Here it is, the last day of March, 2014, and snow is falling sideways. All the schools in the area are
shut down. It seems like we had a similar storm last year about this
time. Green grass will sure look good again. The Missouri is open
and flowing. Whenever we cross the bridge we look down and see
fishing boats. Can't keep good men down, except maybe today.
…
A couple interesting websites showed
up recently which I think are legit. Just in case people have some
money forgotten here and there, you can check it out. Mary opened
them up and saw a few people we know. - MissingMoney.com and
Unclaimed.org.
…
A couple of weeks ago we traveled
south past Mary's birthplace and visited Duaine Voigt who lives on
the other side of the Cannonball River. He lives on The Anchor
Ranch, which is the one established by the subject of my recent book,
William Wade. It so happens Duaine has a story which I'm interested
in, too. In 1951, his family was displaced by construction of the
Garrison Dam and its promise of flooding over their property at
Elbowoods. They bought this ranch, and to get their herd of cattle
to the new place, they drove them overland for 10 1/2 days. I wanted
that story, and a good one it is. He sat for several hours giving us
all the details. It was an interesting period in state history what
with oil being discovered at Tioga that year also.
...
It doesn't matter which era you live
in, people had their troubles. The Mandan paper carried this bit
printed 125 years ago - “It is time something was done to the tramp
horses and cattle which rove about the streets of Mandan. It is an
everyday occurrence to see a lot of these animals feeding out of a
farmer's wagon which is standing in front of some store. Only a day
or two ago, a farmer bought two bushels of seed corn and left it in
his wagon long enough to get the mail. When he returned, the sack
had been torn open, and the corn was scattered in the street.”
* * *
Here's an article that has been
published recently in a couple weekly newspapers. (This state is
full of good stories.)
Looking
Back …
Laying Rails
by Lynn Bueling
The early development of North
Dakota can hardly be separated from the building of railroads.
Without them, it would have taken a long time to move past the open
range. Issues of my hometown newspaper published in 1885-86 indicate
the significance of the railroad in the early days of almost
anybody's town. “ The timbers for the new bridge across the Maple
River came last week. - Barbed wire is going off so fast that Karl
Rudd ordered his second carload this week. - P. Goodman shipped a
carload of fine hogs to Fargo yesterday, the first ever from Sheldon.
- We notice the McCormick machines still keep coming in by freight
and express. - Farmers are beginning to haul home their binding
twine. - Two more carloads of lumber for the North Star Elevator
arrived here yesterday. - Twenty cars of freight passed west
yesterday. - Train loads of emigrants and emigrant movables continue
to pass west. - K. Rudd received a carload of splendid looking brick
last Thursday.”
The crews building the railroads
were a tough lot. An occurrence in 1886, the “Battle of Fort
Hankinson,” catches the eye. Rails laid by different companies
needed to cross each other occasionally, and protocol dictated that
the first construction crew to reach a designated spot could keep
going. The crew that crossed later was tasked with building the
crossing and, thereafter, maintaining it. In some cases, crews raced
each other to be first, not in sportsmanlike fashion.
Near Hankinson, the Soo and
Great Northern workmen worked in fairly close proximity as they
neared the spot of crossing. Within earshot, they threw slurs and
derogatory comments at each other and tempers grew. The Soo workers
were a bit ahead, so some of the Great Northern crew resorted to
blocking their way with a stout barricade. Others rushed back to
Breckenridge for reinforcements and firearms, only to discover upon
returning that the Soo Line crew had worked all night and reached the
crossing and beyond. The Great Northern crew had to admit to defeat,
and tempers cooled.
During a trip to Winnipeg a few
years ago, we learned about the “Battle of Fort Whyte,” in 1888.
William Whyte managed the Canadian Pacific railway in those parts,
and when the Northern Pacific & Manitoba railway set about to
cross the CP heading north, Whyte protested and ordered his crews to
park a locomotive in their path. Fistfights and verbal threats
ensued, and it took the Supreme Court of Canada to settle it in favor
of the NP.
The Enderlin Diamond Jubilee
book of 1966 teases the reader with a brief statement about another
battle. After mentioning a bit about the Hankinson affair, it went
on to say that Soo Line old-timers spoke of “the even more violent
conflict at Minot.” More information about that episode has proven
elusive to this point, however.
Before statehood, Dakota
Territory saw two transcontinental railroads built within its
borders, the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern. The NP passed
through Fargo, stopped at Bismarck because of financial bankruptcy,
and finally passed through the Badlands in 1881. The financier Jay
Cooke enabled its construction to begin in the early years by
securing a grant of 40,000,000 acres of undeveloped land from the
federal government. Many, though, thought his railroad building was
ill-advised because he kept barging ahead into territory without a
population-base that could return immediate profits.
The Great Northern accomplished
its goal of building a line across the country a few years later, but
with a different manner of financing. James J. Hill, its president,
obtained private funding for his project. Historical sources
indicate his philosophy differed from the NP. Hill observed the NP's
progress straightway across country without establishing much in the
way of income from their efforts. Hill, as his mainline stretched
ever westward, promoted settlement and built feeder lines, ten
between Grand Forks and Williston, to the north and south to provide
freight business.
An interesting story developed
when the GN rails reached the soon-to-be city of Minot in 1886.
There, track layers had reached the edge of the Fort Berthold Indian
Reservation where federal officials informed him he could not cross.
Not to be stymied, this aggressive, self-confident man traveled to
Washington, DC and secured congressional legislation that permitted
his company to proceed.
During
his absence things were happening in Minot. According to Robinson's
History
of North Dakota,
a huge camp of 8,000 men and 3,300 teams gathered that winter waiting
to work as graders with another 650 men and 225 teams for laying
track and building bridges. As was typical of any of the Hell
on Wheels
towns that developed behind rail heads, a rowdy, undisciplined group
of people gathered to establish gambling, saloons, and women known as
“soiled doves.” These towns built primarily of canvas could
easily tear down and reconstruct themselves as the rail head crept
forward.
With the huge crew at work
surveying, grading, building trestles, laying ties, then rails,
Hill's men reached Great Falls the next October by averaging three
and a quarter miles per day. With his no-nonsense style of
leadership and record of accomplishments, it is little wonder that
Hill became known as the Empire Builder.
