great Britain, Germany and the United
States will stand solemnly by, while near
the Mullan tunnel, on the continental di-
VIDE, rail will be hauled up and re-nailed,
while all the villages from Portland to st.
Paul, which have been laying in gunpowder
land bunting all summer, will vie with each
other in celebrating the event. No expense
has heen spared, and not little diplomatic
skill has been exercised to bring together in
the wilds of the Rocky mountains this array
of notable foreigners and American resi-
dents.
The United States government will be rep
resented by the Secretary of the Interior and
the Encouragement while the seven States
and Territories now in whole or in part in
process of development by the road-Wis-
bonsin Minnesota, Dakota, Montana, Idaho,
Washington and Oregon-each send fitting
DELEGATIONS Most prominent of untitled
citizens will be General u S. Grant, whose
name and fame will, more than that of any
titled potentate, draw the multitudes to
every place where the excursion may stop.
The metropolitan press of the United States
Is fairly represented among the invited
guests. But few ladies will be in attend
ance; the excursionsts will cut themselves
aloof from the fair sex during the four
weeks unketing from the Atlantic to the
Pacific and return, except such as may catch
glimpses of an occasional squaw or the wives
of the settlers to whom the passing trains
are the only messengers of their eastern
homes, and who always appear at the front
door to see the main event of the day-the
st. Paul & Portland train. Only the foreign
excursionists will be invited to visit the
National park-Amercans can now take in
this wonderland any summer by way of the
Northern Pacific at an expenditure of two
weeks time and couple of hundred dollars,
from Chicago.
With the completion of the Northern Pa
cific to the park line, the building of the
Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel and the posi-
BILE completion of belt road $50 miles long
in the park. if Congress permits, within two
years it will be as easy to do the park as to
visit Niagara, and 1t will become the national
resort
The Willard party will be whirled over 9, 900
miles from st. Paul TO Portland. on four spe-
cial trains of ten palace cars each. They run
as specials. Each section has its telegrapher,
relay battery and pole climbers to telegraph
from any necessary point. Each section has
car repairer, and is accompanied by the
local superintendents-as of road bed, bridge
foreman, etc.-of the various divisions of the
road The four sections run thirty minutes
apart, and are held to time at each station.
A Waterman with red and white flags by day,
or lanterns by night, is posted at every
switch. All passenger trains are side-tracked
fort the specials, while freight and construc-
tiafi trains all take a days vacation until the
great excursion has passed.
yards have been cleared, snow fences piled
up old ties burned. all railroad buildings
decorated; every foot of track is walked over
by, Lle section foremen ahead of the specials
and every precaution taken to make the trip
not only one of constant enjoyment to the
guests the three weeks they are in the travel
ing hotels of the Northern Pacific, but also
one of absolute safety. With the smooth
road-bed, steel rails, and paper and steel
wheels of the elegant Pulmans, a ride of
two thousand miles over the green woods
andsprairies OF Minnesota along the Missis-
sippi to Brainard, and over the great plains
of Dakota, and 400 miles along the Yellow
stone, is not even tiresome-one sleeps
soundly and eats with relish; the endless
panorama of the plains is always before one;
the approach to the Rockies is halliday of
pleasure, and once in the mountains, or roll
ing along the Columbia more miles in an
hour than Lewis and Clark in 1906 could
travel in a day, he must be hard to please
who could not enjoy or even covet such
trip.