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St. Paul and Pacific Railroad

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Color image of the William Crooks locomotive, ca. 2000.

Steam locomotive used to power Minnesota's first passenger line for the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. Named in honor of William Crooks, the St. Paul and Pacific's chief engineer. Though the original William Crooks was nearly destroyed by fire in 1868, a rebuilt version went on to provide personal service for James J. Hill and appear at events publicizing Hill's Great Northern Railway.

The St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, or St. P & P, was one of Minnesota’s first major railroads. It was created in 1862 from the remnants of another bankrupt line and strengthened by valuable land grants. It survived financial hardships to become a cornerstone of the Great Northern Railway system, a legendary transcontinental route and an integral part of Minnesota railroad history.

The Minnesota territorial legislature issued a charter to the Minnesota and Pacific Railroad Company (M&P) in 1857. Construction of the line began the same year. The new railroad was to connect Stillwater and St. Paul through outlying communities. To the west, it would be built out to Breckenridge with a branch line extending to St. Cloud.

The M&P was the first active railroad in Minnesota. The land grant it received from the territorial legislature—nearly 2,460,000 acres—ranked in the top ten of those awarded. However, finances were a problem from the beginning. The company lost money through speculation and was forced to sell its assets. It declared bankruptcy in 1860.

The new state legislature purchased the M&P’s assets for $1,000. The company was reorganized in 1862 as the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company (St. P&P). Workers completed ten miles of track between St. Paul and St. Anthony but little else. The branch line reached Sauk Rapids in 1867, financed largely by bonds sold to Dutch investors. Only 210 miles of track were laid by 1865. Almost no track is recorded to have been built between 1867 and 1871.

The Northern Pacific (NP) purchased the St. P & P in December 1870. When the NP was forced to declare bankruptcy after the Panic of 1873, one of its original chief stockholders bought it back. The NP’s Dutch investors, who had the line placed into receivership to little effect, held the majority of shares of St. P & P ownership.

The line was significant for a number of firsts, despite its hardships. The wood-burning 4-4-0 locomotive William Crooks was the first railroad locomotive in the state. It hauled passengers between St. Paul and St. Anthony for an inaugural run in 1862 after being delivered upstream from La Crosse on the Mississippi River.

The railroad attracted the attention of powerful investors for the potential that its land grants represented. Chief among them was steamboat magnate and Minnesota entrepreneur James J. Hill. Hill convinced other investors of the line’s potential and eventually formed a group to buy the St. P & P from the Dutch with a combined investment of $5.5 million dollars.

The Dutch transferred their bonds to Hill’s investment group on March 13, 1878, thus giving up control of the company. Bonds were issued for renewed construction on the railroad. With the new bonds, the owner could receive up to $10,000 per mile of track completed. In February 1879, Hill’s group of investors bought out the Litchfield investor group, which had owned so much of the line since 1862. The St. P & P had showed a profit in excess of $500,000 for 1878.

Two different courts permitted the company to exit bankruptcy status in 1879. The new investment group, having directed the St. P & P out of bankruptcy, formed a new entity to take over the company, and on May 23, 1879, they named it the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway (St. P. M&M). The new company formally took over St. P & P assets in June 1879.

A decade later, James J. Hill ushered in the era of the Great Northern Railway. He changed the name of the Minneapolis and St. Cloud Railway to the Great Northern on September 18, 1889. Ownership of the St. P. M&M, the Montana Central Railway, and other systems was transferred to the Great Northern on February 1, 1890. Most of the modest, original right of way of the St. P & P lives on in the twenty-first century as trackage of the BNSF Railway system, which is itself a large system created by a massive railroad merger in 1995.

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© Minnesota Historical Society
  • Bibliography
  • Related Resources

Dorin, Patrick. Great Northern–Lines East. Berkeley, CA: Signature Press, 2001.

Fitzsimmons, Bernard. 150 Years of North American Railroads. Hadley Woods, Hertfordshire, U.K.: Winchmore, 1982.

Hidy, Ralph W. The Great Northern Railway: A History. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004.

