past two decades; small cities have spread into great centers of
manufacture and trade; hundreds of smaller towns have sprung up; natural
resources of untold value have been developed. In the meanwhile the
Northern Pacific has forged ahead in its earnings and profits, and the
stock of the road has come to be known as one of the highest class of
investment issues. Although new competition appeared, in both the local
and the through business of the company--notably by the extension of the
St. Paul system largely through Northern Pacific territory to the Puget
Sound region--the superior modern business management of James J. Hill,
backed by the strong resources of the Morgan banking interests, made the
Northern Pacific one of the standard railroad systems of America.

CHAPTER VIII. BUILDING ALONG THE SANTA FE TRAIL

The Santa Fe Route, or the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad,
which has in modern times developed into one of the largest and most
profitable railroad systems in this country, was projected long before
the idea of a transcontinental line to the Pacific coast had taken full
possession of men's minds. As early as 1858 a plan was worked out for
the construction of a line of about forty miles within the State of
Kansas to connect what were then the obscure and unimportant townships
of Atchison and Topeka. At that time not a mile of railroad had been
built in Kansas or in any Territory west of that State, except on
the Pacific coast, to which there had been an enormous immigration
occasioned by the wonderful discovery of gold.

The outbreak of the Civil War delayed the undertaking of the
Atchison-Topeka line, and nothing more was done until 1868. In that year
new interests took control of the enterprise and acquired rights for its
extension through southwestern Kansas in the direction of Santa Fe,
the capital of the Territory of New Mexico. The company, which had
originally been the Atchison and Topeka, now changed its name to the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and obtained from the Government a very
valuable land grant of 6400 acres for every mile constructed, the only
condition being that within ten years the line should be completed from
Atchison to the western border of Kansas. The plan involved the building
of only 470 miles of road, which when finished would assure the company
nearly three million acres of land within the State of Kansas.

A decade would seem to be ample time for the construction of