Editing Northern Pacific Railway (section)

===Settlement===
[[File:Northern Pacific RR 1881.jpg|thumb|Preferred Shares of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, stock certificate issued 28 November 1881|left]]
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 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 the decade between 1881 and 1890.<ref>{{cite journal| first=Stanley N.| last=Murray| title=Railroads and the Agricultural Development of the Red River Valley of the North, 1870-1890| journal=Agricultural History| date=Fall 1957| volume=31| issue=4| pages=57–66| jstor=3740486}}</ref>

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 
Dakota 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 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 the big cities warehouses, to be shipped in by rail.<ref>{{cite journal | first=Hiram M.| last=Drache| title=The Economic Aspects of the Northern Pacific Railroad in North Dakota| journal=North Dakota History| date=1967| volume=34| issue=4| pages=320–372}}</ref>

[[File:The Minnetonka.jpg|thumb|The Minnetonka]]The N.P. used its federal land grants as security to borrow money to build its system.<ref>{{cite journal | first=James B.| last=Hedges| title=The Colonization Work of the Northern Pacific Railroad| journal=Mississippi Valley Historical Review| volume=13| issue=3| date=December 1926| pages=311–342| jstor=1893110| doi=10.2307/1893110}}</ref> 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, 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 the railroad's holdings in the new state of [[North Dakota]] had been greatly reduced.<ref>{{cite journal | first=Ross R.| last=Controneo| title=Northern Pacific Officials and the Disposition of the Railroad's Land Grant in North Dakota after 1888| journal=North Dakota History| date=1970| volume=37| issue=2| pages=77–103}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| first=Lloyd J.| last=Mercer| title=Railroads and Land Grant Policy: A Study in Government Intervention| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LE_h0jeJEIYC&pg=PA198| year=1982| publisher=Beard Books| pages=198–200| via=Google Books| isbn=9781587981548}} for sales statistics</ref>