The Northern Pacific Railway Museum is a railroad museum in Toppenish, Washington . It is located on 10 Asotin Av. and open between May and December.
110-567: In 1990 the ex- Northern Pacific Railway depot in Toppenish, WA, was leased and subsequently purchased from the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1993 for the museum. In 1993 the 1902 Northern Pacific steam locomotive #1364 was leased, and restoration began. Currently the 1364 is being hydro-tested and upon passing at 200psi it will be fully steamed and certified under the FRA. Present goal
220-478: A United States railway museum or tourist railway is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Northern Pacific Railway The Northern Pacific Railway ( reporting mark NP ) was an important transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States , from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest . It was approved and chartered in 1864 by the 38th Congress of
330-553: A bay with numerous channels and branches; more specifically, it is a fjord system of flooded glacial valleys. Puget Sound is part of a larger physiographic structure termed the Puget Trough, which is a physiographic section of the larger Pacific Border province , which in turn is part of the larger Pacific Mountain System . Puget Sound is a large salt water estuary , or system of many estuaries, fed by highly seasonal freshwater from
440-474: A daring raid. Using his European connections and a reputation for having "bested" Jay Gould in a battle for control of the Kansas Pacific Railroad years before, Villard solicited and raised $ 8,000,000 million dollars from his associates. This was his famous "Blind Pool," Villard's associates were not told what the money would be used for. In this case, the funds were used by him to purchase control of
550-558: A mile and half (2.4 km) of track each day. In early September, as the line neared completion. To celebrate, and to gain national publicity for investment opportunities in his region, Villard chartered four trains to carry guests from the East to Gold Creek in western Montana Territory No expense was spared, and the list of dignitaries included Frederick Billings, former 18th President Ulysses S. Grant (served 1869-1877), only two years before his tragic death from cancer, and Villard's in-laws,
660-442: A short amount of time for completion, and a large penalty if the deadline were missed. While crews worked on the tunnel, the railroad built a temporary switchback route across the pass. With numerous timber trestles and grades which approached six percent, the temporary line required two M class 2-10-0s —the two largest locomotives in the world (at that time)—to handle a tiny five-car train. On May 3, 1888, crews holed through
770-587: A stable path to that important interchange. At the same time, E. H. Harriman , head of the Union Pacific Railroad , was also looking for a road which could connect his company to Chicago. The road both Harriman and Hill looked at was the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy. To Harriman, the Burlington was a road which paralleled much of his own and offered tantalizing direct access to Chicago. For Hill as well, there
880-565: A threat in certain quarters. German-born former war correspondent / journalist and later newspaper / magazine publisher Henry Villard (6th President N.P.R.R. 1881-1884), had raised capital for western railroads in Europe (especially in the recently unified German Empire ), from 1871 to 1873. After returning to New York City in 1874, he invested on behalf of his clients in railroads in Oregon . Through Villard's work, most of these lines became properties of
990-503: A total volume of 26.5 cubic miles (110 km ) at mean high water. The average volume of water flowing in and out of Puget Sound during each tide is 1.26 cubic miles (5.3 km ). The maximum tidal currents, in the range of 9 to 10 knots , occurs at Deception Pass. Water flow through Deception Pass is approximately equal to 2% of the total tidal exchange between Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The size of Puget Sound's watershed
1100-590: Is 12,138 sq mi (31,440 km ). "Northern Puget Sound" is frequently considered part of the Puget Sound watershed, which enlarges its size to 13,700 sq mi (35,000 km ). The USGS uses the name "Puget Sound" for its hydrologic unit subregion 1711, which includes areas draining to Puget Sound proper as well as the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Strait of Georgia, and the Fraser River . Significant rivers that drain to "Northern Puget Sound" include
1210-611: Is attributed to a variety of issues, including human population growth, pollution, and climate change. Because of this population decline, there have been changes to the fishery practices, and an increase in petitioning to add species to the Endangered Species Act . There has also been an increase in recovery and management plans for many different area species. The causes of these environmental issues are toxic contamination, eutrophication (low oxygen due to excess nutrients), and near shore habitat changes. On May 22, 1978,
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#17329209428011320-511: Is home to numerous species of marine invertebrates, including sponges , sea anemones , chitons , clams , sea snails , limpets , crabs , barnacles , starfish , sea urchins , and sand dollars . Dungeness crabs ( Metacarcinus magister ) occur throughout Washington waters, including Puget Sound. Many bivalves occur in Puget Sound, such as Pacific oysters ( Crassostrea gigas ) and geoduck clams ( Panopea generosa ). The Olympia oyster ( Ostreola conchaphila ), once common in Puget Sound,
1430-543: Is to be operational by Christmas 2018. In 2017 the Northern Pacific Railway Museum fully purchased the 1364 from the City of Tacoma and own a clear title to the engine. 46°22′34″N 120°18′28″W / 46.376187°N 120.307878°W / 46.376187; -120.307878 This Washington state museum-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about
1540-705: The Cape Horn to the Pacific Ocean. In Minnesota, the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad completed construction of its 155-mile (249 km) line stretching from Saint Paul east to Lake Superior at Duluth in 1870. It was leased to the Northern Pacific line six years later in the American Centennial celebration year of 1876 and was eventually absorbed by the Northern Pacific. The famed North Coast Limited
