‘525 Busy Men Finish Railroad’ – 1883 – Missoulians Mrs. Dora Hauck, Sutton Draper, and James P. Lee were there
525 busy men finish railroad through Missoula – 1883 – Missoulians Mrs. Dora Hauck, Sutton Draper, and James P. Lee were witnesses
Missoula (M. T.), July 16 – At the railroad front this morning 400 whites and 125 Chinese were laying track. The road is finished seven miles from here, save on the second crossing of the Missoula river, where a temporary bridge will be completed tomorrow. It is expected that the Big Blackfoot river will be crossed some time this week, beyond which the bridging is finished for twenty-eight miles. After the Blackfoot is crossed two and a half miles of track per day will be laid, and the junction will be made September 1st, or within a day or two after, at the mouth of the Little Blackfoot river, where the Utah and Northern road intersects the Northern Pacific.
The above article appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on July 17, 1883.
A Daily Missoulian article in 1933 paid homage to a few Missoula folks who saw the completion of the N. P. line at Gold Creek in 1883:
Anniversary of Northern Pacific
Driving of Gold Spike 50 Years Ago Today Marked Road’s Completion.
Today will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the completion of the Northern Pacific, pioneer of the Northwest transcontinental railroads.
September 8, 1883, the gold spike was driven at Gold creek, 61 miles east of Missoula. The newly-completed railroad was the avenue through which the Northwest was linked with the East. Construction crews, working from the east and the Pacific coast, met at Gold Creek and the gold spike ceremony of 50 years ago was held there.
Today will be just another day for the railroad. No special ceremonies will mark the anniversary. Earlier in the year plans had been launched to commemorate the occasion in various ways, but due to economic conditions the plans were abandoned.
Remember Occasion.
A Missoula grandmother, who, as a girl, saw the golden spike driven at Gold Creek 50 years ago today, will once more see that spot, on an excursion with members of her family along the Northern Pacific lines east of here. She is Mrs. Dora C. Hauck, the first white child born in Beartown, mining community of early Western Montana days, and she well remembers that September day of 1883, when, with her parents, she came from Philipsburg to see the special trains pull into Gold Creek and viewed the ceremony of the driving of the golden spike making possible transcontinental train service on the system, the first through the Northwest and the first through Missoula. Mrs. Hauck moved with her parents from Beartown to Philipsburg at the time of the Nezperce Indian raid and for many years lived at Philipsburg, coming to Missoula some years ago.
Sutton H. Draper[1], retired master mechanic of the Northern Pacific, is another veteran who saw the driving of the golden spike, being at the throttle of an engine pulling one of the special trains to Gold Creek. Mr. Draper worked as an engineer for many years, then became mechanic and retired five years ago.
Another veteran, James P. Lee, the foreman in charge of the crew that had the honor of placing the last rails to makeconnection and driving the final spikes at Gold Creek, was buried this week.
He died at the age of 89, after having made his home at 639 South Sixth street, West, here for years.
Gold Creek is 61 miles east of Missoula and its mining days are reported coming back, along with the fiftieth anniversary of the driving of the spike as East and West met there again.
The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on September 8, 1933.
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[1] Mr. Draper died at age 85 in Missoula in 1944. He was injured on a train carrying Coxey’s army in 1894, when it was in a cave-in accident near Helena. He said the winter of 1883-84 was the most severe of his career.