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Eastern Washington Fieldhouse

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Eastern Washington Fieldhouse was a 5,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Cheney, Washington . It was home to the Eastern Washington State College (EWSC) Eagles basketball team until the Reese Court opened in 1975. The facility was destroyed by fire on April 25, 1977.

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81-486: The fieldhouse was moved to EWSC in 1947 and opened in 1948. The building had been located 70 miles away at Farragut Naval Training Station in Bayview, Idaho, where it had been used for drill. At EWSC the 800 foot long building was home to a gymnasium and swimming pool. In the fall of 1976 the building was condemned for life safety code violations. EWSC contracted with George Kelp Building Wrecking Company of Spokane for

162-484: A daring raid. Using his European connections and a reputation for having "bested" Jay Gould in a battle for control of the Kansas Pacific Railroad years before, Villard solicited and raised $ 8,000,000 million dollars from his associates. This was his famous "Blind Pool," Villard's associates were not told what the money would be used for. In this case, the funds were used by him to purchase control of

243-525: A large area, including extensive trackage in the western Federal territories and later states of Idaho , Minnesota, Montana , North Dakota , Oregon , Washington , and Wisconsin . In addition, the N.P. had an international branch running north to Winnipeg , capital of the province of Manitoba , in the newly organized Canada . The main activities were shipping wheat and other farm products, cattle, timber, and minerals; bringing in consumer goods, transporting passengers; and selling land. The Northern Pacific

324-562: A mile and half (2.4 km) of track each day. In early September, as the line neared completion. To celebrate, and to gain national publicity for investment opportunities in his region, Villard chartered four trains to carry guests from the East to Gold Creek in western Montana Territory No expense was spared, and the list of dignitaries included Frederick Billings, former 18th President Ulysses S. Grant (served 1869-1877), only two years before his tragic death from cancer, and Villard's in-laws,

405-442: A short amount of time for completion, and a large penalty if the deadline were missed. While crews worked on the tunnel, the railroad built a temporary switchback route across the pass. With numerous timber trestles and grades which approached six percent, the temporary line required two M class 2-10-0s —the two largest locomotives in the world (at that time)—to handle a tiny five-car train. On May 3, 1888, crews holed through

486-608: A stable path to that important interchange. At the same time, E. H. Harriman , head of the Union Pacific Railroad , was also looking for a road which could connect his company to Chicago. The road both Harriman and Hill looked at was the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy. To Harriman, the Burlington was a road which paralleled much of his own and offered tantalizing direct access to Chicago. For Hill as well, there

567-573: A threat in certain quarters. German-born former war correspondent / journalist and later newspaper / magazine publisher Henry Villard (6th President N.P.R.R. 1881-1884), had raised capital for western railroads in Europe (especially in the recently unified German Empire ), from 1871 to 1873. After returning to New York City in 1874, he invested on behalf of his clients in railroads in Oregon . Through Villard's work, most of these lines became properties of

648-404: A welder's torch found fuel in a pile of the building's dismantled material. With more than half the roof already removed, a "wind tunnel" effect was created as the fire pulled in the oxygen it needed to quickly grow. By 11:12   am, the fire chief was on the scene and sounded a mutual aid alarm. More than 30 firefighters from around the district responded. Within 10 minutes, the entire Fieldhouse

729-741: The Cape Horn to the Pacific Ocean. In Minnesota, the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad completed construction of its 155-mile (249 km) line stretching from Saint Paul east to Lake Superior at Duluth in 1870. It was leased to the Northern Pacific line six years later in the American Centennial celebration year of 1876 and was eventually absorbed by the Northern Pacific. The famed North Coast Limited

810-571: The Great Lakes ). The backing and promotions of famed New York City / Wall Street financier Jay Cooke , in the summer of 1870 brought the first real momentum to the railway company. Over the course of 1871, the Northern Pacific pushed westward from Minnesota Territory into the newer Dakota Territory (present-day state of North Dakota ). Surveyors and construction crews had to maneuver through swamps, bogs, and tamarack forests. The difficult terrain and insufficient funding delayed by six months

891-749: The Northern Securities Company , a move which would be undone by the Supreme Court in 1904 under the auspices of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act . Harriman was not immune either; he was forced to break up his holdings in the Union Pacific Railroad and the Southern Pacific Railroad a few years later. In 1903, Hill finally got his way with the House of Morgan. Howard Elliott , another veteran of

