USA > Minnesota > Illustrated album of biography of the famous valley of the Red River of the North and the park regions of Minnesota and North Dakota : containing biographical sketches of settlers and representative citizens > Part 110
USA > North Dakota > Illustrated album of biography of the famous valley of the Red River of the North and the park regions of Minnesota and North Dakota : containing biographical sketches of settlers and representative citizens > Part 110
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now lives and through the woods to the north side of Lake Flora, on which Lake Park is now located. Here they stopped for lunch. They were particularly pleased with the surrounding scenery, and all thought that this was the most beautiful country they had ever seen. Mr. Martin Olson had just got here a few days before in a "prairie schooner" with his family and took up a claim on Lake La Belle, where he still resides. The party encamped that night on the high ground beyond Muskoda, in full view of the Red River Valley. Next morning, while the most of the party moved on toward the Red river, Mr. Canfield took four or five of the directors across the Buffalo and went on to where Moorhead and Fargo now are, to show them the place he had selected for these towns and the crossing of the Red river, and in the afternoon went down the river, join- ing the rest of the party at George- town, the Hudson Bay post, the only settle- ment in that part of the country. The next day-Sunday-was spent at Georgetown, on the Dakota side of the river, where religious services were held. There being no clergy- man with the party, Dr. Samuel W. Thayer, of Burlington, Vermont, the medical director of the company, read the services of the Episcopal church, assisted by Mr. Canfield, in which all the party joined heartily, and especially in the psalms and hymns ; con- spicuous in their strong voices were Vice- President Colfax, Messrs. Ogden, Billings and Nettleton. The party consisted of Gov- ernor Smith, of Vermont, president of the Northern Pacific Railroad; Frederick Billings, of Woodstock, Vermont ; W. B. Ogden, of Chicago; A. H. Barney, of New York; Richard D. Rice, of Maine; William Windom, of Minnesota, and Thomas H. Canfield, all directors ; Dr. S. W. Thayer, Hon. Schuyler Colfax, Gen. A. B. Nettle- ton and George B. Wright, of Minneapolis ; Carleton Coffin, of Boston; Mr. Linsley,
assistant engineer of the road; Thomas C. Hawley, now of Lake Park; Mrs. Rice, Mrs. Coffin, Mrs. Governor Morris, of New York, and two daughters, and Miss Audubon, grand-daughter of the great ornithologist, after whom the town of Audubon is named, and J. Young Scammon, of Chicago. On Monday the party went into Dakota some twenty miles, and then striking south came across to Fort Abercrombie and thence back to St. Paul via Pomme de Terre, Alexandria, Sauk Centre and St. Cloud. Mr. Canfield left the party at McCauley ville, and came back across the country on horse- back alone, with some provisions in his pocket, to examine more fully the proper places for towns and to look out a line from the Buffalo river. for the railroad to the height of land at Lake Park.
In May, 1872, before the railroad track had reached the Red river, while there was but one white inhabitant west of it, he crossed the plains with his horse and buggy, accompanied by General Thomas L. Rosser, Mr. Bly and others, carrying their own pro- visions from Moorhead, 200 miles to the Missouri, while it was yet Indian Territory, and located Fargo and laid out and located Valley City, Jamestown and Bismarck, and determined the point for the crossing of the Missouri by the railroad, where the long iron bridge now is. Great care had to be taken in the selection of sites for the various towns, so as to accommodate the surrounding country after it should be settled up, but especial care was important that the title to the land should be perfect. Innumerable were the difficulties that appeared in this respect-all sorts of questions arose suddenly, various and unexpected claimants turned up, which required much patience and a knowledge of the land laws to overcome. Great difficulties were experienced with those towns west of the Red river, because the lands were unsurveyed, and especially because the panic
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of 1873 came on before the railroad was built in Dakota, which caused a suspension of the work for two years, during which time the various points had to be kept pos- session of, at an enormous expense, by agents residing there the year around in log huts, the provisions for whose maintenance the whole year had to be transported across the country in summer, as no one would ven- ture to make such a journey in winter. The original log house at Jamestown, which Merritt Wiseman, agent of the company, occupied as a post for two years is still standing, as well as some of those occupied by the employes of the company at Bis- marck.
