Fifty Years In The Northwest
span 300 feet long, two fixed spans each of 150 feet in length, and a
combination span on the north shore 106 feet in length. The cost of
the structure was $200,000. In 1884 a branch line was extended from
Point Douglas to Stillwater.
MINNEAPOLIS, SAULT STE. MARIE & ATLANTIC.
The following memorial, introduced by the writer while a member of the
state senate of 1877, is the first public mention or suggestion of
this road as far as we are aware. It was adopted by the legislature,
forwarded to Washington, read and duly referred to the committee on
railroads:
STATE OF MINNESOTA.
NINETEENTH SESSION. S.F. NO. 36.
A MEMORIAL
_Introduced by Mr. Folsom, Jan. 12, 1877._ TO CONGRESS FOR
RIGHT OF WAY AND GRANT OF LAND FOR RAILROAD PURPOSES.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States in Congress assembled:_
Your memorialists, the legislature of the state of Minnesota,
respectfully represent that the rapidly increasing settlements of the
Northwest, the surplus agricultural products and material developments
demand greater and cheaper facilities than now existing, and a more
direct transit to the Atlantic seaboard and European ports, and
eastern products transported to the Northwest.
That the saving in the distance to eastern markets of three hundred
miles, by a railroad route from St. Paul and Minneapolis to Sault Ste.
Marie, will tend to more fully develop the great wheat growing region
of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota, and Montana. The surplus of wheat,
which forms one of the most reliable exports from our government, in
shortening the distance to European markets three hundred miles will
give encouragement to this great source of wealth to our whole land,
and deserves aid and protection.
That by reason of the facts set forth in this memorial, and many
other considerations, the nearest transit makes cheap transportation
and thereby develops the country and increases prosperity.
To further these objects, we ask Congress to donate land to aid, and
the right of way through government land to build, a railroad from the
cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis to the falls of St. Marie's river.
Sept. 20, 1879, a large mass meeting was held at St. Croix Falls, the
object being to consider the feasibility of the "Soo" route. Over five
hundred persons were present, among them delegates from Minneapolis,
St. Paul, Stillwater, and Superior City. The subject was discussed and
resolutions passed favoring the building of the road to Sault Ste.
Marie via the Dalles of St. Croix.
Not, however, till Sept. 12, 1883, were the articles of incorporation
filed in Wisconsin and Minnesota by W. D. Washburn and others of
Minneapolis, for the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie & Atlantic Railroad
Company.
The road was completed to the "Soo" in December, 1887. At that point
it connects with a branch of the Canadian Pacific. The St. Marie river
is to be crossed on a union bridge built by the roads centring at that
point. It is now under construction, and will cost when completed over
a million dollars. The length of the line is about 225 miles. The
capital stock is $12,000,000, divided into 80,000 shares of common
stock, and 40,000 shares preferred. The board of directors for the
first year is composed of the following persons, all residents of
Minneapolis: W. D. Washburn, president; H. T. Welles, John Martin,
Thomas Lowry, George R. Newell, Anthony Kelly, M. Loring, Clinton
Morrison, J. K. Sidle, W. W. Eastman, W. D. Hale, C. A. Pillsbury, and
Chas. J. Martin.
The following comparison of distance will be of interest to the people
of the Northwestern States:
MILES. MILES.
St. Paul to Chicago 411
Chicago to New York City 962
New York to Liverpool 3,040
----- 4,413
St. Paul (via Sault) to Montreal 997
Montreal to Liverpool 2,790
----- 3,787
-----
Difference in favor of Montreal route 626
CHICAGO, BURLINGTON & NORTHERN RAILROAD.
The Chicago, Burlington & Northern Company constructed a road from
Chicago to Savannah, Illinois, and from that point up the Mississippi,
along its east bank to St. Paul, crossing the St. Croix at Prescott.
The road from Savannah to St. Paul is two hundred and eighty-five
miles in length, and was completed in 1886. The cost complete,
including rolling stock, was $30,000 per mile. The road was built on a
grade of nine and eight-tenths feet to the mile, and its curvature
nowhere exceeds three degrees in one hundred feet. The St. Croix,
Chippewa, Wisconsin, Platte, Grant, and Fever rivers are crossed by
iron bridges.
MILEAGE OF ROADS CENTRING IN ST. PAUL AND MINNEAPOLIS IN 1887.
MILES.
Manitoba 3,200
Northern Pacific 2,200
Hastings & Dakota 344
Pacific division of the Minneapolis & St. Louis 223
Minneapolis & Pacific 230
Omaha, Western division 627
Milwaukee, River division 100
Milwaukee, Iowa division 100
Minneapolis & St. Louis 100
Burlington & Northern 100
Northwestern, Omaha section 176
Minnesota & Northwestern (now Chicago, St. Paul & Kansas City) 200
Wisconsin Central 100
Soo Ste. Marie 210
North Wisconsin 250
St. Paul & Duluth 216
-----
Total 8,476
CONGRESSIONAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE ST. CROIX
RIVER.