1650-565: The Great Lakes ). The backing and promotions of famed New York City / Wall Street financier Jay Cooke , in the summer of 1870 brought the first real momentum to the railway company. Over the course of 1871, the Northern Pacific pushed westward from Minnesota Territory into the newer Dakota Territory (present-day state of North Dakota ). Surveyors and construction crews had to maneuver through swamps, bogs, and tamarack forests. The difficult terrain and insufficient funding delayed by six months
1760-656: The Kitsap Peninsula , Whidbey Basin, east of Whidbey Island, South Sound , south of the Tacoma Narrows , and the Main Basin , which is further subdivided into Admiralty Inlet and the Central Basin. Puget Sound's sills, a kind of submarine terminal moraine , separate the basins from one another, and Puget Sound from the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Three sills are particularly significant—the one at Admiralty Inlet which checks
1870-694: The Nooksack , Dungeness , and Elwha Rivers . The Nooksack empties into Bellingham Bay, the Dungeness and Elwha into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The Chilliwack River flows north to the Fraser River in Canada. Tides in Puget Sound are of the mixed type with two high and two low tides each tidal day. These are called Higher High Water (HHW), Lower Low Water (LLW), Lower High Water (LHW), and Higher Low Water (HLW). The configuration of basins, sills, and interconnections cause
1980-706: The Northern Securities Company , a move which would be undone by the Supreme Court in 1904 under the auspices of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act . Harriman was not immune either; he was forced to break up his holdings in the Union Pacific Railroad and the Southern Pacific Railroad a few years later. In 1903, Hill finally got his way with the House of Morgan. Howard Elliott , another veteran of
2090-522: The Snake River near Wallula, Washington . The Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines had completed the first trans-continental route 12 years earlier in 1869. Within a decade of his return, Villard was head of a transportation empire in the Pacific Northwest that had but one real competitor, the Northern Pacific Railroad. The Northern Pacific's trans-continental route completion threatened
2200-615: The double-crested cormorant ( Phalacrocorax auritus ). Puget Sound is home to a non-migratory and marine-oriented subspecies of great blue herons ( Ardea herodias fannini ). Bald eagles ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus ) occur in relative high densities in the Puget Sound region. Puget Sound has been home to many Indigenous peoples, such as the Lushootseed-speaking peoples , as well as the Twana , Chimakum , and Klallam , for millennia. The earliest known presence of Indigenous inhabitants in
2310-445: The northern Great Plains of central Canada to the northern states of the U.S . and especially its Midwestern big cities, manufacturing centers and markets. The U.S. Congress granted the Northern Pacific Railroad a generous potential bonanza of 60 million acres (94,000 sq mi; 240,000 km ) of land adjacent to the line in exchange for building rail transportation to an undeveloped western territory. Josiah Perham
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#17329209428012420-579: The spiny dogfish ( Squalus acanthias ). There are about 28 species of Sebastidae (rockfish), of many types, found in Puget Sound. Among those of special interest are copper rockfish ( Sebastes caurinus ), quillback rockfish ( S. maliger ), black rockfish ( S. melanops ), yelloweye rockfish ( S. ruberrimus ), bocaccio rockfish ( S. paucispinis ), canary rockfish ( S. pinniger ), and Puget Sound rockfish ( S. emphaeus ). Many other fish species occur in Puget Sound, such as sturgeons , lampreys , various sharks , rays , and skates . Puget Sound
2530-788: The tidal range to increase within Puget Sound. The difference in height between the Higher High Water and the Lower Low Water averages about 8.3 feet (2.5 m) at Port Townsend on Admiralty Inlet, but increases to about 14.4 feet (4.4 m) at Olympia, the southern end of Puget Sound. Puget Sound is generally accepted as the start of the Inside Passage . Important marine flora of Puget Sound include eelgrass ( Zostera marina ) and various kelp , important kelps include canopy forming bull kelp ( Nereocystis luetkeana ). and edible kelps like kombu ( Saccharina latissima ) Among
2640-515: The western grebe ( Aechmophorus occidentalis ); loons such as the common loon ( Gavia immer ); auks such as the pigeon guillemot ( Cepphus columba ), rhinoceros auklet ( Cerorhinca monocerata ), common murre ( Uria aalge ), and marbled murrelet ( Brachyramphus marmoratus ); the brant goose ( Branta bernicla ); seaducks such as the long-tailed duck ( Clangula hyemalis ), harlequin duck ( Histrionicus histrionicus ), and surf scoter ( Melanitta perspicillata ); and cormorants such as
2750-528: The 1870s, began anew. Virgil Bogue , a veteran civil engineer , was sent to explore the Cascades again. On March 19, 1881, he discovered Stampede Pass . In 1883, John W. Sprague , the head of the new Pacific Division, drove the Golden Spike to mark the beginning of the railroad from what would become Kalama, Washington . He resigned a months later due to impaired health. In 1884, after the departure of Villard,
2860-604: The 2009 decision of the United States Board on Geographic Names to use the term Salish Sea to refer to the greater maritime environment. Continental ice sheets have repeatedly advanced and retreated from the Puget Sound region. The most recent glacial period , called the Fraser Glaciation , had three phases, or stades . During the third, or Vashon Glaciation , a lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet , called
2970-559: The 2010s and 17.2 in 2022 with the COVID-19 pandemic . It is the largest ferry operator in the United States. Over the past 30 years, as the human population of the region has increased, there has been a correlating decrease in various plant and animal species which inhabit Puget Sound. The decline has been seen in numerous populations including forage fish , salmonids, bottom fish, marine birds , harbor porpoise , and orcas . The decline