Notwithstanding all the various claims made by different parties, whether under the homestead, pre-emption or town-site laws, or whether upon the surveyed or unsurveyed lands, the whole was so thoroughly examined and cleared up that there has never been a flaw found in the title to any of the lands or lots in these various locations, where now are flourishing villages and cities, and the deed or contract of the Lake Superior & Puget Sound Company is regarded as safe as a Government patent.
In November, 1871, he crossed the desert 500 miles from Ogden on the Union Pacific Railroad, when there were very few settlers in that country, to Snake river near Sho- shone falls; thence to Boise City, Idaho, and to Baker City, eastern Oregon, via the Burnt creek crossing of the Snake river, near where the Oregon Short Line Railroad now crosses; thence across the Blue mount- ains to Umatilla, on the Columbia river, and thence by steamer to Portland, Ore- gon, meeting there Mr. Rice, the vice- president of the company, who had pre- ceded lıim via San Francisco and an ocean steamer, and with whom he was a committee of the board to arrange for com- mencing the construction of the road from
Columbia river to Puget sound. The alkali dust of the plains, so light that it rises like a cloud and covers everything the first mile traveled, which fills the hair and clothes, penetrates the eyes, ears, nose, mouth and throat, constantly irritating them and pro- ducing soreness; the scarcity of water and provisions, and the rough trails and difficult crossings of streams; the rather familiar attention of wild animals, with their raven- ous demands upon him and his teamster, his only escort most of the way, made this trip across the country the hardest by far he ever experienced.
While on the coast, this time he ex- plored Puget sound for the second time, accompanied by Mr. Rice and some engi- neers, and also went up the Columbia river as far as the Cascade rapids.
While it always had been the intention and policy of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company to use the navigable waters of the lakes and rivers across the continent in the first instance and connecting the portages by railroad, in order to get a communication through the whole route as soon as possible, which would at first make the Columbia river route available and Portland the ter- minus of the branch line, and the commer- cial center of Oregon, yet Mr. Canfield always insisted that sooner or later the interest of the railroad would demand the construction of the short line across the Cascade mountains to Puget sound. How- ever much the views of the directors of that day may have been modified in favor of Portland as a final terminus in consequence of the obstacles presented by the Cascade range, he never subscribed to their views, but took the ground that the future great commercial city on the Pacific coast would be on the waters of Puget Sound, where it could be approached with ease through the Straits of Fuca by the largest vessels from all parts of the world, without being sub-
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RED RIVER VALLEY AND
jected to delays, damage and shipwreck by the bars which necessarily are formed at the mouths of the great rivers. Accordingly, lie secured large tracts of land at various points on the sound from Olympia to Bell- ingham bay, and had a thorough examina- tion made of all the bays and harbors, as well as of the country contiguous, as to the practicability of approach by a railroad, and the supply of fresh water for a city with reference to selecting a site for the future terminus of the Northern Pacific Rail- road.
At Tacoma he purchased a large tract, believing it would be the point on the sound where a railroad from the south would first touch it, and connect it with the Willamette valley and all the immense productive coun- try west of the Cascade mountains for hun- dreds of miles to California and beyond by branches to Utah and Nevada, at the same time being located, as it were, in front of the Cowlitz, Natchez, Stampede and Snoqual- mie passes of the Cascade range, one of which he believed the railroad would, sooner or later, adopt as its crossing, as it would be the easiest point of access for the main line from the east, forming a junction at Tacoma with the lines from Oregon, California, Utah and Nevada from the south, even if in the future it should be deemed expedient by the company to continue the line down the sound to some point nearer to the entrance of the Straits of Fuca as the final terminus. The wisdom of this selection has since been demonstrated by the construction of a rail- road from California to Tacoma, and by the extension of the main line from Lake Supe- rior across the Cascade mountains through the Stampede pass to the same place, which although at the time of his purchase was a wilderness, is now a city of 20,000 people, at whose wharf float vessels from all parts of the world, exchanging the products of China, Japan and the Central and South American
States for those of Washington and Montana, Dakota and the Eastern States.
