The Paul Bunyan State Trail is a multi-use recreational rail trail in north-central Minnesota , United States, running between the cities of Baxter / Brainerd and Bemidji . It is named after the giant lumberjack Paul Bunyan of American folklore.
30-690: The route was part of the Burlington Northern Railroad lines abandoned in 1983. The trail covers a distance of 120 miles (190 km). The southern extension, completed in 2012, moved the southern terminus to Crow Wing State Park . The route through Bemidji follows city streets until an off-road path can be secured. The Paul Bunyan State Trail intersects with the Heartland State Trail in Walker and in Bemidji joins
60-861: A headquarters building, the Railroad and Bank Building in Saint Paul, Minnesota . In 1905, the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway was founded. Like the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, this new railroad was co-owned by the Great Northern and Northern Pacific and allowed both to access Portland via the Columbia River Gorge. Leaders attempted to merge another two times, in 1927 and 1955, but were unsuccessful. The four railroads were finally cleared to merge on March 2, 1970, after
90-710: A legal challenge that once again went to the Supreme Court. By that time, the GN's president was John M. Budd , the NP's president was Louis W. Menk , and the CB&;Q's president was William John Quinn . Under the leadership of Budd and Menk, the newly established holding company , Burlington Northern, Inc. purchased the four railroads and merged them into the Burlington Northern Railroad. Budd became
120-623: A new company, Burlington Resources in 1988. The railroad once again relocated its headquarters in 1988, moving from Seattle to Fort Worth, Texas . On September 22, 1995, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway merged with the Burlington Northern to create the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. However, the merger was not official until December 31, 1996, when a common dispatching system
150-707: Is still owned and operated to this day by the BNSF Railway under a purchase-of-service agreement with Metra . In May 1980 when Mount St. Helens erupted , the BNR owned the land around the summit of Mount St. Helens in Washington state. In the 19th century, the United States government distributed land to railroads as a way to open up the American West and the 9,677-foot (2,950 m) peak was granted to
180-534: The North Coast Limited , Mainstreeter , Empire Builder , Western Star , Denver Zephyr , " Gopher ", and " International ", until Amtrak took over intercity passenger service in May 1971, thus becoming the last "new" Class I railroad to operate its own passenger trains. The BN also operated a commuter line inherited from the CB&Q from Aurora, Illinois to Chicago Union Station . This line
210-520: The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway on December 31, 1996, to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway (later renamed BNSF Railway ), which was owned by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation . That corporation was purchased in 2009 by Berkshire Hathaway , which is controlled by investor Warren Buffett . The Burlington Northern Railroad was the product of the merger of four major railroads:
240-645: The Blue Ox Trail , which continues 110 miles (180 km) to the Canada–United States border . As of 2013, the Bemidji Blue Ox Marathon runs on the portion of the trail along Lake Bemidji to Lake Bemidji State Park. 46°59′55″N 94°31′49″W / 46.99861°N 94.53028°W / 46.99861; -94.53028 Burlington Northern Railroad The Burlington Northern Railroad ( reporting mark BN )
270-579: The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad , a company half-owned by the Great Northern in cooperation with the Northern Pacific Railway , from 1930 until his retirement in 1949. In 1952, Budd was traveling in his private train car that "drifted" past a switch onto the main line. While railroad men attempted to rectify the situation, Budd's train was struck by another traveling in the opposite direction. Again in 1966, his "home on wheels"
300-625: The Great Northern Railway (GN), the Northern Pacific Railway (NP), the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway (SP&S) and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q). The four railroads shared a very intertwined history, due to the efforts of James J. Hill , the railroad tycoon who had founded the Great Northern Railway. Hill purchased an interest in the Northern Pacific in 1896 as
330-729: The Tri-Cities , then northwest to Yakima, Washington , and crossed under the Cascade Range at Stampede Tunnel, descending to the Green River Valley at Auburn, Washington where it connected with existing NP lines from British Columbia to Portland, Oregon . The Spokane, Portland and Seattle ran southwest to the Tri-Cities, then followed the north bank of the Columbia River to Vancouver, Washington . With
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#1732780915923360-483: The 727th Railway Operating Battalion. He was discharged in November 1945. From November 1945, to May 1947, Budd was assistant general manager for Lines East of Williston, North Dakota , on the Great Northern. In June 1947, he joined the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad as its president, a position he held until May 1949. In this capacity he was the youngest president of any U.S. Class I railroad. He returned to
390-401: The Great Northern in May 1949, following the death of Thomas F. Dixon to become the Great Northern's vice-president in charge of operations. He held this position until May 1951, when he was named president, succeeding Francis J. Gavin who had been in office since 1939. John Budd's father, Ralph Budd , another civil engineer, was president of the Great Northern from 1919 to 1930, and president of
420-635: The Northern Pacific. It was inherited in the 1970 merger by Burlington Northern. Following the eruption the land including the volcano was subsequently transferred in a land swap between the railroad and the United States Forest Service so the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument could be established. On November 21, 1980, the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway was acquired, giving the railroad trackage as far south as Florida . In
450-544: The acquisition of the St. Louis – San Francisco Railway the route was extended into the South Central and Southeastern United States . Transport Statistics shows BN operated 23609 miles of line and 34691 miles of track at the end of 1970; it shows 4547 SLSF miles of line not including QA&P and AT&N. At the end of 1981 BN showed 27,374 miles (44,054 km) of line and 40,041 miles (64,440 km) of track. At