3080-469: The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, became president of the Northern Pacific on October 23. Elliott was a relative of the Burlington's crusty chieftain Charles Elliott Perkins, and more distantly the Burlington's great backer, John Murray Forbes . He had spent 20 years in the trenches of Midwest railroading, where rebates, pooling, expansion and rate wars had brought ruinous competition. Having seen
3190-548: The Dakota Territory conducted expeditions to protect the railroad survey and construction crews in Dakota and Montana Territories. In 1877, construction resumed in a small way. Northern Pacific pushed a branch line southeast from Tacoma to Puyallup, Washington and on to the coal fields around Wilkeson, Washington . Much of the coal was destined for export through Tacoma to San Francisco, California , where it would be thrown into
3300-585: The East after 1873, led by the Credit Mobilier Scandal and the Union Pacific Railroad stock fraud, caused a nationwide economic recession and financial panic in New York City's Wall Street financial district, stopping further railroad building for twelve years during the latter 1870s and early 1880s. In 1886, the company restarted and put down 164 miles (264 km) of main line across the northern Dakotas, with an additional 45 miles (72 km) from
3410-675: The European creditors' holding company, the Oregon and Transcontinental Company . Of the lines held by the Oregon and Transcontinental, the most important was the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company , which ran east from Portland, Oregon along the left bank of the Columbia River to a connection with the Union Pacific Railroad 's Oregon Short Line at the confluence of the Columbia River and
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3520-517: The Gladstone Shops, which closed in 1915. On May 24, 1879, Frederick H. Billings became the fifth president of the company. Billings' tenure would be short but ferocious. Reorganization, bond sales, and improvement in the U.S. economy allowed Northern Pacific to strike out across the upper Missouri River by letting a contract to build 100 miles (160 km) of railroad west of the river. The railroad's new-found strength, however, would be seen as
3630-627: The HBC's subsidy operation, the Puget Sound Agricultural Company was established in part to procure resources and trade, as well as to further establish British claim to the region. Missionaries J.P. Richmond and W.H. Wilson were attending Fort Nisqually for two years by 1840. British ships, such as the Beaver , exported foodstuffs and provisions from Fort Nisqually, and would eventually export Puget Sound lumber, an industry that would soon outpace
3740-645: The Harriman-controlled Union Pacific; and, between 1907 and 1909, the last of the northern transcontinentals, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad , more commonly known as the Milwaukee Road. Puget Sound Puget Sound ( / ˈ p juː dʒ ɪ t / PEW -jit ; Lushootseed : x̌ʷəlč IPA: [ˈχʷəlt͡ʃ] WHULCH ) is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins located on
3850-567: The Lawton Clay. The second major recessional lake was Glacial Lake Bretz . It also drained to the Chehalis River until the Chimacum Valley [ ceb ] , in the northeast Olympic Peninsula , melted, allowing the lake's water to rapidly drain north into the marine waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which was rising as the ice sheet retreated. As icebergs calved off the toe of
3960-604: The Mississippi River as the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy had done, Villard chose to lease the Wisconsin Central . Some backers of the Wisconsin Central had long associations with Villard, and an expensive lease was worked out between the two companies which was only undone by the Northern Pacific's second bankruptcy. The ultimate result was that the Northern Pacific was left without a direct connection to Chicago,
4070-494: The N.P. reached the shores of the upper Missouri River at Edwinton, Dakota Territory (now the state capital of Bismarck, North Dakota) . In the west sector, the N.P. track extended 25 miles (40 km) north from Kalama. Surveys were carried out in the Dakota Territory protected by 600 troops of the horse cavalry of the United States Army , under command of Civil War hero, General Winfield Scott Hancock , nicknamed "Hancock
4180-543: The Northern Pacific Corner. By the end of the day, he was short just 40,000 shares of common stock. Harriman placed an order to cover this, but was overridden by his broker, Jacob Schiff , of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. Hill, on the other hand, reached the vacationing Morgan in Italy and managed to place an order for 150,000 shares of common stock. Though Harriman might be able to control the preferred stock, Hill knew
4290-700: The Northern Pacific Railway Company on July 2, 1864, with the goals of connecting the Great Lakes with Puget Sound on the northwestern coast of the United States on the Pacific Ocean , opening vast new lands for farming, ranching, lumbering and mining, and linking the Federal territories and later newly admitted to the Union as states of Washington and Oregon to the rest of the country (plus connecting
4400-410: The Northern Pacific began building toward Stampede Pass from Wallula in the east and the area of Wilkeson in the west. By the end of the year, rails had reached Yakima, Washington in the east. A 77-mile (124 km) gap remained in 1886. In January of that year, Nelson Bennett was given a contract to construct a 9,850-foot (1.9 mi; 3.0 km) tunnel under Stampede Pass . The contract specified
4510-551: The Northern Pacific closer to the orbit of James J. Hill. In the late 1880s, the Villard regime, in another one of its costly missteps, attempted to stretch the Northern Pacific from the Twin Cities to the all-important rail hub of Chicago, Illinois . A costly project was begun in creating a union station and terminal facilities for a Northern Pacific which had yet to arrive. Rather than build directly down to Chicago, perhaps following