Luecke, John. The Northern Pacific in Minnesota. St. Paul: Grenadier Publications, 2005.

Malone, Michael P. James J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.

Martin, Albro. James J. Hill and the Opening of the Northwest. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1991.

Prosser, Richard. Rails to the North Star–A Minnesota Railroad Atlas. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007.

Smalley, Eugene Virgil. History of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Boston: G. P. Putnam, 1883.

Veenendaal, A. J. The Saint Paul & Pacific Railroad: An Empire in the Making, 1862–1879. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 1999.

Yenne, Bill. Great Northern Empire Builder. St. Paul: MBI Publishing, 2005.

Related Images

Color image of the William Crooks locomotive, ca. 2000.
Color image of the William Crooks locomotive, ca. 2000.
Black and white photograph of Mr. Danforth, conductor for St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, 1869.
Black and white photograph of Mr. Danforth, conductor for St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, 1869.
Black and white photograph of St. Paul and Pacific Railroad employees, 1873. Photographed by Redington & Shaffer.
Black and white photograph of St. Paul and Pacific Railroad employees, 1873. Photographed by Redington & Shaffer.
Black and white photograph of the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad officials and guests at Breckenridge, 1873.
Black and white photograph of the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad officials and guests at Breckenridge, 1873.
Black and white photograph of the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad depot, Washington Avenue and North Fourth Avenue, Minneapolis, 1874.
Black and white photograph of the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad depot, Washington Avenue and North Fourth Avenue, Minneapolis, 1874.
Black and white photograph of the interior of passenger coach on St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, 1875.
Black and white photograph of the interior of passenger coach on St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, 1875.
Black and white photograph of shops and roundhouse of the First Division, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, a predecessor of Great Northern, St. Paul, 1875.
Black and white photograph of shops and roundhouse of the First Division, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, a predecessor of Great Northern, St. Paul, 1875.
Color image of a pass for the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, used by Henry Castle, 1878.
Color image of a pass for the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, used by Henry Castle, 1878.

Turning Point

In 1862, the wood-burning steam locomotive William Crooks is delivered to the new St. Paul and Pacific Railroad at a site on the Mississippi River west of La Crosse, Wisconsin. It soon makes its inaugural run from St. Paul to St. Anthony as the first steam locomotive in the state of Minnesota.

Chronology

1857

The Minnesota territorial legislature issues a charter for the Minnesota and Pacific Railroad. Construction begins the same year.

1860

The Minnesota and Pacific declares bankruptcy.

1862

The company is reorganized as the St. Paul and Pacific.

1865

Track is laid at a slower-than-average rate compared to other railroads, and by this year, only 210 miles have been laid.

1867

Newly laid track on the branch line finally reaches Sauk Rapids at a continually slow rate of progress.

1870

The Northern Pacific purchases the St. Paul and Pacific.

1871

Workers begin to lay more track for the railroad, ending a four-year construction delay.

1873

The Panic of 1873 wreaks havoc on the financial world, and the Northern Pacific declares bankruptcy. The St. Paul and Pacific is subsequently bought back by one of the company’s original chief shareholders.

March 13, 1878

The Dutch investors who have been key to St. Paul and Pacific ownership throughout its existence transfer their St. Paul and Pacific bonds to Minnesota shipping magnate James J. Hill.

1878

The St. P & P shows a profit of approximately $500,000.

February 1879

Hill’s group of investors buys remaining control of the St. Paul and Pacific from the Litchfield group, which had owned part of the company since 1862.

1879

In the same year, two different courts allow the St. P & P to emerge from bankruptcy.

May 23, 1879

Hill’s new group of investors moves to create a new company which will take over the St. Paul and Pacific. It is named the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba.

June 1879

The St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba formally takes control of the assets belonging to the St. Paul and Pacific.

February 1, 1890

Ownership of the St. P., M&M is transferred to James J. Hill’s nascent Great Northern Railway, which promises to be a massive transcontinental railroad network with regular service to the Pacific coast within several years.