Minnesota; Its Character and Climate Part 10

Duluth will in time possess a completely landlocked harbor, and indeed has it already, but not at present as accessible as it will soon be made to the commerce seeking her wharves. The work of cutting a ship channel across the shoulder of the sand-bar before referred to is in progress, the distance being but a few hundred feet of loose earth, which, when completed, will open communication to an immense bay, where all the commerce of the lakes might ride at anchor in perfect safety, were some slight dredging done to increase the present depth of water. This bay is now reached by a circuit of half-dozen miles around the end of this sand-bar, known as Minnesota Point. The Bay of Duluth must eventually, we think, be the great harbor, though a breakwater is in course of construction, which, when completed and made permanent, will give ample shelter to all immediate necessities. Costly wharves have been constructed on the lake side of the Point, and there vessels load and unload almost constantly.

Since it is the established policy of the government to improve the rivers and harbors of the country, surely the small needs of this place ought not to be overlooked. While private enterprise can and does do much, yet it is a sound theory for the general government, which derives its revenues from the people, to aid them in removing or building such obstructions or guards as the merits of the case and the public interest-demand.

Already the trade and commerce of the town employs about a dozen steamships, and numerous sailing vessels are also kept in motion, transporting supplies for the great railway enterprise which has its eastern base at this point.

There are three lines of propellers plying between this port and Buffalo, Cleveland, and Detroit, each employing three ships, while there is an additional line to and from Chicago. They together average four arrivals weekly. The trip from Buffalo is performed in little less than a week, that being the most distant of the respective places. These steamers have accommodations for over half a hundred cabin pa.s.sengers, as a rule, and both invalids and pleasure travellers will find this, in every respect, the most interesting and comfortable means of access to Minnesota during the summer season. Formerly many availed themselves of such facilities as there then was to make, during the summer, the grand tour of the lakes, but were obliged to return by the route they came.

Now, however, the tourist is not compelled to turn back from the head of Lake Superior, as in former days, since the completion of the railway from Duluth to St. Paul, connecting the head of the great lakes with the navigable head of the great river, permits a sweep of travel through the interior of the continent such as is not enjoyed elsewhere on the globe, either in distance, interest, or variety. Each year must give added fame to this route.

Duluth is at the extreme western limit of all the great lakes of the interior, and must eventually become the commercial centre for the Northwest. It is already reaching out its arms to grasp the trade and commerce of that region, which, once in its control, must ever remain tributary to it. The Lake Superior and Mississippi Railway--one hundred and fifty-four miles in length--above referred to, inaugurates a new era in the agricultural interests of the State, and opens an entirely new line of travel. By means of this road the products of Central and Southern Minnesota are placed three hundred miles nearer lake transportation eastward than heretofore, since the distance to Chicago--the present point of destination for these things--by rail is that much greater. This new outlet connects at St. Paul with all of the interior lines of railroad in the State, likewise with the navigation of the Mississippi, and on the completion of the St. Paul and Sioux City Road, will drain one of the most fertile valleys, in wealth of exports, to be found in any portion of the West.

The great staple of all this region of country is wheat, and the question of its rapid and cheap transportation is a most important one, both to the producer and consumer. Combinations have been formed in the past whereby the carriage and price was subject to the control of a few, to the great detriment of the producer; but this wheat oligarchy is now likely to receive its quietus in view of this new and competing outlet to eastern markets by way of Duluth.

The water transportation eastward from the latter city is at as low a rate as from Chicago, while the time is by a day in favor of Duluth, owing to the less favorable winds over Lake Michigan.

It is a.s.sumed by some that in view of the lower lat.i.tude of Chicago, the advantage of that city must ever remain pre-eminent, since the ice obstruction would be less, giving to commerce a much longer season than it could enjoy at any other of the great ports on either of the two westernmost lakes. This seems plausible at first view, but is hardly justified by actual facts. The difference, though slight, is not sufficient to hold any valid claim to a monopoly in the carrying trade of these inland seas. While the ice disappears earlier by a few days at Chicago than at Duluth, in consequence of its geographical position, it will be observed that the course of its lake commerce is due northward, and before that of the two rival lakes meet in the common waters of Huron, they must both pa.s.s through narrow and contiguous straits, in both of which the ice obstructions leave about the same time. Hence the advantages of the one port over that of the other, to the shipper, are not of any great moment, and are more than counterbalanced by the less time occupied in reaching the Lake Erie ports from Duluth, over that consumed by vessels from Chicago, growing out of the more favorable winds blowing over Superior, as before mentioned.