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4620-537: The Northern Pacific experienced the first competition in the form of James Jerome Hill and his Great Northern Railway . The Great Northern, like the Northern Pacific before it, was pushing west from the Twin Cities towards Puget Sound, and would be completed in 1893. Mismanagement, sparse traffic, and the Panic of 1893 sounded the death knell for the Northern Pacific and Villard's interest in railroading. The company slipped into its second bankruptcy on October 20, 1893. Oakes
4730-474: The Northern Pacific still completed the line north along the Pacific Ocean and U.S. west coast from Kalama to Tacoma, a distance of 110 miles (180 km), before the end of 1873. On December 16, the first steam locomotive train arrived in Tacoma. But by the next year in 1874 the company was approaching insolvency. Northern Pacific slipped into its first bankruptcy on June 30, 1875. President Cass resigned to become
4840-595: The Northern Pacific's bankruptcy. Things came to a head in 1896, when first Edward Dean Adams was appointed president, then less than two months later, Edwin Winter . Ultimately, the task of straightening out the muddle of the Northern Pacific was turned over to J. P. Morgan . Morganization of the Northern Pacific, a process which befell many U.S. roads in the wake of the Panic of 1893, was handed to Morgan lieutenant Charles Henry Coster. The new president, beginning September 1, 1897,
4950-401: The Northern Pacific. Despite a tough fight, Billings and his backers were forced to capitulate; he resigned the presidency June 9, 1881. Ashbel H. Barney , former President of Wells Fargo & Company (bankers and famous Western stagecoach line), served briefly as interim caretaker of the railroad from June 19 to September 15, when Villard was elected sixth president by the stockholders. For
5060-482: The Olympic and Cascade Mountain watersheds. The mean annual river discharge into Puget Sound is 41,000 cubic feet per second (1,200 m /s), with a monthly average maximum of about 367,000 cubic feet per second (10,400 m /s) and minimum of about 14,000 cubic feet per second (400 m /s). Puget Sound's shoreline is 1,332 miles (2,144 km) long, encompassing a water area of 1,020 square miles (2,600 km ) and
5170-468: The Puget Lobe, spread south about 15,000 years ago, covering the Puget Sound region with an ice sheet about 3,000 feet (910 m) thick near Seattle, and nearly 6,000 feet (1,800 m) at the present Canada-U.S. border. Since each new advance and retreat of ice erodes away much of the evidence of previous ice ages, the most recent Vashon phase has left the clearest imprint on the land. At its maximum extent
5280-530: The Puget Sound region is between 14,000 BCE to 6,000 BCE. Dispatched in an attempt to locate the fabled Northwest Passage , British Royal Navy captain George Vancouver anchored on May 19, 1792, on the shores of Seattle , explored Puget Sound, and claimed it for Great Britain on June 4 the same year, naming it for one of his officers, Lieutenant Peter Puget . He further named the entire region; New Georgia , after King George III . After 1818 Britain and
5390-634: The Sound being part of the Cascadia subduction zone , where the terranes accreted at the edge of the Juan de Fuca Plate are being subducted under the North American Plate . There has not been a major subduction zone earthquake here since the magnitude nine Cascadia earthquake ; according to Japanese records, it occurred on January 26, 1700. Lesser Puget Sound earthquakes with shallow epicenters , caused by
5500-670: The Superlative" but defeated Democratic Party candidate in the 1880 presidential election . Fabricating shops and foundries were established in Brainerd, Minnesota Territory , a town named by the N.P. second President John Gregory Smith for Lawrence Brainerd , the father of his wife Anna Elizabeth Brainerd and a close friend and colleague. It was here further back on the line where the Railway established its first temporary offices and headquarters. A severe stock market crash and financial collapse in
5610-628: The USGS definition, but the fifth, called "Northern Puget Sound" includes a large additional region. It is defined as bounded to the north by the international boundary with Canada, and to the west by a line running north from the mouth of the Sekiu River on the Olympic Peninsula. Under this definition, significant parts of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Strait of Georgia are included in Puget Sound, with
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#17329209428015720-441: The United States in the national / federal capital of Washington, D.C. , during the last years of the American Civil War (1861-1865), and given nearly 40 million acres (62,000 sq mi; 160,000 km ) of adjacent land grants , which it used to raise additional money in Europe (especially in President Henry Villard's home country of the new German Empire ), for construction funding. Construction began in 1870 and
5830-440: The United States and even growing exports overseas to Europe. Most of the settlers were German and Scandinavian immigrants who bought the land cheaply and raised large families. They shipped huge quantities of wheat to Minneapolis, then Milwaukee, Chicago and St. Louis connected by rail. while buying all sorts of farming equipment and home supplies (some ordered and delivered through the beginnings of published mail-order catalogs from
5940-424: The United States, which both claimed the Oregon Country , agreed to "joint occupancy", deferring resolution of the Oregon boundary dispute until the 1846 Oregon Treaty . Puget Sound was part of the disputed region until 1846, after which it became US territory. American maritime fur traders visited Puget Sound in the early 19th century. An Hudson's Bay Company expedition led by James McMillan in late 1824
6050-413: The Vashon glacier receded a series of proglacial lakes formed, filling the main trough of Puget Sound and inundating the southern lowlands. Glacial Lake Russell was the first such large recessional lake. From the vicinity of Seattle in the north the lake extended south to the Black Hills , where it drained south into the Chehalis River . Sediments from Lake Russell form the blue-gray clay identified as
6160-472: The Vashon ice sheet extended south of Olympia to near Tenino , and covered the lowlands between the Olympic and Cascade mountain ranges. About 14,000 years ago the ice began to retreat. By 11,000 years ago it survived only north of the Canada–US border. The melting retreat of the Vashon Glaciation eroded the land, creating a drumlin field of hundreds of aligned drumlin hills. Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish (which are ribbon lakes ), Hood Canal , and