Thus, through the agency of Mr. Canfield, the Northern Pacific Railroad Company has been enabled to secure a large tract of land on the Mediterranean of the Pacific, giving it ample facilities for its terminus, shops, buildings, side tracks, wharves and ware- houses, approachable without difficulty by the largest vessels in the world, as well as enabling it to lay out a city upon a plan and scale which shall adequately provide for all the wants and comforts of future genera- tions, and which shall be a fitting counter- part to one to be built at its eastern terminus on Lake Superior, at the mouth of the waters of the St. Louis river, where Duluth and Superior now are, and which shall be the great center of business of that empire of the Northwest now being so rapidly devel- oped, and second only to Chicago in popula- tion and commercial importance on the great chain of lakes.
In the words of the late first engineer of the company, Mr. Johnson, "It should be the ambition of all who are instrumental in its growth to render it the queen city of the Pacific coast, the model city of the world. No unfriendly elements should be allowed to mingle in or. mar its fair proportions. It should be in all respects a fitting exponent of the benign and elevating influence of our free institutions, and should occupy the very foremost place among the great cities of Christendom, reflecting upon the isles of the Pacific and the shores of Asia, over which it is destined to exert a vast influence, the light of the most improved civilization."
At this time, also, Mr. Canfield located Tenino, Newaukem, Olequa and Kalama on the line between Tacoma and Portland. Kalama was selected because it was at the head of high water navigation of the Colum- bia river, at the same time being near Coffin
1
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PARK REGIONS OF MINNESOTA,
Rock, which was one of the few places where the Columbia river could be bridged. Kalama was the place on the Pacific coast where the Northern Pacific Railroad laid its first rail, and which was its headquarters for several years on that coast.
It was while here Mr. Canfield foresaw the importance which the Oregon Navigation Company might be to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, especially during the progress of construction and until the com- pany should build their Portland branch. This was a company owning twenty steamers, navigating from the ocean at Astoria, the waters of the Columbia, Willamette and Snake rivers and Pend d'Oreille lake for thousands of miles into Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana Territories. It was principally owned by Messrs. Ainsworth, Thompson and Reed, of Portland, and Alvinza Hayward, of San Francisco, and had been built up from one small boat, each run by Capts. Ainsworth and Thompson, and one of the best and most systematically man- aged companies in this country. Upon their showing to Mr. Canfield a full statement of their business from the beginning, he com- menced negotiations with them for the whole property, which finally resulted in Messrs. Ainsworth and Thompson meeting Mr. Canfield and Mr. Jay Cooke at the latter's residence, Ogontz, near Philadelphia, in the following winter, and the sale was consum- mated, the Northern Pacific Railroad Com- pany buying three-quarters of the stock of the Oregon Navigation Company, and the original parties retaining one-quarter and agreeing to manage the property the same as they had done so long as the Northern Pacific Railroad desired. But unfortunately the control of the Oregon Navigation Com- pany was lost in the panic of 1873. Subse- quent events connected with the Oregon and Transcontinental Company have shown how important to the Northern Pacific was the
Oregon Navigation Company, justifying the views originally entertained by Mr. Canfield of the importance of the Northern Pacific Company owning and controlling it.
In 1872 Mr. Canfield escorted a majority of the board of directors of the Northern Pacific Railroad to Oregon and Washington Territory, going via the Union Pacific Rail- road in a special car to Sacramento, thence overland by stage and rail to Portland and Puget Sound. Messrs. Cass, Ogden, Wright, Billings, Stinson and Windom, directors ; Samuel Wilkeson, secretary of the company ; Milnor Roberts, engineer; Dr. Thayer and Colonel W. S. King, of Minnesota, compos- ing the party. This was the first time these gentlemen had visited the Pacific coast, and, as what they then saw would probably determine many important matters about the future of the company's affairs, especially the crossing of the Cascade range and the terminus, Mr. Canfield chartered a steamer and visited by daylight all the principal places on the sound from Olympia to Victo- ria and Bellingham bay, returning through Deception pass, back of Whidby island, into Holmes' harbor, the best harbor on the sound, thence to Seattle, then a place of 3,000 people, on Elliott bay ; then to Commencement bay, which was then surrounded by a wilderness, but it was subsequently settled upon as the terminus -being where Tacoma is now located. At that early day, with nearly 2,000 miles between Puget Sound and Lake Superior to be traversed by an iron rail, much of which was then unsurveyed or even explored, except by Mr. Canfield's expedition in 1869, the idea of crossing so high a range of mount- ains as the Cascades was not regarded by the directors as an easy matter, especially by those accustomed to building roads across the prairies; but Mr. Canfield took the ground that an enterprise of this magnitude would sooner or later demand the crossing
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RED RIVER VALLEY AND
of the mountains, and, although some who were present might not live to see that day, yet he predicted the demands of trade and commerce would be so great, that before 1890 trains would run from St. Paul and Duluth to the waters of Puget sound without breaking bulk across the Cas- cade mountains, which prediction has been fulfilled three years in advance of the time named by him.