The advantage, then, by this new route to the East (_via_ Duluth for a portion of Northern Iowa and Southern and Central Minnesota) is a saving of the three hundred miles of extra rail transportation incurred by way of Lake Michigan; to say nothing of avoiding the exorbitant tolls and inexplicable delays of the latter route. The difference inhering to the benefit of the public, between the two routes, has been estimated, amounts to about one dollar per barrel in favor of this new outlet. If this can be proved true by practical experience, it must inevitably turn the golden stream of grain into the lap of Duluth, since destiny itself is not more certain than that the speediest and cheapest lines will do the world's marketing.

Antic.i.p.ating the wants of this route, there has been erected at Duluth, during the past season, an immense elevator, with a present capacity of over a third of a million of bushels, which, with a small additional expenditure, can be increased to a half million. Its proximity to the docks and railway is such that grain can be taken from the cars upon one side, and loaded directly into vessels upon the other, or stored, as the case may be.

The elements of future prosperity surround this new city and lie at her very doors. The north sh.o.r.es of Superior are rich in iron, copper, and silver; while the southern already supply the markets of the Union with the most of its copper, which has grown from small beginnings (of twenty years ago) to be one of the great interests in all our many valuable mining arts.

The fishing interest, which already gives employment to a great number of people, is in the first stages of development. They are now taken chiefly at the straits, but the business may be made extremely profitable at Duluth, since the head of the lake is their natural feeding-ground, and thousands swarm these waters. We all have eaten of the lake trout and white-fish, which may be had in the most of our cities and towns, and know how successfully they compete with the best of our salt-water article. It is already an important and growing trade, and highly profitable.

Each morning during our stay in Duluth the tables of the "Clark House"

were served with both of these delicacies; and these fish certainly surpa.s.s, when taken fresh, any fish it was ever our fortune to eat. The cost of living is much cheapened in consequence of their abundance, and surely nothing more wholesome can be placed on the table.

If Duluth had but the one interest, that of lumber, its prosperity would be a.s.sured. It lies in the very heart of a vast district abounding in pine-forests, and which have scarcely been explored, and we believe much of it remains unsurveyed by the general government up to the present time. The St. Louis River, which empties into Duluth and Superior Bays, courses, with its branches, a thousand miles among the dense forests of pine; and yet this is but a fraction of the immense tract of valuable timber to the north and west of this young and nourishing city.

There is no lack of water-power to reduce the raw material to a marketable condition, since the river above named can turn all the wheels of every mill in the country, could they be planted beside it.

The point of contact by the river with the outlying rim of the basin of the great lake is at the village of Thompson, some twenty miles distant from Duluth, on the St. Paul Railroad.[D] Here the waters of the St.

Louis River struggle by and over this rim of rocks, downward and onward, roaring and surging in their tumultuous ways, to the level below. These rapids are known as the "Dalles of the St. Louis," and extend some four and a half miles in an elbow direction. If a ca.n.a.l were cut across this elbow, this splendid water-power could be utilized beyond that of any other in the country.

What a field for enterprise is presented to lumbermen! A vast forest, a river furnishing transportation and unlimited power for manufacturing, and, finally, an open sea, with almost countless markets!

Besides this, there lies among the cliffs and high lands adjoining the rapids of this river inexhaustible quarries of slate, surpa.s.sing, we are informed, those of England in quality and quant.i.ty, and which must ere long receive that attention they seem to demand at the hands of capital.

The now rude village of Thompson--named for J. Edgar Thompson, of Philadelphia--with its half dozen extemporized buildings, in the quiet of the woods, will ere long resound with the hum of many industries, and already has considerable importance as being the point of junction of the two great railways entering Duluth--the St. Paul and the Puget Sound (Northern Pacific) Roads; the latter traversing a vast territory abounding in everything which contributes to the growth of an agricultural and manufacturing people.