6270-561: The Yellowstone region by Sioux , Cheyenne , Arapaho , and Kiowa native warriors in northern Dakota and Minnesota Territories became so prevalent that the company received protection from additional mounted troops in units of the U.S. Army. In 1886, the Northern Pacific also opened colonization / emigration offices in Europe especially the newly unified German Empire and north to the kingdoms of Scandinavia , with good reliable steamship lines, attracting Nordic farmers with package deals of cheap land and transportation and purchase deals in
6380-493: The big cities warehouses, to be shipped in by rail. The N.P. used its federal land grants as security to borrow money to build its system. The federal government kept every other alternate section of land, and gave it away free to native and immigrant homesteaders / farmers under the Homestead Act of 1862. At first the railroad sold much of its holdings at low prices to land speculators in order to realize quick cash profits, and also to eliminate sizable annual tax bills. By 1905,
6490-571: The civilian Pennsylvania Railroad , organized the Northern Pacific Beneficial Association in 1881. Inspired by the progressive medical care and insurance program then being introduced in the German Empire in Europe and a forerunner of the modern health maintenance organization , the N.P.B.A. ultimately established a series of four medical hospitals across the N.P.R.R. route system in Saint Paul, Minnesota ; Glendive, Montana ; Missoula, Montana ; and Tacoma, Washington , to care for its railroad employees, retirees, and their families. On January 15, 1883,
6600-412: The collective waters of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the Strait of Georgia . Sometimes the terms "Puget Sound" and "Puget Sound and adjacent waters" are used for not only Puget Sound proper but also for waters to the north, such as Bellingham Bay and the San Juan Islands region. The term "Puget Sound" is used not just for the body of water but also the Puget Sound region centered on
6710-481: The company bylaws allowed for the holders of the common stock to vote to retire the preferred. In three days, the Harriman-Hill imbroglio managed to wreak havoc on the stock market. Northern Pacific stock was quoted at $ 150 a share on May 6 and is reported to have traded as much as $ 1,000 a share behind the scenes. Harriman and Hill now worked to settle the issue for brokers to avoid panic. Hill, for his part, attempted to avoid future stock raids by placing his holdings in
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#17329209428016820-418: The construction phase in Minnesota. The N.P. also began building its line north from Kalama, Washington Territory , on the Columbia River just outside of Portland, Oregon , towards the Puget Sound . Four small construction locomotive engines were purchased, the Minnetonka , Itaska , Ottertail and St. Cloud , the first of which was shipped to Kalama by ship all around the continent of South America and
6930-433: The court-appointed receiver of the company, and Charles Barstow Wright became its fourth president. Frederick Billings , namesake of future Billings, Montana , formulated a reorganization plan which was put into effect. Throughout 1874 to 1876, elements of the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the U.S. Army under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer , operating out of Fort Abraham Lincoln and Fort Rice in
7040-444: The decade between 1881 and 1890. The Northern Pacific reached Dakota Territory at Fargo in 1872 and began its career as one of the central factors in the economic growth of the future Dakotas Territory and later its twin states North and South. The climate, although very cold in the continental interior heartland was still suitable for wheat, which was in high demand in the eastern and Mid-Western rapidly developing industrial cities of
7150-414: The dominant fur trading market and drive the early Puget Sound economy. The first organized American expedition took place under the helm of Commander Charles Wilkes , whose exploring party sailed up Puget Sound in 1841. The first permanent American settlement on Puget Sound was Tumwater , founded in 1845 by Americans who had come via the Oregon Trail . The decision to settle north of the Columbia River
7260-417: The easy access of cheap lumber. The Brainerd Shops to the east remained as the largest locomotive repair facility throughout the steam era. Another shops / foundry site was located at the center mid-way of the mainline in Livingston, Montana , which became the primary diesel engine maintenance facility after 1955. In St. Paul, Minnesota were the Como Shops, which maintained most of the passenger car fleet, and
7370-403: The effects of having multiple railroads attempt to serve the same destination, he was very much in tune with James J. Hill's philosophy of "community of interest," a loose affiliation or collusion among roads in an attempt to avoid duplicating routes, rate wars, weak finances and ultimately bankruptcies and reorganizations. Elliott would be left to make peace with the Hill-controlled Great Northern;
7480-413: The family of famed longtime abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison , who had just died four years earlier. On September 8, 1883, the Gold Spike was driven near Gold Creek in the Montana Territory . Villard's fall was swifter than his ascendancy. Like Jay Cooke, he was now consumed by the enormous costs of constructing the railroad. Wall Street bears attacked the stock shortly after the Golden Spike, after
7590-429: The fireboxes of Central Pacific Railroad 's steam engines locomotives. This small amount of construction was one of the largest projects the company would undertake in the years between 1874 and 1880. That same year the company built a large shop complex at Edison, Washington (now part of south Tacoma metropolitan area ). The Edison Shops became the largest on the system for building and repairing freight cars due to
7700-454: The first N.P.R.R. train reached Livingston, Montana , at the eastern foot of the Bozeman Pass . Livingston, like Brainerd and South Tacoma before it, would grow to encompass a large backshop handling heavy repairs for the Northern Pacific Railroad equipment. It would also mark the east–west dividing line on the Northern Pacific route system. Villard pushed hard for the completion of the Northern Pacific in 1883. His crews laid an average of
