Northern Pacific Railway

In 1853 the U.S. War Department conducted the first survey of a northern railroad route to the Pacific.⁠[1]

On July 2, 1864, the Northern Pacific Railroad was chartered by Congress, with the approval of President Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States (1861–1865). Born to a frontier farming family in Kentucky, he had less than a year of formal schooling, taught himself law, and served in the Illinois legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives before winning the presidency as the Republican candidate in 1860. During the Civil War he preserved the Union, issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and pushed the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery through Congress. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington on April 14, 1865, and died the next day.Open the full entry, as the first northern transcontinental railroad, to build a line west from Lake Superior to a port on the Pacific coast, with a land grant of 40,000,000 acres (16,200,000 hectares). The Northern Pacific Railroad Company was organized the same year.⁠[2][3][1]

After the company struggled to find backing, the Philadelphia banker Jay Cooke undertook to raise $100,000,000 for it. Construction began in February 1870 at Carlton, MinnesotaMinnesotaMinnesota is a state in the north-central United States and the most northerly of the 48 contiguous states; its capital is St. Paul and its largest city is Minneapolis. It was admitted to the Union on May 11, 1858, as the 32nd state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 5,706,494.Open the full entry, with an initial operation of 125 miles, and in the same year work began in the west at Kalama, Washington Territory, with that line extended to New Tacoma by 1873.⁠[3][1]

In 1873, as the railroad approached Bismarck, Dakota Territory, Cooke’s bank collapsed; the company went into receivership and construction stopped for six years. The company was reorganized after its financial troubles in 1875.⁠[3][1]

In 1878 Henry Villard took over the company, which built west to Helena, Montana Territory, and connected with the Oregon Railway to reach Seattle, Washington Territory.⁠[3]

On August 22, 1883, the eastward and westward construction crews met near the confluence of Gold Creek and the Clark Fork River in Montana, about 59 miles west of Helena; about 1,000 feet of track laid that day was taken up and relaid for the September celebration. On September 8, 1883, four special trains brought about 300 officials and dignitaries from England, Germany and the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States is a federal country in North America made up of 50 states, the District of Columbia as the seat of government, and territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam; its capital is Washington, D.C. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted a resident population of 331,449,281, and the 435 seats of the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states on the basis of the census.Open the full entry, and railroad president Henry Villard, former President Ulysses S. GrantUlysses S. GrantUlysses S. Grant (1822–1885) was an American soldier and politician who commanded the Union armies in the final years of the Civil War (1864–1865) and served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877.Open the full entry and former railroad official H. C. Davis drove the ceremonial last spike. The spike was not gold; it was the same spike used about thirteen years earlier at the start of construction near Carlton, Minnesota.⁠[4]

The National Register nomination describes it as the first through route from Lake Superior to the Pacific coast and notes that Montana, North DakotaNorth DakotaNorth Dakota is a state in the north-central United States; its capital is Bismarck. It was admitted to the Union on November 2, 1889, as the 39th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 779,094.Open the full entry, IdahoIdahoIdaho is a state in the northwestern United States, often classed as a Mountain state and also considered part of the Pacific Northwest; its capital and largest city is Boise. It was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 1,839,106.Open the full entry and Washington all became states within seven years of its completion.⁠[4]

In 1888 the Stampede Pass tunnel in Washington Territory opened, replacing a switchback line over the pass; the University of Montana archives’ collection guide treats this as the line’s real completion date.⁠[1]

The company also weathered the Panic of 1893. In the 1890s it again ran into financial trouble and was reorganized by the banker J. P. MorganJ. P. MorganJ. P. Morgan (John Pierpont Morgan, 1837–1913) was an American financier and art collector who headed the banking house J.P. Morgan & Co., organized the reorganization of major railroads and large industrial consolidations, and played a role in American fiscal and financial crises.Open the full entry, who shared control with James J. Hill of the competing Great Northern Railway; in 1896 the company was reorganized a second time as the Northern Pacific Railway Company.⁠[3][1][2]

In 1900 the company began passenger service under the name North Coast Limited.⁠[2]

James J. Hill sought to combine the Northern Pacific, the Great Northern and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroads through the Northern Securities Company, of which he was president. In 1904 the Supreme Court of the United StatesSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court of the U.S. federal judiciary. Established under the Constitution and the Judiciary Act of 1789, it has consisted since 1869 of a Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices and sits in Washington, D.C.Open the full entry ruled that the arrangement violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.⁠[3]

On March 2, 1970, the Northern Pacific merged with the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, the Great Northern, the Spokane, Portland and Seattle and their subsidiaries to form the Burlington Northern Railroad.⁠[2][1]

Burlington Northern added the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway in 1980, bringing its system to about 30,000 miles (48,000 km) of track, and acquired the Santa Fe Pacific Corporation in 1995.⁠[3]

The Minnesota Historical Society holds the Northern Pacific Railway Company’s secretary’s records, spanning 1840 to 1970 with most material from 1869 to 1890 and totaling 669 cubic feet, including minute books from 1864 to 1970, annual reports to stockholders from 1870 to 1968, and court materials from 1893 to 1900 on the 1896 reorganization. The University of Montana library’s Archives and Special Collections also holds company records from 1870 to 1968.⁠[5][1]

Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: Official website: https://research.nprha.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]