The city of Duluth, seated at the eastern gate way of this new and splendid domain, holds in her golden horn the destinies of many populous and powerful States.

FOOTNOTES:

[D] Known as the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad.

CHAPTER XII.

THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD.

The Northwest.--Its great extent and character.--Jay Cooke, Esq.--The Northern Pacific Railroad and its advantages.--The general line of the road.--The shortest route to Asia.--The Red River valley.--Puget Sound.--The future of our country.

The vast reach of country lying between the Bed River and the Cascade range of mountains possesses, to some extent, a climate little inferior in healthfulness to that of Minnesota itself. The same dry, westerly winds sweep over it, and are even more marked in their continental character. Invalids will undoubtedly find as great advantages arising from a residence there as in any other part of the Union, yet for the present there are no means of easy access to any portion of this immense district. By-and-by this will be changed.

The many natural curiosities abounding in this little-explored region would alone prove sufficient to attract thither great numbers of our people, but when the almost unparalleled attractions of the climate are added, the travel and immigration must eventually become enormous.

The Northern Pacific Railroad,--the power which is destined to transform these Territories into States,--is being pushed rapidly westward, with the promise of an early completion.

To the energy of Jay Cooke, of Philadelphia, the distinguished banker and philanthropist, will belong, perhaps, the chief honor of its completion. Not that this great enterprise might not be begun and carried to a triumphal close by others,--since the government subsidies would, in time, together with the demand for this additional highway across the continent, enlist men of resolute character and ample means,--yet, withal, every new and great undertaking has somewhere a correspondingly great spirit, impelling self and co-workers to the contest and achievement of the desired ends, and we recognize in this vast enterprise the hand of this indefatigable man. Of course the able and influential a.s.sociates in the board of directors must share in the honor of this national work, and their names will go down in history as among the benefactors of the country in which they lived.[E]

How lightly we speak now of continental roads since one is a veritable fact. Novelties, to Americans, pa.s.s rapidly away.

How few realized, in 1860, that the coming decade would witness the completion of one and the beginning of another iron road across the continent. Ah! those brief years brought revolution in many things. The social fabric of half the Union was not less overturned in this brief period than were the accustomed avenues along which ran the world's trade and commerce.

The Northern Pacific Railroad was chartered by Congress in 1864, and was approved by President Lincoln on the second of July of that year. It has no government aid beyond a right of way and cession of the public lands along its line; each alternate section for a width of twenty miles in the States and forty miles in the territories. This, as is estimated, will give, according to the survey of Gen. W.M. Roberts, about fifty millions of acres,[F] large portions of which are known to be very fertile, while much will lie in the rich mining districts of Montana Territory.

This generous donation of public lands by the people is well deserved by this second great national enterprise. It is the only method whereby the isolated and distant portions of the interior can become utilized. The value of the remaining lands of the government will become tenfold what the whole would be if left to time and private enterprise for their development. The work was actively begun in 1870 on the Duluth end of this road; and it is expected that the present year (1871) will see it completed to the Red River, a distance of about two hundred and thirty-three miles from the above-named city. Quite a number of miles of iron had been laid at the time of our late visit, and as many more miles graded; with half a thousand men actively engaged in forwarding the vast undertaking.

The road is already completed to the Mississippi above Crow Wing, and from there will follow in nearly a straight line to Fort Abercrombie, the head of navigation on the Bed River. Here it will unite with the St.

Paul and Pacific Railroad (owned and operated by the Northern Pacific Railway, a branch of which it now is), already in running order half the distance from St. Paul. This line, with all its rights and franchises, has been recently purchased by the Northern Pacific, and will greatly aid in supporting the main trunk when completed.

In addition to the force on the eastern end of this road, there has been a.s.sembled at the Pacific terminus an able corps of engineers and contractors, who have already commenced the construction there, and thus the great road across the continent will be pushed to final completion, probably within five years from the first commencement of the undertaking.

