y of a Pacific Railroad. The article suggests
the advisability of building a line from New York to the Mouth of the
Oregon (Columbia River) by way of the south shore of Lake Erie and
Lake Michigan, crossing the Mississippi River between 41 and 42 north
latitude, the Missouri River about the mouth of the Platte, thence to
the Rocky Mountains near the source of the last named river, crossing
them and down the valley of the Oregon to the Pacific. It further
suggested that it be made a national project, or this failing the
grant of three millions of acres to a Company organized for the
purpose of constructing it. No name was signed to the article, but the
probabilities are that it was written by S. W. Dexter, the Editor of
the paper.

With the Whitman party leaving the East for the far northwest to
establish a Mission Station was the Rev. Samuel Parker, a Presbyterian
minister, who was sent under the auspices of the Missionary Board of
his Church to investigate and report on the mission situation and to
suggest a plan for Christianizing the Indians. He crossed the
continent to Oregon and on his return in 1838, his journal was
published. It presented a very correct and interesting account of the
scenes he visited. In it he says, "There would be no difficulty in the
way of constructing a railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean
* * * * and the time may not be so far distant when trips will be made
across the continent as they are now to Niagara Falls to see Nature's
wonders."

To just whom belongs the credit of being the first to advocate a
railroad to the Pacific Coast is in dispute. No doubt the idea
occurred to many at the time they were being introduced and
successfully operated in the East. The two items referred to seem to
be the first record of the idea or possibility.

About the same time, although the date is not positively fixed, Dr.
Samuel Bancroft Barlow, a practising physician of Greenville, Mass.,
commenced writing articles for the newspapers, advocating a Pacific
railroad and outlining a plan for its construction.

His proposition contemplated a railroad from New York City to the
mouth of the Columbia River. As illustrating the lack of knowledge
regarding the cost and operations of railroads, we quote from his
writings "Premising the length of the road would be three thousand
miles and the average cost ten thousand dollars per mile, we have
thirty million dollars as the total cost, and were the Unit