The Northwest.—Its great extent and character.—Jay Cooke, Esq.—The
Northern Pacific Railroad and its advantages.—The general line of the
road.—The shortest route to Asia.—The Red River valley.—Puget
Sound.—The future of our country.
The vast reach of country lying between the Bed River and the Cascade range of mountains possesses, to some extent, a climate little inferior in healthfulness to that of Minnesota itself. The same dry, westerly winds sweep over it, and are even more marked in their continental character. Invalids will undoubtedly find as great advantages arising from a residence there as in any other part of the Union, yet for the present there are no means of easy access to any portion of this immense district. By-and-by this will be changed.
The many natural curiosities abounding in this little-explored region would alone prove sufficient to attract thither great numbers of our people, but when the almost unparalleled attractions of the climate are added, the travel and immigration must eventually become enormous.
The Northern Pacific Railroad,—the power which is destined to transform these Territories into States,—is being pushed rapidly westward, with the promise of an early completion.
To the energy of Jay Cooke, of Philadelphia, the distinguished banker and philanthropist, will belong, perhaps, the chief honor of its completion. Not that this great enterprise might not be begun and carried to a triumphal close by others,—since the government subsidies would, in time, together with the demand for this additional highway across the continent, enlist men of resolute character and ample means,—yet, withal, every new and great undertaking has somewhere a correspondingly great spirit, impelling self and co-workers to the contest and achievement of the desired ends, and we recognize in this vast enterprise the hand of this indefatigable man. Of course the able and influential associates in the board of directors must share in the honor of this national work, and their names will go down in history as among the benefactors of the country in which they lived.[E]
How lightly we speak now of continental roads since one is a veritable fact. Novelties, to Americans, pass rapidly away.
How few realized, in 1860, that the coming decade would witness the completion of one and the beginning of another iron road across the continent. Ah! those brief years brought revolution in many things. The social fabric of half the Union was not less overturned in this brief period than were the accustomed avenues along which ran the world's trade and commerce.
The Northern Pacific Railroad was chartered by Congress in 1864, and was approved by President Lincoln on the second of July of that year. It has no government aid beyond a right of way and cession of the public lands along its line; each alternate section for a width of twenty miles in the States and forty miles in the territories. This, as is estimated, will give, according to the survey of Gen. W.M. Roberts, about fifty millions of acres,[F] large portions of which are known to be very fertile, while much will lie in the rich mining districts of Montana Territory.
This generous donation of public lands by the people is well deserved by this second great national enterprise. It is the only method whereby the isolated and distant portions of the interior can become utilized. The value of the remaining lands of the government will become tenfold what the whole would be if left to time and private enterprise for their development. The work was actively begun in 1870 on the Duluth end of this road; and it is expected that the present year (1871) will see it completed to the Red River, a distance of about two hundred and thirty-three miles from the above-named city. Quite a number of miles of iron had been laid at the time of our late visit, and as many more miles graded; with half a thousand men actively engaged in forwarding the vast undertaking.
The road is already completed to the Mississippi above Crow Wing, and from there will follow in nearly a straight line to Fort Abercrombie, the head of navigation on the Bed River. Here it will unite with the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (owned and operated by the Northern Pacific Railway, a branch of which it now is), already in running order half the distance from St. Paul. This line, with all its rights and franchises, has been recently purchased by the Northern Pacific, and will greatly aid in supporting the main trunk when completed.