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972-606: The Snake River near Wallula, Washington . The Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines had completed the first trans-continental route 12 years earlier in 1869. Within a decade of his return, Villard was head of a transportation empire in the Pacific Northwest that had but one real competitor, the Northern Pacific Railroad. The Northern Pacific's trans-continental route completion threatened

1053-505: The federal government . This land was then deeded back to the state of Idaho and became Farragut State Park in 1966. A remaining military feature of the state park is the Museum at the Brig , located in the confinement facility of the naval training station. Its displays include boot camp, naval, and war memorabilia as well as historic prison cells. Don Samuelson , a future governor ,

1134-519: The football field just prior to the game against the visiting University of Idaho Vandals on 10 November, 1945 . Migrating deer were a traffic hazard and hunting was prohibited on federal property. Over 293,000 sailors received basic training at Farragut during its 30 months of existence. The last recruit graduated in March 1945 and the facility was decommissioned in June 1946. From 1946–49, it

1215-445: The northern Great Plains of central Canada to the northern states of the U.S . and especially its Midwestern big cities, manufacturing centers and markets. The U.S. Congress granted the Northern Pacific Railroad a generous potential bonanza of 60 million acres (94,000 sq mi; 240,000 km ) of land adjacent to the line in exchange for building rail transportation to an undeveloped western territory. Josiah Perham

1296-556: The $ 70 million worth of damages to the campus facilities. Farragut Naval Training Station Farragut Naval Training Station was a U.S. Navy training center during World War II in the Western United States . It was located in Northern Idaho at the south end of Lake Pend Oreille at Bayview , between Coeur d'Alene and Sandpoint . The base was named after David Farragut (1801–1870),

1377-539: The 1870s, began anew. Virgil Bogue , a veteran civil engineer , was sent to explore the Cascades again. On March 19, 1881, he discovered Stampede Pass . In 1883, John W. Sprague , the head of the new Pacific Division, drove the Golden Spike to mark the beginning of the railroad from what would become Kalama, Washington . He resigned a months later due to impaired health. In 1884, after the departure of Villard,

1458-479: The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, became president of the Northern Pacific on October 23. Elliott was a relative of the Burlington's crusty chieftain Charles Elliott Perkins, and more distantly the Burlington's great backer, John Murray Forbes . He had spent 20 years in the trenches of Midwest railroading, where rebates, pooling, expansion and rate wars had brought ruinous competition. Having seen

1539-560: The Dakota Territory conducted expeditions to protect the railroad survey and construction crews in Dakota and Montana Territories. In 1877, construction resumed in a small way. Northern Pacific pushed a branch line southeast from Tacoma to Puyallup, Washington and on to the coal fields around Wilkeson, Washington . Much of the coal was destined for export through Tacoma to San Francisco, California , where it would be thrown into

1620-602: The East after 1873, led by the Credit Mobilier Scandal and the Union Pacific Railroad stock fraud, caused a nationwide economic recession and financial panic in New York City's Wall Street financial district, stopping further railroad building for twelve years during the latter 1870s and early 1880s. In 1886, the company restarted and put down 164 miles (264 km) of main line across the northern Dakotas, with an additional 45 miles (72 km) from

1701-705: The European creditors' holding company, the Oregon and Transcontinental Company . Of the lines held by the Oregon and Transcontinental, the most important was the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company , which ran east from Portland, Oregon along the left bank of the Columbia River to a connection with the Union Pacific Railroad 's Oregon Short Line at the confluence of the Columbia River and

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1782-524: The Gladstone Shops, which closed in 1915. On May 24, 1879, Frederick H. Billings became the fifth president of the company. Billings' tenure would be short but ferocious. Reorganization, bond sales, and improvement in the U.S. economy allowed Northern Pacific to strike out across the upper Missouri River by letting a contract to build 100 miles (160 km) of railroad west of the river. The railroad's new-found strength, however, would be seen as

1863-682: The Mississippi River as the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy had done, Villard chose to lease the Wisconsin Central . Some backers of the Wisconsin Central had long associations with Villard, and an expensive lease was worked out between the two companies which was only undone by the Northern Pacific's second bankruptcy. The ultimate result was that the Northern Pacific was left without a direct connection to Chicago,

