The Great Northern Railroad - 4

Under the sweltering summer sun of 1892, crews working on the Great Northern laid down the first tracks through the Wenatchee valley, near the mouth of Tumwater Canyon. In October of that year, the railroad company acquired a one-mile strip of land with 400-foot easements on the north side of the Wenatchee River. Hill intended to make this area another division point on the way to the Pacific Ocean.

His railway construction crews brought to Washington the promise of commerce and, when word spread that this would become the center of a new town, coal merchants and miners, who had previously set up their small communities on the south side of the river, migrated northwards. The roundhouse, switchyard, railway depot and division headquarters were constructed in rapid succession on the other side of a little hamlet which had become known Icicle Flats. The city of Leavenworth was soon to be born.

Despite of extreme difficulties in the terrain from Minnesota to the Pacific coast, despite the total lack of government assistance, James Hill never lost sight of his goals. He laboured for fifteen years without acceeding to federal patronage of any kind. Determined to win over public skepticism, dismissing the chorus of contempt from so many of his peers in industry, Hill never doubted the possibilities of successful economic development throughout the region.

By the close of 1892, with the completion of a tunnel through the Cascades, the Great Northern reached Puget Sound. Only seven miles remained to connect the Minnesota terminus with the gateway to the Pacific Ocean. On 6 January, 1893, high in the towering Cascade Mountains, just outside of Everett, Washington, the final spike was driven into the Great Northern Railroad. The second transcontinental railway which linked Washington Apple Country to the upper midwest had been consummated.

Because he fostered the creation of settlements and towns all along the Great Northern's route, James Hill effectively laid the foundations for economic production throughout the north and northwest which is extant to this very day. While those in charge of other railroads may have sanctioned the concept, not one of them committed the resources to populating their territorial routes as enthusiastically or as thoroughly as did the Empire Builder. Hill's Folly soon became Hill's Fortune.

back to first page