7810-402: The flow of water between the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound, the one at the entrance to Hood Canal (about 175 ft or 53 m below the surface), and the one at the Tacoma Narrows (about 145 ft or 44 m). Other sills that present less of a barrier include the ones at Blake Island , Agate Pass , Rich Passage , and Hammersley Inlet . The depth of the basins is a result of
7920-740: The fracturing of stressed oceanic rocks as they are subducted, still cause great damage. The Seattle Fault cuts across Puget Sound, crossing the southern tip of Bainbridge Island and under Elliott Bay . To the south, the existence of a second fault, the Tacoma Fault , has buckled the intervening strata in the Seattle Uplift. Typical Puget Sound profiles of dense glacial till overlying permeable glacial outwash of gravels above an impermeable bed of silty clay may become unstable after periods of unusually wet weather and slump in landslides. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) defines Puget Sound as
8030-459: The glacier, their embedded gravels and boulders were deposited in the chaotic mix of unsorted till geologists call glaciomarine drift. Many beaches about the Sound display glacial erratics , rendered more prominent than those in coastal woodland solely by their exposed position; submerged glacial erratics sometimes cause hazards to navigation. The sheer weight of glacial-age ice depressed the landforms, which experienced post-glacial rebound after
8140-560: The holdings of Villard in the Northwest, and especially in Portland. Portland unfortunately could possibly become a second-class city if the Puget Sound 's deeper and larger ports at Tacoma and nearby Seattle, Washington , were further developed and connected to the East by rail. Villard, who had been building a monopoly of river and rail transportation in Oregon for several years, now launched
8250-433: The ice sheets had retreated. Because the rate of rebound was not synchronous with the post-ice age rise in sea levels, the bed of what is now Puget Sound filled alternately with fresh and with sea water. The upper level of the lake-sediment Lawton Clay now lies about 120 feet (37 m) above sea level. The Puget Sound system consists of four deep basins connected by shallower sills. The four basins are Hood Canal , west of
8360-549: The international boundary marking an abrupt and hydrologically arbitrary limit. According to Arthur Kruckeberg, the term "Puget Sound" is sometimes used for waters north of Admiralty Inlet and Deception Pass, especially for areas along the north coast of Washington and the San Juan Islands, essentially equivalent to NOAA's "Northern Puget Sound" subdivision described above. Kruckeberg uses the term "Puget Sound and adjacent waters". Kruckeberg's 1991 text, however, does not reflect
8470-540: The main Puget Sound basin were altered by glacial forces. These glacial forces are not specifically "carving", as in cutting into the landscape via the mechanics of ice/glaciers, but rather eroding the landscape from melt water of the Vashon Glacier creating the drumlin field. As the ice retreated, vast amounts of glacial till were deposited throughout the Puget Sound region. The soils of the region, less than ten thousand years old, are still characterized as immature. As
8580-476: The main line opened all the way from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Ocean , just south of the United States-Canada border when Ulysses S. Grant , drove in the final "golden spike" completing the line in western Montana Territory (future State of Montana in 1889), on September 8, 1883. The railroad had about 6,800 miles (10,900 km) of track and served a large area, including extensive trackage in
8690-1323: The marine mammals species found in Puget Sound are harbor seals ( Phoca vitulina ). Orca ( Orcinus orca ), or "killer whales" are famous throughout the Sound, and are a large tourist attraction. Although orca are sometimes seen in Puget Sound proper they are far more prevalent around the San Juan Islands north of Puget Sound. Many fish species occur in Puget Sound. The various salmonid species, including salmon , trout , and char are particularly well-known and studied. Salmonid species of Puget Sound include chinook salmon ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha ), chum salmon ( O. keta ), coho salmon ( O. kisutch ), pink salmon ( O. gorbuscha ), sockeye salmon ( O. nerka ), sea-run coastal cutthroat trout ( O. clarki clarki ), steelhead ( O. mykiss irideus ), sea-run bull trout ( Salvelinus confluentus ), and Dolly Varden trout ( Salvelinus malma malma ). Common forage fishes found in Puget Sound include Pacific herring ( Clupea pallasii ), surf smelt ( Hypomesus pretiosus ), and Pacific sand lance ( Ammodytes hexapterus ). Important benthopelagic fish of Puget Sound include North Pacific hake ( Merluccius productus ), Pacific cod ( Gadus macrocelhalus ), walleye pollock ( Theragra chalcogramma ), and
8800-454: The mounting construction costs. Cooke overestimated his managerial skills and failed to appreciate the limits of a banker's ability to be also a promoter, and the danger of freezing his assets in the bonds of the Northern Pacific. Cooke and Company went bankrupt on September 18, 1873. Soon the financial Panic of 1873 engulfed the United States, business and financial community extending to numerous industries beginning an economic depression that
8910-532: The next four years, until the return of the Villard group, Harris worked at improving the property and ending its tangled relationship with the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. Throughout the mid-1880s, the Northern Pacific pushed to reach Puget Sound directly, rather than by means of a roundabout route that followed the Columbia River. Surveys of the Cascade Mountains , carried out intermittently since
9020-405: The next two years, Villard and the Northern Pacific rode the whirlwind. In 1882, 360 miles (580 km) of main line and 368 miles (592 km) of branch line were completed, bringing totals to 1,347 miles (2,168 km) and 731 miles (1,176 km), respectively. On October 10, 1882, the line from Wadena, Minnesota , to Fergus Falls, Minnesota , opened for service. The upper Missouri River