1944-502: The N.P. reached the shores of the upper Missouri River at Edwinton, Dakota Territory (now the state capital of Bismarck, North Dakota) . In the west sector, the N.P. track extended 25 miles (40 km) north from Kalama. Surveys were carried out in the Dakota Territory protected by 600 troops of the horse cavalry of the United States Army , under command of Civil War hero, General Winfield Scott Hancock , nicknamed "Hancock

2025-557: The Northern Pacific Corner. By the end of the day, he was short just 40,000 shares of common stock. Harriman placed an order to cover this, but was overridden by his broker, Jacob Schiff , of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. Hill, on the other hand, reached the vacationing Morgan in Italy and managed to place an order for 150,000 shares of common stock. Though Harriman might be able to control the preferred stock, Hill knew

2106-736: The Northern Pacific Railway Company on July 2, 1864, with the goals of connecting the Great Lakes with Puget Sound on the northwestern coast of the United States on the Pacific Ocean , opening vast new lands for farming, ranching, lumbering and mining, and linking the Federal territories and later newly admitted to the Union as states of Washington and Oregon to the rest of the country (plus connecting

2187-410: The Northern Pacific began building toward Stampede Pass from Wallula in the east and the area of Wilkeson in the west. By the end of the year, rails had reached Yakima, Washington in the east. A 77-mile (124 km) gap remained in 1886. In January of that year, Nelson Bennett was given a contract to construct a 9,850-foot (1.9 mi; 3.0 km) tunnel under Stampede Pass . The contract specified

2268-562: The Northern Pacific closer to the orbit of James J. Hill. In the late 1880s, the Villard regime, in another one of its costly missteps, attempted to stretch the Northern Pacific from the Twin Cities to the all-important rail hub of Chicago, Illinois . A costly project was begun in creating a union station and terminal facilities for a Northern Pacific which had yet to arrive. Rather than build directly down to Chicago, perhaps following

2349-541: The Northern Pacific experienced the first competition in the form of James Jerome Hill and his Great Northern Railway . The Great Northern, like the Northern Pacific before it, was pushing west from the Twin Cities towards Puget Sound, and would be completed in 1893. Mismanagement, sparse traffic, and the Panic of 1893 sounded the death knell for the Northern Pacific and Villard's interest in railroading. The company slipped into its second bankruptcy on October 20, 1893. Oakes

2430-478: The Northern Pacific still completed the line north along the Pacific Ocean and U.S. west coast from Kalama to Tacoma, a distance of 110 miles (180 km), before the end of 1873. On December 16, the first steam locomotive train arrived in Tacoma. But by the next year in 1874 the company was approaching insolvency. Northern Pacific slipped into its first bankruptcy on June 30, 1875. President Cass resigned to become

2511-603: The Northern Pacific's bankruptcy. Things came to a head in 1896, when first Edward Dean Adams was appointed president, then less than two months later, Edwin Winter . Ultimately, the task of straightening out the muddle of the Northern Pacific was turned over to J. P. Morgan . Morganization of the Northern Pacific, a process which befell many U.S. roads in the wake of the Panic of 1893, was handed to Morgan lieutenant Charles Henry Coster. The new president, beginning September 1, 1897,

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2592-401: The Northern Pacific. Despite a tough fight, Billings and his backers were forced to capitulate; he resigned the presidency June 9, 1881. Ashbel H. Barney , former President of Wells Fargo & Company (bankers and famous Western stagecoach line), served briefly as interim caretaker of the railroad from June 19 to September 15, when Villard was elected sixth president by the stockholders. For

2673-686: The Superlative" but defeated Democratic Party candidate in the 1880 presidential election . Fabricating shops and foundries were established in Brainerd, Minnesota Territory , a town named by the N.P. second President John Gregory Smith for Lawrence Brainerd , the father of his wife Anna Elizabeth Brainerd and a close friend and colleague. It was here further back on the line where the Railway established its first temporary offices and headquarters. A severe stock market crash and financial collapse in

2754-503: The United States and even growing exports overseas to Europe. Most of the settlers were German and Scandinavian immigrants who bought the land cheaply and raised large families. They shipped huge quantities of wheat to Minneapolis, then Milwaukee, Chicago and St. Louis connected by rail. while buying all sorts of farming equipment and home supplies (some ordered and delivered through the beginnings of published mail-order catalogs from