The road, as located by Engineer Roberts in his report, is laid from the head-waters of Lake Superior in a nearly due westerly line across the State of Minnesota to Red River, near Fort Abercrombie; thence "across the Dakota and Missouri Rivers to the valley of the Yellow Stone, and along that valley to Bozeman's Pa.s.s, through the Belt range of mountains; thence down the Gallatin Valley, crossing the Madison River, and over to the Jefferson Valley, and along that to the Deer Lodge Pa.s.s of the Rocky Mountains; thence along Clarke's Valley to Lake Pend d'Oreille, and from this lake across the Columbia plain to Lewis or Snake River; down that to its junction with the Columbia; along the Columbia to the Cowlitz, and over the portage to Puget Sound, along its southern extremity, to any part which may be selected."

A branch road is to follow the Columbia River to the vicinity of Portland, together with a link connecting the two western arms.

By this route, which may be materially departed from in the final location, the distance will swell to near two thousand miles between the two grand termini, and it is estimated will cost, with its equipments, from seventy-five to one hundred millions of dollars.

The route of this road is known to be more feasible than was that of the present line to California. Its elevations are much less, and the natural obstructions of the mountain ranges more easily surmounted, while the climate invites, on account of its high sanitary character, both the immigrant and invalid.

The line from Omaha to California shows that for nine hundred miles the road has an average height above the sea of over five thousand feet, the lowest point in that stretch being over four thousand; while the corresponding distance, embracing the mountain ranges, along this Northern Pacific line, is near two thousand feet lower than the other, giving, in this difference in elevation, according to the usual estimate, over nine degrees advantage in temperature. This becomes important in an agricultural view, as well as in the immediate and constant benefit in the increased facility for operating a railway.

In addition, the curvature of the thermal lines of the continent bear away to the northward of the surveyed route of this great enterprise, insuring almost entire freedom from snow obstructions other than is common to any of the princ.i.p.al railway lines in the States themselves.

The extent of country tributary to this road is entirely unparalleled by that of any other. Along the present finished continental line an uninhabitable alkaline desert stands across and along its pathway for many miles, while the Northern line leaps from valley to valley, all more or less productive, and in which large supplies of coal and timber are found sufficient for ages to come.

Of this region, and the general line of this road, the Hon. Schuyler Colfax writes as follows:--

"Along the line of the Northern Pacific Railroad, as it follows up the water-courses, the Missouri and the Yellowstone on this side, and descends by the Valley of the Columbia on the other, a vast body of agricultural land is waiting for the plow, with a climate almost exactly the same as that of New York, except that, with less snow, cattle in the larger portion of it can subsist on the open range in winter. Here, if climate and fertility of soil produce their natural result, when railroad facilities open this now isolated region to settlement, will soon be seen waving grain-fields, and happy homes, and growing towns, while ultimately a cordon of prosperous States, teeming with population, and rich in industry and consequent wealth, will occupy that now undeveloped and almost inaccessible portion of our continental area.

"But this road is also fortunate in its pathway across the two ranges of mountains which tested so severely the Pacific Railroads built on the central line, and the overcoming of which reflected such well-deserved honor on their energetic builders. At the Deer Lodge Pa.s.s, in Montana, where it crosses the Rocky Mountains, its alt.i.tude above the sea is three thousand five hundred feet less than the Union Pacific Railroad at Sherman, which is said to be the highest point at which a locomotive can be found in the world. And on the Pacific side of the continent it is even more fortunate. From Arizona up to the Arctic Circle the Columbia is the only river which, has torn its way through that mighty range, the Andes of North America, which in California is known as the Sierras, but which in Oregon changes its name to the Cascades. Nature has thus provided a pathway for the Northern Pacific Road through these mountains, the scaling of which, on the other line, at an elevation of over seven thousand feet (a most wonderful triumph of engineering), cost the Central Pacific millions of dollars, and compelled them for seventy miles to maintain a grade of over one hundred feet to the mile--twice the maximum of the Northern Pacific at the most difficult points on its entire route.

"It is fortunate, also, in its terminus on the Pacific coast. No one who has not been there can realize the beauty of Puget's Sound and its surroundings. One hundred miles long, but so full of inlets and straits that its navigable sh.o.r.e line measures one thousand seven hundred and sixty miles, dotted with lovely islets, with gigantic trees almost to the water's edge, with safe anchorage everywhere, and stretching southward, without shoals or bars, from the Straits of Fuca to the capital and centre of Washington Territory, it will be a magnificent _entrepot_ for the commerce of that grandest ocean of the world, the Pacific."