As early as 1858, when the writer was a member of the Minnesota
senate, he introduced a memorial to Congress for the improvement of
the St. Croix river, and of the Mississippi at Beef Slough bar, below
Lake Pepin. This was the first memorial presented on this subject.
Subsequent legislatures continued to memorialize Congress, but it was
twenty years of continuous pleading before any attention was paid to
the subject. In 1878 Thaddeus C. Pound, representing the St. Croix
valley in Congress, secured the first appropriation. Mr. Pound also
secured the first appropriation for the Mississippi reservoirs.
The following appropriations were made from time to time: 1878,
$8,000; 1879, $10,000; 1880, $8,000; 1881, $10,000; 1882, $30,000;
1883, $7,500.
This money has been expended under the supervision of Maj. Farquier
and Charles J. Allen of the United States engineering corps, with
headquarters at St. Paul. The improvements carried out consisted in
removing snags and all impediments in the channel or along shore,
removing sandbars, thus deepening the channel, building wing dams, and
riprapping the shores. The work has been well done, and the
expenditure is a most judicious one.
INLAND NAVIGATION.
As the prosperity of a country depends, next to its natural resources,
upon the avenues of communication with other countries, the people of
the Northwest naturally took a great interest in the improvement of
their waterways. The states lying along the Mississippi and its
tributaries found by these streams an advantageous southern outlet for
their produce. But much needed to be done in the direction of
improving navigation by clearing away obstructions, deepening the
channels, and affording facilities for crossing rapids. As the
settlements extended toward the great lakes, it became evident that
the prosperity of the country would be greatly enhanced by
communication with the lakes. In the absence or scarcity of navigable
streams this communication, if obtained, must be by the improvement of
navigation of the upper portion of these streams having their source
near the lakes and their connection by canals with the lakes or their
tributaries. By this means it was thought a better route to the
Atlantic and to the Eastern States would be afforded for grain and
other products than that afforded by the Mississippi. In the Minnesota
state legislature of 1875 a bill was introduced making an
appropriation of $10,000 for a survey of the route connecting the
waters of Lake Superior with those of the St. Croix. This bill met
with much opposition, but was finally passed, the amount having been
reduced by amendment to $3,000. Lucas R. Stannard and Robert B. Davis
were appointed commissioners, and with the meagre amount did all that
was possible to be done in surveying the route. As the author of the
bill, I insert here, as a matter of history, and as a sufficient
explanation of my own views and those of the friends of the measure, a
synopsis of the arguments presented to the senate advocating the
measure:
"The route from Duluth via the lakes and St. Lawrence, and the
Atlantic to England, according to correct computation, is about six
hundred miles shorter than the route via Chicago and New York. The
northern route is being made feasible by the improvements made by the
British government on the Welland canal and Lachine rapids, and by the
improvements made by our own government on the St. Clair flats and the
Sault Ste. Marie canal, by which a depth of water is obtained
sufficient to float vessels drawing twenty feet. This route to Europe
will be traversed in much less time than the New York route. Vessels
will be constructed for this inland American trade, and starting from
the west end of Lake Superior with a cargo of grain that two weeks
before was waving in the sunlight on northwestern prairies, will pass
direct to Europe without breaking of bulk or reshipping, while the
southern route requires reshipments at Buffalo and New York. Figures
can scarcely do justice to the vast business that will be transacted
on this open route as the northern part of the United States and the
adjacent British possessions are settled.
"The opening of this route will tend to create new treaty stipulations
and unlooked for interpretations of the old with the Dominion
government, and establish commercial confidence and secure trade not
realized to-day. Cheap transportation is the demand of the age, and
this route will afford to the hundreds of millions of bushels of wheat
and the commerce of Central North America the desired outlet to the
best markets of the world. To many these ideas may seem chimerical,
but we believe that the progress of the country and the development of
her commerce in the not distant future will justify them, and that
predictions now regarded as fanciful will be fulfilled to the letter.
"Minnesota as a state is just in the age of development. She is rising
to power and influence. Much depends upon our legislature, more than
depended upon the legislature of New York when, actuated by good
counsels it connected the waters of the Hudson with those of Lake
Erie by the 'Clinton Ditch,' so called in derision by the enemies of
the measure. But the wisdom of Dewitt Clinton, the originator of that
famous waterway, advanced the settlement of the great West at least a
quarter of a century.
"Minnesota in her location holds the key that will unlock the largest