Twenty-three years ago Mr. Canfield visited the Island of Cape Breton, the last of December, and made an examination of Louisburg harbor, the best harbor on the Atlantic coast from Cape North to Cape Sable, with reference to the facilities for a shipping port, and he came to the conclu- sion then and still firmly believes it will become the terminus of the northern chain of railroads across the continent, being only four days from Liverpool, with abundance of coal within ten miles. That the tea of China and Japan, and the spices of the Indies destined for Europe will go on board the cars at Tacoma, and not be transferred until put on board of steamers for Liverpool at Louisburg. It was one of the three-walled towns built on this continent although now entirely deserted, having been destroyed in 1760 during the French and English wars. It was once a city of 10,000 people and it was there that General Wolfe fitted out his expedition against Quebec. In fact, since Mr. Canfield was there the railroads have been extended from Montreal to within 100 miles of Louisburg, and a car of freight can now be shipped from Tacoma to the Straits of Canso, in Cape Breton, without breaking bulk, and it can not be long before this last 100 miles will be constructed. Then, with a train of Pullman Palace Sleeping and Dining cars standing on the wharf at Louisburg upon the arrival of a steamer from Europe with a load of sea-sick passengers on board, it will
require no great stretch of imagination to determine how many will remain on board to make the rough passage along the coast when they can step on board the vestibule train, retire and be in Boston the next day to dinner and New York to supper.
The result of Mr. Canfield's experience is, he has traveled over nearly all the country between Lake Superior and the Pacific ocean via the northern route, on foot, or horseback, or muleback, in carts or wagons, long before the iron horse was heard in the land, and consequently has become familiar with the general topography and character of the country, and entertains the most sanguine views as to its great capacity in the future.
Few men comprehended so fully at an early day, even when St. Paul and Minneapolis were in their infancy, the great capability of this immense country-the fertility and extent of the Red River Valley, equal to that of the Nile-the abundant resources of vari- ous kinds awaiting future development be- tween Lake Superior and Puget Sound- their capacity for easy and rapid develop- ment, such as no other country has ever before shown, which, combined with the facili- ties offered by the Northern Pacific and Manitoba, and other railroads yet to be built, to hasten settlements and accommodate the people, will create a great Northwestern empire, which will not only add incalculable wealth to the nation, but will form an important factor in its future government.
Amid all the ups and downs of the times -amid all panics and financial storms - notwithstanding all the discouragements of the early days of the Northern Pacific and the hostility of congress to itsapplications - Mr. Canfield has always maintained the same abiding faith in this magnificent undertak- ing and the same confidence in its ultimate success, and he still believes it will become the great transcontinental highway across the continent to Europe, not only for the
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PARK REGIONS OF MINNESOTA.
products of the farm, forest and mines along its border, but for the products of Japan, China and the Indies.
Mr. Canfield continued as president of the Lake Superior & Puget Sound Company and a director of the Northern Pacific Rail- road until the bankruptcy of the company in 1873, when, upon its reorganization, it became the principal owner of the Lake Superior & Puget Sound Company, and no necessity existed longer for an active manager. Mr. Canfield resigned after having devoted over twenty years of the prime of his life to inaug- urate and put into operation this magnifi- cent enterprise, with which his name must be forever identified as its most active organ- izer and promoter in its dark days, when very few had the faintest idea it would ever amount to anything.
It is a little remarkable that during all these many years, amid all the various modes of transportation, and in so many different places where there were no roads or other conveniences, he has never met with any accident nor has he ever carried any fire- arms of any description for a single rod ; has never had any serious trouble with the Indians or "roughs " of the frontier, although meeting them at times under not very agree- able circumstances, where, but for his quick perception, good judgment of human nature and discreet action, serious results might have occurred.