2835-673: The Yellowstone region by Sioux , Cheyenne , Arapaho , and Kiowa native warriors in northern Dakota and Minnesota Territories became so prevalent that the company received protection from additional mounted troops in units of the U.S. Army. In 1886, the Northern Pacific also opened colonization / emigration offices in Europe especially the newly unified German Empire and north to the kingdoms of Scandinavia , with good reliable steamship lines, attracting Nordic farmers with package deals of cheap land and transportation and purchase deals in

2916-555: The big cities warehouses, to be shipped in by rail. The N.P. used its federal land grants as security to borrow money to build its system. The federal government kept every other alternate section of land, and gave it away free to native and immigrant homesteaders / farmers under the Homestead Act of 1862. At first the railroad sold much of its holdings at low prices to land speculators in order to realize quick cash profits, and also to eliminate sizable annual tax bills. By 1905,

2997-515: The building's demolition. Old bolts in the building's roof construction could not be removed without cutting them out, and therefore a welder's torch was used. At 11:10   am, the Cheney fire department got the call that the Fieldhouse was on fire. Twice before, small fires had been accidentally started by the demolition team. But this fire was different. The fire was started when a spark from

3078-789: The civilian Pennsylvania Railroad , organized the Northern Pacific Beneficial Association in 1881. Inspired by the progressive medical care and insurance program then being introduced in the German Empire in Europe and a forerunner of the modern health maintenance organization , the N.P.B.A. ultimately established a series of four medical hospitals across the N.P.R.R. route system in Saint Paul, Minnesota ; Glendive, Montana ; Missoula, Montana ; and Tacoma, Washington , to care for its railroad employees, retirees, and their families. On January 15, 1883,

3159-544: The company bylaws allowed for the holders of the common stock to vote to retire the preferred. In three days, the Harriman-Hill imbroglio managed to wreak havoc on the stock market. Northern Pacific stock was quoted at $ 150 a share on May 6 and is reported to have traded as much as $ 1,000 a share behind the scenes. Harriman and Hill now worked to settle the issue for brokers to avoid panic. Hill, for his part, attempted to avoid future stock raids by placing his holdings in

3240-592: The construction phase in Minnesota. The N.P. also began building its line north from Kalama, Washington Territory , on the Columbia River just outside of Portland, Oregon , towards the Puget Sound . Four small construction locomotive engines were purchased, the Minnetonka , Itaska , Ottertail and St. Cloud , the first of which was shipped to Kalama by ship all around the continent of South America and

3321-433: The court-appointed receiver of the company, and Charles Barstow Wright became its fourth president. Frederick Billings , namesake of future Billings, Montana , formulated a reorganization plan which was put into effect. Throughout 1874 to 1876, elements of the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the U.S. Army under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer , operating out of Fort Abraham Lincoln and Fort Rice in

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3402-668: The current Magness Arena . The Navy has maintained a presence on Lake Pend Oreille at Bayview with its Acoustic Research Detachment, part of the Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center . In the deep (1,150 feet (350 m)) and isolated waters of Lake Pend Oreille, scaled-down prototypes of submarines are tested; a free-field ocean-like environment is available without the problems and costs. Northern Pacific Railway The Northern Pacific Railway ( reporting mark NP )

3483-444: The decade between 1881 and 1890. The Northern Pacific reached Dakota Territory at Fargo in 1872 and began its career as one of the central factors in the economic growth of the future Dakotas Territory and later its twin states North and South. The climate, although very cold in the continental interior heartland was still suitable for wheat, which was in high demand in the eastern and Mid-Western rapidly developing industrial cities of

3564-534: The easy access of cheap lumber. The Brainerd Shops to the east remained as the largest locomotive repair facility throughout the steam era. Another shops / foundry site was located at the center mid-way of the mainline in Livingston, Montana , which became the primary diesel engine maintenance facility after 1955. In St. Paul, Minnesota were the Como Shops, which maintained most of the passenger car fleet, and

3645-488: The effects of having multiple railroads attempt to serve the same destination, he was very much in tune with James J. Hill's philosophy of "community of interest," a loose affiliation or collusion among roads in an attempt to avoid duplicating routes, rate wars, weak finances and ultimately bankruptcies and reorganizations. Elliott would be left to make peace with the Hill-controlled Great Northern;

