Anyone know where the first tracks were laid in Minnesota?
Good questions because the authorities do not seem to agree.
This article sayd 1856, in Stillwater
http://www.lhsmn.org/research/firstrailroadinminnesota.html
http://www.lhsmn.org/railroad/index.html
This website on Minnesota history
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/mnstatehistory/timeline.html
says 1862 but that is so late I can hardly believe it, or rather the first tracks might not be the same thing as the first completed actual rail line.
| 1862 | The Dakota Conflict sweeps across Minnesota with a series of attacks motivated by hungry Dakota enraged by the failure of land treaties and unfair fiscal practices of local traders. By the end of the conflict 486 white settlers would be dead. On December 26 thirty-eight Indians were hung at Mankato. Minnesota’s first railroad is completed, connecting Minneapolis and Saint Paul. |
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This website has the history of railroading in Minneapolis and has several interesting photographs
http://www.mpls.lib.mn.us/history/tr2.asp
Dave Nelson
According to james Baker, in Volume 9 of the Minnesota Historical Society collections, the first railroad in Minnesota was laid between Saint Paul and Saint Anthony (which is now part of Minneapolis), and was completed and running June 28, 1862. The company was named the St. Paul and Pacific. It was one of the forerunners to present-day giant Burlington Northern Sante Fe. The first engine was the William Crooks, and this may be seen at the Lake Superior Museum of Transportation in Duluth.
Source: MHS Collections, volume 9, pg. 26.
Edit: many railroad companies had been charterd by the State Legislature by admission to the union in 1858. 27 lines were chartered between 1853 and 1857, according to General James Baker, in the MHS Collections article “History of Transporation in Minnesota” mentioned above. Grading for roadbeds had been done in some sections by 1858, but several of the land grant railroads failed to pay interest on the bonds that were issued, and the loans were repealed in 1860, with work being suspended. The state of MN placed liens against each of the lines in 1860, which resulted in the State taking possession of all the lands and property of the railroad companies. The line across Stillwater was graded, but the first line in operation was the one running between Saint Paul and Saint Anthony, in 1862.
That would have been the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad. they completed the first ten miles of track in Minnesota, from St. Paul to St. Anthony (present day Minneapolis) in 1862. This early RR would eventually become the Great Northern Railway in February 1890.
Dan