Old Missoula

Arrival of Long-Awaited Iron Horse In 1883 Starts New Era in Missoula

A long anticipated event, the coming of first train into Missoula, occurred in the autumn of 1883.

The rails reached Missoula on June 23, 1883, and the line was completed on Aug. 22. The first train or “Iron Horse” was hauled by a Northern Pacific wood-burning Standard.

Early in 1883, Mollie O’Keefe, daughter of Baron O’Keefe, anticipated the coming event in a letter. She foresaw an unending buzz of industry, closer contact with friends and relatives, and the availability of sweets, fruits and delicacies. She also prophesied a darker side – the accompaniment of “sin and wretchedness” which became evident in the railroad construction camps.

Beginning of Progress

Good or bad, the coming of the steam locomotive was responsible for the beginning of progress, not only in Missoula, but everywhere in the nation.

Building of the Northern Pacific Railway, “First of the Northern Transcontinentals,” gave Montana its first standard gauge railroad and its first effective year-around transportation link with the East and West. The line fulfilled the national need for expansion, for military protection of the frontier, and for a route to the western ocean along the trail blazed in 1805 by Lewis and Clark.

Begins in 1853

The actual beginning was a survey under the direction of Gov. Isaac Stevens of Washington territory in 1853. Steven’s expedition was sent out by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis. Important members of his party were Capt. C. P. Higgins and Frank L. Worden, founders of Missoula; and Lt. John Mullan, who was later to build the first wagon road across the mountains from Fort Benton to Walla Walla, Wash. This survey marked the real beginning of the Northern Pacific.

The Northern Pacific chartering act which authorized, aided and made mandatory the building of the road was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on July 2, 1864. Beginning in 1866 various Northern Pacific surveys working from east to west amplified the government survey made by Stevens.

Firm Is Convinced

One of these was made by W. Milnor Roberts and Gov. William R. Marshall for Jay Cooke & Co., Philadelphia bankers, in 1869. The survey, although incomplete because of Indian interference, convinced Jay Cooke & Co. that the project had great possibilities. They agreed to act as financial agents to obtain the funds for construction. As financial agent for the Union government raising funds to carry on the Civil War, Cooke astonished everyone by collecting $700,000,000 in 140 days. The first shovelful of earth was turned in Minnesota on Feb. 15, 1870.

Cooke & Co. went down in the crash in the panic of 1873 and nothing was done for five years. The project was on again in the winter of 1878-79, this time without the interference of hostile Indians.

Rail Race Begins

The rail race began from the west on Oct. 2, 1879. The crew from the east, first to set foot on Montana soil, reached the Dakota-Montana border on May 14, 1881. The track reached the Idaho-Montana line from the west on July 1, 1882.

As actual construction began in Montana, president of the Northern Pacific was Frederick Billings for whom the city of Billings is named. Duncan McDonald, son of Angus McDonald of Hudson’s Bay Co., received the contract to furnish ties and pilings.* E. L. Bonner provided the timbers for the Marent trestle between Arlee and DeSmet. Military escorts guarded the railroad builders and the timber crews.

*[Andrew Hammond of Missoula was given this contract, not Duncan McDonald]

Blasts Across Montana

Henry Villard who became Northern Pacific president on Sept. 15, 1881, completed the construction. With crude tools and dynamite, the roadbed was dug and blasted across Montana. In 1882, 3,600 were at work on the Yellowstone Division using 2,200 mules and other draft animals. In the spring of 1883, it was reported there were at work in Montana 8,000 railroad builders, mostly Chinese. This was believed a modest estimate.

Western Union Telegraph wires forged their way ahead of the railroad work and around 8 p.m. each day a report of the amount of track laid was reported.

Chief construction difficulties were encountered along the Yellowstone and in the Rockies on the Clark Fork Division. The great amount of rock removal on the Clark Fork Division far exceeded the expectations of the engineers. The division cost $6,925,359 to build instead of the estimated $3,527,035.

Mullan Tunnel Problem

Construction on the Rocky Mountain Division began at the Mullan tunnel Dec. 14, 1881. At the start of the tunnel the mountain appeared to be solid granite. The granite, however, extended only a few feet. The remainder was a soft treacherous rock with pockets of crystal formation and gravel which came down in showers upon the workers. The engineers appealed to Marcus Daly who brought 300 miners from Butte. The miners finished the tunnel, solving the problem by timbering it throughout.

Efforts Redoubled

By Aug, 1883 the track building crews from the east and west approached a meeting in the vicinity of Garrison. Construction efforts were redoubled. The last 50 miles of track were put down in fewer than 20 days. On the last day, 300 feet of track were laid and at 3 p.m. the first locomotive passed over the newly laid track from one side to the other. As the two construction gangs met they had built the last small stretch of track in the shape of an arc, leaving the straight roadbed for the completion ceremonies and the driving of the last spike.

Accounts Vary

Several accounts of the driving of the last spike describe it as being made of gold and driven by NP President Villard and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Another account described it as being a plain, iron railroad spike driven by H. C. Davis of St. Paul, who had driven the first spike on the NP in Minnesota.

A Western Union telegraph wire was attached to the sledge-hammer and another telegraph wire to the spike so that when the hammer contacted the spike the circuit was completed and a telegraphic click flashed from coast to coast. It was received in Portland, Buffalo, Boston and New York and recognized as one of the first great national “hookups” on record.

3,000 at Ceremony

The site of the great occasion was Gold Creek. Those who attended numbered 3,000 and among them were Judge F. H. Woody and Judge W. J. Stevens of Missoula.

Four special trains carried distinguished visitors from the East and a special train from Portland carried dignitaries from the West. With them they carried a jug of water from the Atlantic and a jug of water from the Pacific. The water was mixed during the ceremony symbolizing the marriage of the Atlantic with the Pacific by the new railroad.

Dignitaries Attend Ceremony

Dignitaries present included Gen. Grant, the union’s greatest Civil War hero and a former president of the United States; Henry M. Teller, then secretary of the interior; Atty. Gen. B. H. Brewster; William M. Evarts, a former secretary of state; James Hill, the “empire builder”; Capt. John Mullan, Frederick Billings, Henry Villard and several members of his family, including Oswald Garrison Villard, famous crusading editor of the Nation.

Also on hand that day were representatives of Germany, England, Austria, Hungary, Norway and Sweden; journalists including Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the New York World; Carl Schurz of the New York Evening Post; Joseph Medill of the Chicago Tribune, and more than 40 other representatives of the nation’s press. Chief Iron Bull of the Crow nation represented the Indian tribes. Others there included 10 United States senators; 26 congressmen and two former congressmen; nine governors of states and territories and four former governors; nine Army Generals and 25 leading railroad executives, judges and mayors.

With the last blow of the hammer, a cannon fired a salute to the newly completed line, a band struck up, the crowd cheered and bells were rung and a cannon was fired in St. Paul. The Northern Pacific was completed.