3726-539: The family of famed longtime abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison , who had just died four years earlier. On September 8, 1883, the Gold Spike was driven near Gold Creek in the Montana Territory . Villard's fall was swifter than his ascendancy. Like Jay Cooke, he was now consumed by the enormous costs of constructing the railroad. Wall Street bears attacked the stock shortly after the Golden Spike, after

3807-531: The fire hoses. The heat between the buildings was quite high. Without the cooling from the garden hoses, the students on the fire hoses would not have been able to stay in there as they did not have firefighter's turnouts for protection. The Cheney Fire Department Chief Tony Singleton estimated that fire damage to the department's equipment exceeded $ 6,000. Total damage figures for the ROTC building came out at over $ 25,000 according to Singleton. The ROTC building's roof

3888-429: The fireboxes of Central Pacific Railroad 's steam engines locomotives. This small amount of construction was one of the largest projects the company would undertake in the years between 1874 and 1880. That same year the company built a large shop complex at Edison, Washington (now part of south Tacoma metropolitan area ). The Edison Shops became the largest on the system for building and repairing freight cars due to

3969-463: The first admiral in the U.S. Navy and the leading naval officer during the Civil War . The site became Farragut State Park 58 years ago in 1966. Ground was broken on the 4,160-acre (1,700 ha) naval reservation in March 1942, and its first phase opened in early August; by September the base had a population of 55,000, making it the largest "city" in the state. At the time, Farragut

4050-514: The first N.P.R.R. train reached Livingston, Montana , at the eastern foot of the Bozeman Pass . Livingston, like Brainerd and South Tacoma before it, would grow to encompass a large backshop handling heavy repairs for the Northern Pacific Railroad equipment. It would also mark the east–west dividing line on the Northern Pacific route system. Villard pushed hard for the completion of the Northern Pacific in 1883. His crews laid an average of

4131-517: The holdings of Villard in the Northwest, and especially in Portland. Portland unfortunately could possibly become a second-class city if the Puget Sound 's deeper and larger ports at Tacoma and nearby Seattle, Washington , were further developed and connected to the East by rail. Villard, who had been building a monopoly of river and rail transportation in Oregon for several years, now launched

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4212-454: The mounting construction costs. Cooke overestimated his managerial skills and failed to appreciate the limits of a banker's ability to be also a promoter, and the danger of freezing his assets in the bonds of the Northern Pacific. Cooke and Company went bankrupt on September 18, 1873. Soon the financial Panic of 1873 engulfed the United States, business and financial community extending to numerous industries beginning an economic depression that

4293-524: The new German Empire ), for construction funding. Construction began in 1870 and the main line opened all the way from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Ocean , just south of the United States-Canada border when Ulysses S. Grant , drove in the final "golden spike" completing the line in western Montana Territory (future State of Montana in 1889), on September 8, 1883. The railroad had about 6,800 miles (10,900 km) of track and served

4374-547: The next four years, until the return of the Villard group, Harris worked at improving the property and ending its tangled relationship with the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. Throughout the mid-1880s, the Northern Pacific pushed to reach Puget Sound directly, rather than by means of a roundabout route that followed the Columbia River. Surveys of the Cascade Mountains , carried out intermittently since

4455-405: The next two years, Villard and the Northern Pacific rode the whirlwind. In 1882, 360 miles (580 km) of main line and 368 miles (592 km) of branch line were completed, bringing totals to 1,347 miles (2,168 km) and 731 miles (1,176 km), respectively. On October 10, 1882, the line from Wadena, Minnesota , to Fergus Falls, Minnesota , opened for service. The upper Missouri River

4536-430: The previous three years the financial house of Jay Cooke and Company in New York City had been throwing money into the construction of the Northern Pacific. As with many western transcontinentals , the staggering costs of building a railroad into a vast wilderness prairie had been drastically underestimated. Cooke had little success in marketing the N.P.R.R. bonds in Europe and overextended his house in meeting overdrafts of

4617-505: The primary interchange point for most of the large U.S. railroads. Fortunately, the Northern Pacific was not alone. James J. Hill , controller of the Great Northern Railway , which was completed between the Twin Cities and Puget Sound in 1893, also lacked a direct connection to Chicago. Hill went looking for a road with an existing route between the Twin Cities and Chicago which could be rolled into his holdings and give him

4698-509: The railroad company's land policies changed, after it was judged a costly mistake to have sold much of the land at wholesale prices. With better railroad service and improved more educated and scientific methods of farming and soil conservation in future decades in the special unique conditions on the Great Plains. The Northern Pacific then easily sold what had been heretofore termed "worthless" land directly to farmers at good prices. By 1910

