Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1900-11-23
Sketch ofthe Railroad Building Trium-
phs of the Late Financier
Henry Willard.
Triumphal Progress of the Willard train
at Driving of the Golden
Spike.
Importance of the Work, as Exploiting
the Resources of the Great
Northwest Country.

dreariness of mountain peaks uncov-
cred with trees, on Sept. 8, 1888, stood
Henry Willard, William NJ. Eyarts.
Gen. Grant, Frederick Billings, young
Willard and a host of other distin-
guished and undlstinguished people TO
witness the driving OF the last spike
on the Northern Pacific road, the COM
pletlon of the line whose first work
had commenced in 1864. The SPOT
where the last rail was laid and the
final golden spike driven is lbs miles
from Lake Superior and SAT miles from
Puget Sound, or 1905 miles from St.
Paul and 7OG miles from Portland. Ore.
Willard, once humble newspaper re-
porter, the husband of William LLOYD
G~arrison's only daughter, the runaway
son of a Bavarian jurist, had reached
the day OF his greatest fame. He had
completed a transcontinental line. the
building of which was a herculean task
compared with the construction of
either the Union Pacific or the South
ern Pacific. He had taken an almost
ruined property and convinced the
world of finance that honestly man
aged it was a paying investment.
From the Atlantic to the Pacific the
trlumpnal progress Of the Willard train
was heralded. The magnate, with his
American friends and foreign finan-
ciers. journeyed from New York to st.
Paul and Minneapolis, where he was
received with all the pomp of a con-
queror-which he was. He had con-
quered the mountains, the plains. and
the savage streams of the Northern
Pacific right of way. Cities were
decorated. B%anquets were held.
Delegations met the Willard guests.
Local newspapers Of the northwest set
aside all other news for the story of
the completion of the great transcon-
q III DOOIl1 VI lllc INOIll
Dakota country had its first inception.
Where twenty years before Sibley and
his soiu.ers had driven ahead of them
the Sioux into the Missouri river coun-
try, now puffed and painted the loco
motive of the Willard special. Fargo
was ablaze. "Jimtown" celebrated as
it never had before. Bismarck was
thronged with Indians, cowboys and
soldiers, come to meet this man who
had won where Jay Cooke failed. Man
dan cheered him on his journey. Miles
City jubilated for a week. Helena
could hardly contain itself. On board
the special everywhere was gay and
hospitable. There was such eating,
winning and dining as many of the
party had never witnessed before.
True, the ghost of the stock market
was at the feast, and Willard began to
fall at the instant that he was most
triumphant, but to the honor of the
dead financier no informed man be-
lieves his ruin was deserved.
From Portland on the Pacific coast,
eastward the celebrations were just as
great as they were to the east Of Hell
ena. The north Pacific coast had suf-
fered from lack of direct connection
with the Great Lakes and the Atlantic
coast. Willard had been the first to
unite all the steamship and railroad
interests of Oregon and Washington
and join them to the fortunes of the
Northern Pacific. He made Tacoma
and Seattle possible. ne connected
Washington and Oregon. He show
cred the way to active trade with the
Orient. He Heralded the resources
of tn great northern slope throughout
the east. To p%enned-in Idaho he gave
an outlet. The isolation Of western
Montana was ended forever. So the
Pacific coast journeyed toward the
point where the last spike was to be
driven, just ais gay and joyful as the
Willard party coming from the Allan
tic. No settlement existed where the
east and west section of track met.
The construction engineers erected
temporary pavilions. One of these
was for the ladies in the party. An
other was for the band of the Fifth
United States infantry. Still another
was for the important guests. Min
ing p~rospectors, cowboys, Indians,
Cinnamon of the Montana region tray
eled fifty and a hundred miles on foot
or horseback from their camps to wit
ness the driving of the spike.
It was a %curiously composed COM
pany of people that gathered that Sep
TENDER day in the mountain wilderness
to honor the completion Of the road.
Gen. Grant, fresh from the honors re-
ceived during his journey around the
world, twice president Of the United
States. victor of the civil war, was
there. The lank form. of William M.
EWarts, the statesman of New York,
cOnspfcuo,rs. Willard suavo NIL.