The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-11-26

came a part OF the Chicago, st. Paul,
Minneapolis 81 Omaha, Sor the North
Western line,. as it is better known.
The Minnesota Valley was authorized
to build to Sioux City, but it did not
reach that point until 1872. The pres
ent Chicago, st. Paul. Minneapolis &
Omaha is, made: up of . several small
roads which were consolidated during t
the next ten or fifteen years.
While these roads were being built
towards the south, the Lake Superior
& Mississippi railroad afterwards the
St. Paul & Duluth) was being slowly
constructed, and about the time 1t was
opened to Duluth, in 1870, an old
charter for the Minnesota Western
railway was revived, the name changed
to the. Minneapolis & st. Louis, and
construction commenced towards AL
bert Lea
Thus was the skeleton Of the rail-
road map of the northwest sketched
out during the first decade after the
war. Looking back at 1T, the progress
of the roads seems phenomenally slow.
But it should be remembered that con-
ditions were vastly different. The
country was practically unsettled 100
miles west Of Minneapolis. And con-
fidence in railroads was not fully es-
tablished and financing Of western
projects was :unavoidably impeded. All
supplies were tCOSLly, anu lilcli Trails.
portation into the northwest was both
expensive and, difficult. Under the cir;
cumstances the pioneer railroad build
ers Of the northwest did good work
when they laid out all the principal
lines Of travel and actually had them
in operation within the first decade
| after the war. =, =, go 80
Looking Towards the Pacific.
Even before actual railroad con-
& Mississippi railroad afterwards the
struction had commenced in the
| jectors had extended far over wild
prairie and unknown mountain
ranges to the Pacific. Thirty years
| before the war q Pacific railroad had
been proposed and the northern route
advocated. But. the exigencies of the
| war led to the. adoption of the central
route as that likely to most speedily
reach the center Of Pacific coast pop
ulation in California. 80 However the
Northern Pacific railroad secured it's
charter two years after the Union and
\ Central Pacif1cs-in 1864-and con-
\ struction was actually begun west Of
\ Duluth in 1870 The actual compile
ton Of such a road seemed little more.
than dream to many people at that
time. It was something Of a fad they
thought, to attach the word Pacific to
a railroads name. The old st. Paul
& Pacific carried the word, but the
people attached no significance to it.
Later the Wisconsin, Minnesota & Pa
cif1c built "a line in western Minnesota,
but the third name in its title was
Anever taken seriously. Butte the far
llseeing men who had grasped the pos.
IIsibilities Of the commercial empire Of
the northwest, the Pacific roads were
already not only possibilities. but GER
tainties. Isl. 81.
| But all thru the seventies the strug-
gle to build up railroad properties in
the northwest was a hard one.-.~ The
panic Of 1873 destroyed all confidence
i for a time. Jay Cooke, who had been
the life Of the Northern Pacific, failed
disastrously;; the st. Paul & Pacific,
after bitter struggle, went thru bank
ruptcy; the st. Paul g. Duluth mort
gage was foreclosed; and nearly every
}, line in the northwest, had similartex
periences or was forced to reorganiza-
ton on q new basis.
The Conditions in 1873.
When r n j o usr n a was! founded
lin 1878-oraly twenty-five years ago
j the northwestern railroads were just