4779-559: The railroad's holdings in the new state of North Dakota had been greatly reduced. In 1873, Northern Pacific made impressive strides before a terrible stumble. Rails from the east reached the Missouri River on June 4. After several years of study, Tacoma, Washington Territory near the Pacific Coast and Puget Sound for waterborne shipping port facilities was selected as the road's western terminus on July 14, 1873. For

4860-480: The realization that the Northern Pacific was a very long road with very little business. Villard himself suffered a nervous breakdown in the days after the driving of the Golden Spike, and he left the presidency of the Northern Pacific in January 1884. Again, the presidency of the Northern Pacific was handed to a professional railroader, Robert Harris , former head of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad . For

4941-438: The regular firefighters, there were many students involved. There were 2 fire hoses between the fieldhouse and the ROTC building. These were entirely manned by students. Their primary responsibility was protecting the ROTC building. At times they had to turn the hoses up into the eaves of the ROTC building's roof as fires had started there due to the heat. Other groups of students were using garden hoses to wet down those who were on

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5022-586: The similar cold higher latitudes of climate of the north-central North America continent, but with richer unplowed expansive soil. The success of the N.P. was based on the abundant crops of wheat and other grains already grown and the attraction to settlers of the lower Red River Valley of the Red River of the North, Minnesota, Missouri and Mississippi Rivers basins along the Minnesota-Dakota border in

5103-514: The station, contracted photographer Ross Hall to produce group and portrait photos of all recruits and companies. Operator of a studio in nearby Sandpoint , Hall employed up to fifteen workers in creating a photographic archive of more than 300,000 images. The base was used as a prisoner of war camp in 1945, run by the U.S. Army ; nearly 900 Germans , most captured shortly after D-Day , worked as gardeners and maintenance personnel. The POW's removed eight inches (20 cm) of snow from

5184-608: The tunnel, and on May 27 the first train passed through directly to Puget Sound. Despite this success, the Northern Pacific, like many U.S. roads, was living on borrowed time. From 1887 until 1893, Henry Villard returned to the board of directors. Though offered the presidency, he refused. An associate of Villard dating back to his time on the Kansas Pacific, Thomas Fletcher Oakes , assumed the presidency on September 20, 1888. In an effort to garner business, Oakes pursued an aggressive policy of branch line expansion. In addition,

5265-620: The west in Washington Territory. On November 1, General George Washington Cass (formerly of the U.S. Army), became the third president of the company. General Cass had been a vice-president and on the board of directors earlier of the Pennsylvania Railroad , one of the major dominant Eastern lines and would lead the Northern Pacific through some of its most difficult times in the later 19th century. Attacks on survey parties and construction crews as they approached

5346-430: Was Charles Sanger Mellen . Though James J. Hill had purchased an interest in the Northern Pacific during the troubled days of 1896, Coster and Mellen would advocate, and follow, a staunchly independent line for the Northern Pacific for the next four years. Only the early death of Coster from overwork, and the promotion of Mellen to head the Morgan-controlled New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1903, would bring

5427-580: Was an important transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States , from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest . It was approved and chartered in 1864 by the 38th Congress of the United States in the national / federal capital of Washington, D.C. , during the last years of the American Civil War (1861-1865), and given nearly 40 million acres (62,000 sq mi; 160,000 km ) of adjacent land grants , which it used to raise additional money in Europe (especially in President Henry Villard's home country of

5508-399: Was bridged with a million-dollar span on October 21, 1883. Until then, crossing of the Missouri had had to be managed with a ferry boat service for most of the year; in winter, when ice was thick enough, rails were laid across the river itself. Former Union Army General Herman Haupt , another veteran of the Civil War , builder then of the wartime United States Military Railroad lines and

5589-504: Was elected its first president on December 7, 1864. It could not use all the land and in the end took just under two-thirds of the allotted grant of 40 million acres. For the next six years, backers of the road struggled to find financing. Though John Gregory Smith , succeeded Perham as second president on January 5, 1865, groundbreaking did not take place until February 15, 1870, at Carlton, Minnesota Territory , 25 miles (40 km) west of Duluth (western port town on Lake Superior of

