The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1931-03-12
NOW CONSTRUCTING
ROAD FROM HUDSON
BAY TO TIDEWATER
Harry F. Mclean Is Son of John
Mclean, One Of Early
Mayors Here
INFLUENCED By M'KENZIE
Building Of Bridge Over Wide
Moose River Is Last Step
in Big Job
INFLUENCED By M'KENZIE

.S
When Canada completes a railroad
to Hudson bay and tidewater. there
by opening a new sea route to Europe.
Bismarck will have had a hand in it.
In fact, it will have been a Bismarck
hand which directed the laying of
the steel rails into the far north
where the blues end-in a snow white.
virgin f~astness, beyond the slump line
and the crisis belt. 1t will have been
a Bismarck mind which directed the
horneric struggle Of men against ma
ture, a struggle which Old Hercules
himself would not have entered with
out misgiving.
The hand and mind are those OF
Harry F. Mclean, baronial contractor
and builder. who first acquired a
taste for engineering difficulties and
construction problems when he was
a mere lad in North Dakota's capital
city.
Before one can fully understand
what Harry Mclean is doing up there
at the end of rail beyond civilization,
it might be we'll to sketch in, briefly,
the days of his youth.
The son of John Mclean, n of
Bismarck's early mayors, and OF
Mary Mclean, who died here only a
few years ago, he vas not especially
noteworthy as a boy. Like other boys.
he dreamed dreams as he sat In the
bright North Dakota sunshine Of a
spring day or watched the bull teams
heading into the mistS which shroud-
ed the bluffs Of the Missouri on the
route to the Black Hills. It is no
wonder that he dreamed, for every
boy does that. The wonder, and the
point of this story. is that those
dreams today are coming true up
there where the mighty Moose river
flows northward through Canada to
Hudson bay.
Young McLean's middle name is
Falconer, a name prominent in the
civic and agricultural annals Of west
ern North Dakota. 1t was the maiden
name of his mother. VIM. A. Fall
coner, 2O2 Avenue E, Is his uncle.
Started in Teens
A tall, angular youth, young Nc
Lean was in his late teens when he
abandoned the dreams of boyhood for
the high adventures of a young mans
estate. He went to work for the
Northern Pacific railroad.
The memory of those titans who
laid the Northern Pacific line still
lcomed large in the minds of Bis
marck's residents. The builder who
pushed his lines of steel across prairie
and stream was an homeric figure
in the eye Of the nation. The lure of
the west was upon the world and
there were no places SO interesting to
the adventurous as those beyond 1.-The
end of Steel"
Alex Mckenzie, a friend of his
father. was rising to power in those
days and was connected with North
ern Pacific enterprises. Young Nc
Lean worked with this master of men
who was to mold much of North Da-
kota's history for the next quarter
century.
AS he grew in knowledge, experience
ard the %practiced daring common to
men Of his kind, Mclean grew in
stature. The gaunt frame filled out
ever as it completed the process of
shooting up into the air. A leonine
heads tops a magnificent physique,
inches over six feet in height. In his
personal appearance he matches his
conquests as few men have done since
feudal times when a conqiuerer had
to be big enough to WELD a battle
axe.
With the passage Of the years Nc
Lean grew In experience. Here and
there throughout the world he gained
the knowledge. made the friendships.
acquired the skill which was to make
him what he is t~oday-the greatest
contractor Canada has ever known.
With equal simplicity he will under
take to raise a lake or level a our
tain: to burrow a tunnel. build a
bridge or construct a railroad in the
face of obstacles which are seemingly
overwhelming.
Which brings lis to the job he is
doing. now.
Just q Job to Him
To him it is just a job but to most
of us it is an epic of mans conquest
of the wilderness. It is al adven-
ture in high finance, for Harry F..
Mclean deals in millions. One has
to when he builds a railroad into
lands which are stark with the icy
stiffness Of the far north much of
the year: where the quiet honk of
Canadian geese, the mating call OF
the moose and the mighty roar of
Na4H N}1rarc oVsN oil that hoyTN
broken the silence in the summer time
for uncounted centuries.
It Is easy enough to comment on
the building of a railroad but the
feats which must be performed to
construct those two ribbons of steel
into ,uncharted country are notable.
McLean'S tanning of the Moose river
is an example. This stream is formed
by the junction of the Mettagami
and Missinabi rivers, and at the point
chosen for the construction Of the
railroad bridge it Is 1896 feet
nearly three fourths Of a mile-in
width.
In the middle Of the stream, lies
Murray island, 900 feet wide. A fill
has been made between the east bank
OF the river and the island. Into it
went 250.OOO cubic yards of work and
an engineering achievement Of which
no man need be ashamed. It Is 60
feet high above the water line. It
IS There TO stay. The Till was on
tinued across the island, q total dis
tance Of 1900 feet and from its west
bank to the mainland beyond the
bridge Is being built. This will be
1,s26 feet long and all this winter
men hsye been busy placing the con-
crst0s piers. 10 Of them, 10 feet apart.
I1aey must ~ finisted By April /. for
m6n6fl)er th14 time the Ice viii come