The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, September 14, 1933, Page 9

V * > 10 VATE RANA A EEE PL uO LHL UAE RR -oNTUNHUTUR NEA 0G USUAL ALE -MTVCEADAAOOANL AAA AANA Cee ee TUL IMLLUL LULU LOUD. Le j IFTY years ago man completed his _ Struggle of thore than: a decade with . the .wild and desolate northwest, when he drove the last spike into-the rails of the: first’ northen transcontinental ‘railway. Fifty years have passed and now large and important cities have arisen along the line where once the Crow, the Sioux and the Blackfoot roamed, where only the hardiest of white pio- neers dared traverse and where many lives were lost in civilization’s westward expansion. September 8, 1683, is the day that opened “up the vast untamed territory lying between the Great Lakes and the Pacific coast. On that day, Henry Villard, father of the famous lib- eral journalist, Oswald Garrison Villard, drove home the last spike on the great- railroad that helped bring people and industry to the ttorth- west. ‘i Even: before the Civil War, eastern finzn- ciers had dreamed of the possibjlities of this great northwestern empire.” But it was not until 1864 that President Lincoln signed the con- gressional charter authorizing the construction of the railroad that later became the: Northern Pacific. _ And actual work on this great proj- ect had to wait six more years, when the first shovelfuls- of earth were turned at Thompson, now Carlton, Minn., near Lake Superior. HE country thatis now Minnesota, the Dakotas, “Montana, Wyoming, Utah, ‘Washington and Oregon was. almost unknown to the white man at that time. In 1870 not a town exited between the Red River of the north and what is now Bozeman, Mont., a dis- tance of 781 miles. Central Montana was en- tirely waste, so far as white civilization was concerned. The site of Biimarck,-N.<D., wae a shimmering expanse of prairie. Tacoma, the proposed~ Pacific ed ate the Northern Pacific, had practically no popu- lation to speak of in 1870. Duluth, the first eastern terminal, was a settlement of 300. Spo- kane, including its surrounding three counties, had 350, and the total white population of northern Idaho approximated 500. Only Seattle could be considered of fair size. Its _ Population, then, was 2000.’ Bitter cold winters faced the railroad build- ers. Savage Indians threatened them. Desolate prairies stretched for miles on all sides. And finally the formidable Rockies stood as an al- + 2 :meet impassable-barriet to.their progress. _ But with the aid of government troops, with the persistence ‘of staunch leaders, ‘the’ aimy’ of > surveyors, «graders, tracklayers, -sqrapermen, mules, cooks and camp. followers dogged their "wage to the western dope of the Rockies, where > another -gang of ‘railroad builders coming east from the Pacific met them. The final. meeting place was at Gold Creek, in the Hellgate Can- yon of Montana. ‘Tike first three years of this westward strug- gle seemed fairly Brainerd, Minn., was reached late.in 18 and the ‘Red River the - fallen gene: ‘The work continued almost un- across the Dakota’ prairies until, in 1873, the tracklayers: arrived’ at Bismarck, Nan. a hgh. i sencacing. toe i souri river, / _ Beets was a pean town a rs ~ Empire of Bismarck was bn prepared for the ad- vance. Chief Red Cloud of the Sioux, most war- like of the Montana tribes, -had said that no railroad should be laid across his. country. He had wrested that land from the Crows and he now dominated the region of the Yellowstone in Montana. When a Northern Pacific surveying party with a force of 1500 men and an abundance of ammunition and supplies appeared on the Yellowstone in July of 1873; he was there to resist them. The expedition was commanded by Gen. D. S. Stanley, the 7th Cavalry feats being under the famous Gen. G. Custer. Part of the expedition remained eden 13 miles above the mouth of Glendive Creek, while the rest, with Custer and his cavalry in the van, moved up the river. The advance forces arrived at the Tongue river without being molested. Soon after, they were attacked and Custer was: rescued from a perilous position by the main body. * IHE Indians moved up the Yellowstone and Custer followed with 450 cavalry. When ‘* redskins crossed the river on rafts, he couldn’t follow them because of the fast flow- ing current, #0 he abandoged the pursuit. That night, however, the Sioux