The Billings herald. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1882-1885, 1883-01-04

The people of Oregon and Wash
ington have looked forward lon
4 and impatiently to the completion
(; of the Northern Pacific railroad a
the one thing necessary to secure t
! their country its full growth ant
prosperity. The enterprise has beel
attended with strange vicissitude
since the building of the road wa
begun in 1870, but it's ultimate sue
cess has now for some years beer
assured, it's managers have displayed
energy in pressing it on to compile
ton and we are now promised tina
the road will be opened for traffic
before the close of the year 1888
The original projectors of the North
ern Pacific always contemplated the
location of their principal western
terminus on Puget Sound for the
reason that it affords the best har.
borage for large ships to be found
anywhere on the Pacific coast north
of San Francisco bay, but theil
charter authorized, and they expec.
ted to build a branch line down the
| Columbia river to Portland. The
building of a railroad from Port
land into eastern Oregon and Wash
ington by the Oregon Railway and
Navigation company, as well as the
connection of that region with the
coast by the steamers of the same
company on the Columbia river, led
the Billings management of the
Northern Pacific to postpone the
definite location and construction,
both of the line over the Cascade
mountains to the sound and of that
to Portland on the north side of the
Columbia, and to direct their ener-
gies toward the completion of the
overland road between the Missouri
river in Dakota and the Columbia
in eastern Washington. In the
early days of the enterprise, how
ever, piece of road 1O5 miles long
had been built from kalama on the
Columbia, 40 miles above Portland,
to Tacoma on the sound, and the
latter place was selected for the wes-
tern terminus. Subsequently an ad-
dition of 80 miles was made to this
isolated short line, connecting Ia
coma with some promising coal
fields lying near the sound, and the
town which grew up in the vicinity
of the mines was called Wilkeson,
after Samuel Wilkeson, secretary of
the company. Under the Billings
management the Pend d'Oreillc di-
vision of the main line extending
from the confluence of the Snake
river with the Columbia 219 miles
northeast to lake Pend d'Oreille in
northern Idaho. was for the most
part built. In the spring of 1881
Mr.. Willard secured control of the
Northern Pacific by means of the
famous blind pool, and it has since
been managed in harmony with the
Oregon roads. The line over the
Cascade mountains to the Sound,
which would measure 220 miles
from the Snake river and can only
be built at great expense on account
of the heavy grades necessary, has
been given up for the present,
though it will in all likelihood be
carried through in time, and
Portland is happy in being the main
western terminus of the Northern
Pacific. 1t is proposed now to con-
meet Portland with Kalama by rail,
and thus secure q through rail route
to the Sound, which will be about
$50 miles longer than the direct
line over the Cascade range, but it
will afford an easier route for heavy
freight traffic. The Northern Pa
cific and the Oregon roads will thus
at once secure deep-water termi-
nus, where they can load directly
on to the largest shipping in the
world. The railroad will sooner or
later be extended from Tacoma,
which lies at the end of the south
ern arm Of the Sound nearer to the
sea, in order to save shipping the
passage inland.
The Railway and Navigation COM
pany's main line from Portland now
connects with the Northern Pacific
at Wallula Junction, II miles south
of the Snake in eastern Washington,
the Northern Pacific has been cx-
tended 76 miles up the valley of
Clark's Fork from Lake Pend
d'Oreille into Montana, and there
is, therefore, an unbroken line of
road completed for $40 miles east
Gso,,, Do,4lo.l Dr. No1-o,,, bo,. 10 Il