9130-415: The north to Olympia in the south. Its average depth is 450 feet (140 m) and its maximum depth, off Jefferson Point between Indianola and Kingston , is 930 feet (280 m). The depth of the main basin, between the southern tip of Whidbey Island and Tacoma , is approximately 600 feet (180 m). In 2009, the term Salish Sea was established by the United States Board on Geographic Names as
9240-529: The northwest coast of the U.S. state of Washington . As a part of the Salish Sea , the sound has one major and two minor connections to the Strait of Juan de Fuca , which in turn connects to the open Pacific Ocean. The major connection is Admiralty Inlet ; the minor connections are Deception Pass and the Swinomish Channel . Puget Sound extends approximately 100 miles (160 km) from Deception Pass in
9350-430: The previous three years the financial house of Jay Cooke and Company in New York City had been throwing money into the construction of the Northern Pacific. As with many western transcontinentals , the staggering costs of building a railroad into a vast wilderness prairie had been drastically underestimated. Cooke had little success in marketing the N.P.R.R. bonds in Europe and overextended his house in meeting overdrafts of
9460-495: The primary interchange point for most of the large U.S. railroads. Fortunately, the Northern Pacific was not alone. James J. Hill , controller of the Great Northern Railway , which was completed between the Twin Cities and Puget Sound in 1893, also lacked a direct connection to Chicago. Hill went looking for a road with an existing route between the Twin Cities and Chicago which could be rolled into his holdings and give him
9570-503: The railroad company's land policies changed, after it was judged a costly mistake to have sold much of the land at wholesale prices. With better railroad service and improved more educated and scientific methods of farming and soil conservation in future decades in the special unique conditions on the Great Plains. The Northern Pacific then easily sold what had been heretofore termed "worthless" land directly to farmers at good prices. By 1910
9680-545: The railroad's holdings in the new state of North Dakota had been greatly reduced. In 1873, Northern Pacific made impressive strides before a terrible stumble. Rails from the east reached the Missouri River on June 4. After several years of study, Tacoma, Washington Territory near the Pacific Coast and Puget Sound for waterborne shipping port facilities was selected as the road's western terminus on July 14, 1873. For
9790-475: The realization that the Northern Pacific was a very long road with very little business. Villard himself suffered a nervous breakdown in the days after the driving of the Golden Spike, and he left the presidency of the Northern Pacific in January 1884. Again, the presidency of the Northern Pacific was handed to a professional railroader, Robert Harris , former head of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad . For
9900-569: The similar cold higher latitudes of climate of the north-central North America continent, but with richer unplowed expansive soil. The success of the N.P. was based on the abundant crops of wheat and other grains already grown and the attraction to settlers of the lower Red River Valley of the Red River of the North, Minnesota, Missouri and Mississippi Rivers basins along the Minnesota-Dakota border in
10010-568: The sound. Major cities on the sound include Seattle , Tacoma , Olympia , and Everett . Puget Sound is also the second-largest estuary in the United States, after Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and Virginia . In 1792, George Vancouver gave the name "Puget's Sound" to the waters south of the Tacoma Narrows , in honor of Peter Puget , a Huguenot lieutenant accompanying him on the Vancouver Expedition . This name later came to be used for
10120-509: The south end of the Swinomish Channel , which connects Skagit Bay and Padilla Bay . Under this definition, Puget Sound includes the waters of Hood Canal , Admiralty Inlet, Possession Sound , Saratoga Passage , and others. It does not include Bellingham Bay , Padilla Bay, the waters of the San Juan Islands or anything farther north. Another definition, given by NOAA , subdivides Puget Sound into five basins or regions. Four of these (including South Puget Sound ) correspond to areas within
10230-601: The tunnel, and on May 27 the first train passed through directly to Puget Sound. Despite this success, the Northern Pacific, like many U.S. roads, was living on borrowed time. From 1887 until 1893, Henry Villard returned to the board of directors. Though offered the presidency, he refused. An associate of Villard dating back to his time on the Kansas Pacific, Thomas Fletcher Oakes , assumed the presidency on September 20, 1888. In an effort to garner business, Oakes pursued an aggressive policy of branch line expansion. In addition,
10340-584: The waters north of Tacoma Narrows as well. An alternative term for Puget Sound, used by a number of Native Americans and environmental groups, is Whulge (or Whulj), an Anglicization of the Lushootseed name for Puget Sound, x̌ʷəlč , which literally means "sea, salt water, ocean, or sound". The name for the Lushootseed language, dxʷləšucid , is derived from the root word √ləš , an alternative name for Puget Sound. The USGS defines Puget Sound as all
10450-462: The waters south of three entrances from the Strait of Juan de Fuca . The main entrance at Admiralty Inlet is defined as a line between Point Wilson on the Olympic Peninsula , and Point Partridge on Whidbey Island . The second entrance is at Deception Pass along a line from West Point on Whidbey Island, to Deception Island, then to Rosario Head on Fidalgo Island . The third entrance is at
10560-602: The west in Washington Territory. On November 1, General George Washington Cass (formerly of the U.S. Army), became the third president of the company. General Cass had been a vice-president and on the board of directors earlier of the Pennsylvania Railroad , one of the major dominant Eastern lines and would lead the Northern Pacific through some of its most difficult times in the later 19th century. Attacks on survey parties and construction crews as they approached