The board of directors of the Northern Pacific Railroad decided at an early day as soon as construction commenced not to become personally interested in any lands or property on the line of the proposed route; but the difficulty of getting emigrants to go into an unknown country with all their worldly effects, uncertain as to what the land would produce, compelled the directors to modify their policy to a certain extent, and to adopt one which Mr. Canfield had frequently laid before them, namely, that in order to demon-
strate to the world the great fertility of the soil and its adaptability to farming, they should at distances of, say thirty miles apart, take up a section of land along the line in advance of settlements; break it up and sow it to wheat, and thus show by facts, instead of talk and advertisements on paper, what actually could be done. As he was the advocate of this policy, of course, it fell upon him to lead off, and he accordingly purchased about 5,500 acres in the Park Region of Minnesota, at Lake Park, at the point where the outer rim of the Red River basin connects with the timber region. Other directors, Mr. Tower took 3,000 acres at Glyndon, and Messrs. Cheney and Cass 6,000 acres at Casselton, Dakota, which has since become celebrated as the Dalrymple farm, being managed by Oliver Dalrymple, one of the oldest wheat raisers in the Northwest. All these were at once put under cultivation, and the enormous crops of No. 1 hard wheat the first year gave an impetus to enmigration and settlement; thus the great farms which have been so much abused did more to advertise and develop the country and bring in emigrants and settle it up than $100,000 expended in advertising. Nowhere in the history of the world has such a rapid and extensive development been made as in northwestern Minnesota and Dakota, over 40,000,000 bushels of wheat having been raised this last year, besides all other crops, and that, too, mostly upon what was Indian territory in 1870, and where there was then no white inhabitant.
Mr. Canfield, since his retirement from the railroad company, has devoted more or less of his time to his farm at Lake Park, and has taken the ground that to make a farming country prosperous and successful, it should not be confined to one single crop, like wheat, but all crops adapted to the soil and climate should be raised ; and he has endeavored to show what can be done by diversified farming.
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RED RIVER VALLEY AND
The beauties and advantages of the Lake Park Region, as well as the efforts of Mr. Canfield in demonstrating the advantages and importance of diversified farming, are strikingly described by an eminent writer and traveler, on his return across the continent a few years since, after having visited most parts of the United States. He says :
" That vast forest, the admiration of wood- men and the wonder of travelers, bordering on Lake Superior, as it proceeds westward, stoutly contests the earth's surface with open space and limpid lake. Gradually, however, the forest weakens, until here, thirty miles from the Red river, at about the highest northern point of the Northern Pacific Rail- road, between Miles City and Duluth, it loses its hold, for westward are the un- bounded unwooded prairies, always to be artificially watered, with exceptional cases, while surrounding and eastward is perhaps the most placidly beautiful country the eye ever rested upon.
"This connecting link contains the last lakes-if Devil lake be excepted-of size, and the last woods or forests for many hundred miles, and as such is not inaptly termed the Park Region, although hereabouts the Lake Park Region, from the name of this town, and is consequently about the only and near- est resort for the Dakotian of the plain for change of scenery, recreation and pleasure. The Park Region, taking this town as the objective point, extends sixty miles south to Fergus Falls, thirty north, is in width nearly thirty miles, while its altitude goes over 1,300 feet. It is unlike Dakota or Montana, for it is neither flat nor mountainous, but undulating, as the ocean, interspersed with lakes, groves, and an open, magnificent agri- cultural country. Within twenty rods of the depot is Lake Flora, a half mile wide, embowered with forest trees, and a half mile farther on is Lake La Belle, over two miles long, and well known for its pure waters and
beautiful surroundings. Still in the same direction are other lakes, interspersed with farms, and vying in their admirable features. In Minnesota, according to the statistics of the land office, are over 10,000 lakes, and within fifty miles of Lake Park are 200 of these ; Lake Cormorant, in a direct line south a few miles, is the most westerly lake of size in Minnesota, easily accessible, has a gravely beach of 100 miles, surrounded by wooded hills on three sides, variegated with forest-covered islands, abounding in fish and game, and capable of steamboat navigation. It must become the great summer resort in the future, and divide the honors with Lake Minnetonka, especially for the citizens of Dakota. This Lake Cormorant in particular, and this Lake Park region in general, are the hunter's and fisherman's paradise, for on these hills are found game of various kinds, and in these lakes the finest-fiber fish, only waiting the angler's skillful hook.
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