Manuscripts Collection
The Northern Pacific charter was signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864. Construction of the railroad began in 1870 with ground breaking ceremonies near Duluth, Minnesota. Headquartered first in Brainerd, Minnesota and later in St. Paul, Minnesota the railroad was given grants of land from the government that equaled close to 47,000,000 acres and spanned the distance from the Great Lakes to Puget Sound. In the early years the Northern Pacific was backed by the firm of Jay Cooke & Company until the financial panic of 1873 when the railroad went bankrupt and was reorganized.
In 1883 the railroad was completed at Gold Creek, Hellgate Canyon, Montana. Former president Ulysses S. Grant attended the ceremony and drove in the “golden spike” to commemorate the occasion. In 1893 a financial panic caused a second bankruptcy. By the early 1900s the railroad was again reorganized by James J. Hill, President of the Great Northern, and others. The railroad became part of the federal government transportation network during World War I and pioneered the first national park connection with the Yellowstone Park line. On March 2, 1970 the Northern Pacific was merged with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Great Northern, and Spokane, Portland and Seattle and their subsidiaries to become the Burlington Northern.
Records include minutes, reports, correspondence and subject files, financial and accounting records, photographs, engineering drawings, land records, engineering and valuation records, advertising literature, timetables, publications, and many other materials documenting the principal staff and operating departments. Those include the offices of the president, secretary, treasurer, and comptroller; the law and land departments; mechanical and chief engineers; public relations and personnel officers; and general managers and other operating officials.
Of special importance are the President's Office subject files, comprising 1,100 feet of executive correspondence, reports, statistical data, maps, drawings, and printed matter compiled to keep top officials informed on important current and past activities. They provide the best summary available of the company's experience over time.
In addition to the main line records are records of more than 200 branch lines, subsidiaries, and related companies. They include rail and highway transport, oil and mineral, land and townsite, power, irrigation, steamship, lumbering, and stockholding firms dispersed geographically from the Great Lakes to Puget Sound.
Accession number: Many, see individual series inventories.
Catalog ID number: 001735141
Work on the Northern Pacific Railway Company records was supported with funds granted by the Northwest Area Foundation, the Grotto Foundation, and the Jerome Foundation.
Records of the
The following listings link to detailed finding aids for each of the collection's 23 series:
The branch lines and their records are described in our library catalog.
Fuller inventories are available at the Minnesota Historical Society library.