10670-479: The western Federal territories and later states of Idaho , Minnesota, Montana , North Dakota , Oregon , Washington , and Wisconsin . In addition, the N.P. had an international branch running north to Winnipeg , capital of the province of Manitoba , in the newly organized Canada . The main activities were shipping wheat and other farm products, cattle, timber, and minerals; bringing in consumer goods, transporting passengers; and selling land. The Northern Pacific
10780-499: Was Charles Sanger Mellen . Though James J. Hill had purchased an interest in the Northern Pacific during the troubled days of 1896, Coster and Mellen would advocate, and follow, a staunchly independent line for the Northern Pacific for the next four years. Only the early death of Coster from overwork, and the promotion of Mellen to head the Morgan-controlled New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1903, would bring
10890-564: Was admitted to the union in 1889 as part of the Enabling Act , and the regions borders have since remained unchanged. The Washington State Ferries (WSF) are a state-run ferry system that connects the larger islands of Puget Sound the Washington mainland, and the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas. Its vessels carry both passengers and vehicular traffic. The system averaged 24.3 million passengers in
11000-501: Was bridged with a million-dollar span on October 21, 1883. Until then, crossing of the Missouri had had to be managed with a ferry boat service for most of the year; in winter, when ice was thick enough, rails were laid across the river itself. Former Union Army General Herman Haupt , another veteran of the Civil War , builder then of the wartime United States Military Railroad lines and
11110-506: Was depleted by human activities during the 20th century. There are ongoing efforts to restore Olympia oysters in Puget Sound. In 1967, an initial scuba survey estimated that were "about 110 million pounds of geoducks" (pronounced "gooey ducks") situated in Puget Sound's sediments. Also known as "king clam", geoducks are considered to be a delicacy in Asian countries. There are many seabird species of Puget Sound. Among these are grebes such as
11220-504: Was elected its first president on December 7, 1864. It could not use all the land and in the end took just under two-thirds of the allotted grant of 40 million acres. For the next six years, backers of the road struggled to find financing. Though John Gregory Smith , succeeded Perham as second president on January 5, 1865, groundbreaking did not take place until February 15, 1870, at Carlton, Minnesota Territory , 25 miles (40 km) west of Duluth (western port town on Lake Superior of
11330-507: Was first non-Indigenous group to enter Puget Sound since George Vancouver in 1792. The expedition went on to reach the Fraser River , first again to reach the lower Fraser since Fraser himself in 1808. The first non-Indigenous settlement in the Puget Sound area was Fort Nisqually , a fur trade post of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) built in 1833. Fort Nisqually was part of the HBC's Columbia District , headquartered at Fort Vancouver . In 1838,
11440-512: Was headquartered in Minnesota, first in Brainerd , then in the territorial / state capital of Saint Paul . It had a tumultuous financial history; the N.P. merged with other lines over a century later in 1970 to form the modern Burlington Northern Railroad , which in turn merged with the famous Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to become the renamed BNSF Railway in 1996, operating in the western U.S. The 38th United States Congress chartered
11550-557: Was made in part because one of the settlers, George Washington Bush , was considered black and the Provisional Government of Oregon banned the residency of mulattoes but did not actively enforce the restriction north of the river. In 1853 Washington Territory was formed from part of Oregon Territory . In 1888 the Northern Pacific railroad line reached Puget Sound, linking the region to eastern states. Washington State
11660-661: Was named receiver and Brayton Ives , a former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange , became president. In 1894, the 10th Cavalry Regiment of the U.S. Army was involved in protecting property of the Northern Pacific Railroad from striking workers. For the next three years, the Villard-Oakes interests and the Ives interest feuded for control of the Northern Pacific. Oakes was eventually forced out as receiver, but not before three separate courts were claiming jurisdiction over
11770-471: Was one of the worse in American history prior to the infamous Great Depression of the 1930s, sixty years into the future. The downturn ruined or nearly paralyzed newer railroads throughout the country.. The Northern Pacific however luckily survived bankruptcy that year, due to austerity measures put in place by President Cass. In fact, working with last-minute loans from Director John C. Ainsworth of Portland,
11880-500: Was the Northern Pacific's flagship passenger train and the Northern Pacific itself was built along the trail first blazed by the famed Lewis and Clark expedition first exploring the new Louisiana Purchase and the further American West in 1804 and 1805. The Northern Pacific reached Fargo, Dakota Territory (now North Dakota) on the border between Dakota and Minnesota Territories / states, early in June 1872. The following year, in June 1873,
11990-467: Was the possibility of a high-speed link directly with Chicago. Though the Burlington did not parallel the Great Northern or the Northern Pacific, it would give them a powerful railroad in the central West. Harriman was the first to approach the Burlington's aging leader, the irascible Charles Elliott Perkins . The price for control of the Burlington, as set by Perkins, was $ 200 a share, more than Harriman
12100-441: Was willing to pay. Hill met the price, and control of the Burlington was divided equally at about 48.5 percent each between the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific. Not to be outdone, Harriman now came up with a crafty plan: buy a controlling interest in the Northern Pacific and use its power on the Burlington to place friendly directors upon its board. On May 3, 1901, Harriman began his stock raid which would become known as
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