In 1893, James J. Hill completed the first transcontinental railroad built without federal subsidies and then saved that railroad from collapse in what was up to then the worst recession in U.S. history even as railroads all around the Great … Continue reading
Taking a page from his father’s example of the Minnesota mineral lands, Louis Hill turned his timber lands in Oregon into a trust. Louis, however, wasn’t as generous as his father. Instead of making Great Northern Railway stockholders the beneficiaries … Continue reading
Before the Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountain wagon road was built, or not built as the case may be, a number of families had started farms near the route of the road in the Prineville area. They planned to claim … Continue reading
The recent posts about the Northern Pacific land grant and Red River Valley lands provides a good segue to some research I’ve been doing about a land grant in Oregon. This has no passenger train content and is only peripherally … Continue reading