discovered Custer’s camp and opened fire across the river. “Three hundred of the warriors crossed the river Ole. Ae forthern Pacific. hides was built | there. ss patel Meneses The cavalry dis mounted and drove. them back eight miles. Meanwhile, ‘the ‘main’ colimn had come’ up: and opened fire with its artillery on the Indians across the river. The Sioux were dispersed— -and another step was made in opéning the orth west territory. H Thus was nearly every | wile of the, Northern : ‘Pacific along the Yellowstone contested by _ Sioux, Crow and. Blackfoot. . But the railroad .. moved on. 2 In the winter of 1878-1879, a track: wa: laid across the Missouri river ice’ between Bis- marck and Mandan, N. D. and the line con- tinued westward. Hos otograph above represents the hardships encountered in building he hy. It was taken in 1880 near the jsirolostv per Pk on At right, ferrying a train across the eB Reais Be uct NULLA Ana Nd of the five special trains which At representatives from all parts the world to inaugurate’ the trans- Nanaet service at Gold Creek. Missouri, before a ’ : T° anrie rigors. ‘ coe small parties sel t out. for Mandan ahead of the main . caimps—but never réached their destination. Some of the frozen bodies were discovered the following spring when the main body came up. Only during the’ warm months could the tracklayers advance...” Finally, in. December . of. 1881, the builders ‘reachedi Miles City, one of the toughest settle- .inents in the entire pioneer west. Here was a “town, wild, wooly and hard to curry, a man- made town fit for the soldier and frontiersman. ~ Miles City developed into a trading post and horse market for cavalgy mounts, and became ‘W supply Point for an extensive region. "Copyright, 1988, by Every Week Magazine—Printed in U. B.A.) ’ rT nc “OUPTTTFETTAT ETT TTT FTLFTTOREETT ATTEN With the passing of the winter of 1881, construction up the Yellowstone was accel- erated. Steamboats brought supplies up to Coulson, the “highest ever reached by river craft. Coulson had been settled even before the right-of-way men had left Bismarck. pectations were based upon the railway which would have to cross the Yellowstone at this spot. A sawmill was erected to supply logs for the buildings and lumber we 4 streets. A tough element swarmed in and for a while Coulson’s saloons, dance hall, stores, its one poor restaurant and worse hotel did a thriving business. Ths esd Gee ed aks ck miles farther to what is now Billings, and Coul-, on gave up the ghost. Billings itself was no nesting place for doves. It was a wooden town of loose: morals and went even ‘Coulson. one better. Today, Billings is one of the most ad- vanced cities of the northwest. Ao the ‘eérly celebrities who honored Its ex- - THUNDERING — NortHwest Just 50 years ago the last spike was driven to complete one of America’s most colorful and dramatic exploits---the building of the first northern transcontinental railroad Bismarck, Miles City, bul- lings, many other towns in the path of the railroad were tough, man-made settlements where the saloons, dance halls and gambling resorts did a thriving business. in an Indian encounter, hailed from Carroll on the upper Missouri, a rendezvous for the wolfer, buffalo hunter, Indian fighter and whisky tanger. Its score of Indian skulls on as many posts indicated the temper of its inhabitants— rough, courageous pioneers. Through this type of civilization in the raw went the Northern Pacific railroad. It followed the Yellowstone to Livingston, west of which rose the Belt or Bridger range. Here was the railroad’s first mountain barrier. A tunnel, 6310 feet long, was cut, and on March 12, 1683, the first train arrived at Bozeman, Mont. In June the railroad was completed to Helena, the camp in Last Chance Gulch which yielded old John Cowan and his men $16,000,- 000, now a city which still is essentially western in spirit. 1 Twenty miles west of Helena was Mullan Pass, presenting six miles of heavy grades over the backbone of the Rockies. Tracks had to be built for switchbacks, for the tunnel was not bored Greek in Hellgate Canyon. — Great was the celebration at this point, on September 8, 1883, when Henry Villard, thea ~tILVUUIU A OA NN ~VMOUEAGANEDOLOUUANUUOGTEAM EOC AUAOUOGERNEONOCUU OAH nnnGtO = = = = = a = = *VOCULUATOOUOAOGAAVEU ALA ALU A Un é % Sy MOU OEUDEEDOUGEOUE aUasenatulsHinUaQuteqeNdntacttdtttn-