480-517: The company's first board chairman and CEO while Menk became the company's first president and COO. To further expand the Burlington Northern, a single track was constructed in 1972 into the Powder River Basin to serve various coal mines. The expansion was a source of traffic unprecedented in United States railroad history. In 1971, the first full year for the new railroad, trains carried 64,116 million revenue ton-miles of freight, by 1979
510-586: The early 1980s two independently operated railroads, owned by Burlington Northern Inc. were absorbed into the Burlington Northern Railroad; the Colorado and Southern Railway was absorbed in 1981, followed by the Fort Worth and Denver Railway in 1982. The railroad relocated its headquarters from Saint Paul to Seattle, Washington in 1981, as well as its parent company and sister companies. All of Burlington Northern, Inc's non-rail operations were spun off to
540-707: The establishment of the Northern Securities Company , a trust that controlled all three, with Hill serving as president. The company was sued in 1902 under the Sherman Antitrust Act and in 1904 the Justice Department won in the Supreme Court ruling Northern Securities Co. v. United States . Although the ruling forced the three companies to be operated independently, they were still closely linked, even sharing
570-467: The largest corporate bankruptcy in the United States to that time. Budd graduated from Yale University with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1930. Budd joined the Great Northern Railway on his summers away from Yale in 1925 and 1926. Following graduation, he joined the Great Northern as assistant to the electrical engineer, a position he held from 1930 to 1932. In 1933 he
600-401: The railway endured a period of financial turmoil. Hill attempted to merge the two railways but was rebuffed by the leaders of the Northern Pacific. In 1901, the two railways teamed up to purchase nearly all shares of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, giving both a needed connection to Chicago, the nation's railroad hub. That same year, came the next attempt to merge the railroads with
630-406: The routes continued northwest through Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota to Grand Forks, North Dakota . From Grand Forks the routes ran west through North Dakota , Montana , and Idaho to Spokane, Washington . The former GN routed through North Dakota/Northern Montana, crossing the continental divide at Marias Pass , while the former NP line routed through the southern part of Montana (which
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#1732780915923660-437: The time of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens the summit of the volcano that was blasted away was owned by Burlington Northern. Following the eruption, Burlington Northern agreed to a land swap with the U.S. government and exchanged its square mile (2.59 square kilometer ) of land on the mountain for national forest land elsewhere to allow for the creation of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument to preserve
690-536: The total was 135,004 million. Most of the increase was attributed to Powder River coal from Wyoming. The Burlington Northern, along with handling freight trains, briefly operated inter-city passenger trains. The BN had started operations just a matter of weeks before the end of service of the original California Zephyr , which had been operated by the CB&Q, in conjunction with the Denver and Rio Grande Western and Western Pacific railroads, and continued to operate
720-475: The volcano and allow for its aftermath to be scientifically studied. John M. Budd John Marshall Budd (November 2, 1907 – October 25, 1979) was an American railroad executive who was the chairman and chief executive officer of Burlington Northern Railroad from 1970 to 1971, chairman from 1971 to 1972, and a director from 1970 to 1977. Budd was born November 2, 1907, in Des Moines, Iowa . He
750-462: Was a United States–based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1995. Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroading with the chartering in 1848 of the Chicago and Aurora Railroad , a direct ancestor line of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad , which lends Burlington to the names of various merger-produced successors. Burlington Northern acquired
780-568: Was appointed assistant trainmaster at Willmar, Minnesota . From 1933 to 1940 he was assistant trainmaster and then trainmaster at Sioux City, South Dakota , Wenatchee, Washington , and Spokane, Washington . From 1940 to 1942 he served as division superintendent at Klamath Falls, Oregon , then Whitefish, Montana . In 1942 Budd was commissioned a major in the U.S. Army 's Military Railway Service . He served in Algeria , Italy , France and Germany . Promoted to lieutenant colonel, he commanded
810-707: Was attached to the Empire Builder when he and his wife were involved in the Great Northern Buelow wreck . He was not hurt either time though two others died in each accident. In 1955, Budd entered discussions with Robert Stetson Macfarlane , president of the Northern Pacific, about merger of the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and the Burlington. The companies continued to the Interstate Commerce Commission and
840-425: Was established, Santa Fe's non-union dispatchers were unionized and the implementation of Santa Fe's train identification codes systemwide. On January 24, 2005, the railroad shortened its name to BNSF Railway. The Burlington Northern traversed the most northerly routes of any railroad in the western United States. These routes started at Chicago, Illinois and ran west-northwest to La Crosse, Wisconsin . From here
870-546: Was spun off to Montana Rail Link in 1987), crossing the continental divide at Mullan and Homestake Passes . At Spokane the routes split into three. The former Great Northern route ran west to Wenatchee, Washington , crossed under the Cascade Range at New Cascade Tunnel on Stevens Pass , and descended to the Puget Sound region through Everett, Washington . The former Northern Pacific turned southwest towards
900-432: Was the son of Ralph Budd and Georianna Marshall Budd. He married Frances Bullard on January 31, 1931. They had two children: John M. Budd, Jr., and William B. Budd. John M. Budd planned and led one of the largest railroad mergers (Burlington Northern) in the United States to 1970. This is in marked contrast with the attempted merger and subsequent bankruptcy of Penn Central Transportation between 1968 and 1970, which became
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