5670-438: Was engulfed in flames. The blaze was so hot that reportedly cars parked almost 100 feet away were "scorched." A Cheney fire truck was even damaged by the heat. The firefighters, realizing the building was a complete loss, focused on containment and protecting the surrounding buildings. The fire wasn't under control until 2:00   pm. But winds in the area required crews to remain on scene an additional 12 hours. In addition to

5751-460: Was headquartered in Minnesota, first in Brainerd , then in the territorial / state capital of Saint Paul . It had a tumultuous financial history; the N.P. merged with other lines over a century later in 1970 to form the modern Burlington Northern Railroad , which in turn merged with the famous Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to become the renamed BNSF Railway in 1996, operating in the western U.S. The 38th United States Congress chartered

5832-682: Was named receiver and Brayton Ives , a former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange , became president. In 1894, the 10th Cavalry Regiment of the U.S. Army was involved in protecting property of the Northern Pacific Railroad from striking workers. For the next three years, the Villard-Oakes interests and the Ives interest feuded for control of the Northern Pacific. Oakes was eventually forced out as receiver, but not before three separate courts were claiming jurisdiction over

5913-476: Was one of the worse in American history prior to the infamous Great Depression of the 1930s, sixty years into the future. The downturn ruined or nearly paralyzed newer railroads throughout the country.. The Northern Pacific however luckily survived bankruptcy that year, due to austerity measures put in place by President Cass. In fact, working with last-minute loans from Director John C. Ainsworth of Portland,

5994-557: Was received in June 1942, and Wallace -born movie star Lana Turner , who was promoting War Bonds to base contract employees, made an appearance. The installation was formally activated in mid-September; a few days later, it was visited by President Roosevelt , part of a nationwide tour which was kept secret until he returned to the White House . In 1942, Lt. Commander Henry T. McMaster, supervisor of support services at

6075-443: Was so badly damaged that classes had to be held in another building for nearly a year. Sixteen firemen were treated for smoke inhalation and one fireman was treated for a cut on his hand. According to Singleton the toll of the fire could have been more serious than it turned out to be. Lt. Gene Bloom almost lost his life due to a falling roof shortly after responding to the fire. Eastern Washington State College sought reimbursement for

6156-570: Was stationed at Farragut as a weapons instructor. Originally from Illinois in the Midwest , he stayed in Sandpoint after the war and was elected governor in 1966 . The Drill Hall at the base was shipped to Colorado after the war and became the University of Denver Arena , which served for nearly a half century as the home of DU Pioneers ice hockey . It was razed in 1997 to make way for

6237-453: Was the Northern Pacific's flagship passenger train and the Northern Pacific itself was built along the trail first blazed by the famed Lewis and Clark expedition first exploring the new Louisiana Purchase and the further American West in 1804 and 1805. The Northern Pacific reached Fargo, Dakota Territory (now North Dakota) on the border between Dakota and Minnesota Territories / states, early in June 1872. The following year, in June 1873,

6318-474: Was the possibility of a high-speed link directly with Chicago. Though the Burlington did not parallel the Great Northern or the Northern Pacific, it would give them a powerful railroad in the central West. Harriman was the first to approach the Burlington's aging leader, the irascible Charles Elliott Perkins . The price for control of the Burlington, as set by Perkins, was $ 200 a share, more than Harriman

6399-635: Was the second-largest training center in the world (behind Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago ), and liberty trains ran three times daily to Spokane, Washington , about an hour away. Rail service aboard the station was provided by the Northern Pacific Railway over a 5½-mile (9 km) line that connected to the NP main line at Athol . The first freight train reached the facility on 5 June 1942. A shipment of 75 lifeboats, removed from passenger liners held in port by war restrictions,

6480-561: Was the site of the Farragut College and Technical Institute, which had copious athletic facilities. It ceased operations prior to the fall term in 1949, due to decreased enrollment and financial difficulties. In 1950, 3,854 acres (1,600 ha) were transferred to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and became Farragut Wildlife Management Area . In 1964, 2,566 acres (1,000 ha) were transferred back to

6561-441: Was willing to pay. Hill met the price, and control of the Burlington was divided equally at about 48.5 percent each between the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific. Not to be outdone, Harriman now came up with a crafty plan: buy a controlling interest in the Northern Pacific and use its power on the Burlington to place friendly directors upon its board. On May 3, 1901, Harriman began his stock raid which would become known as

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