Editing Northern Pacific Railway (section)

===Henry Villard and the Last Spike===
[[File:NothernPacificRailway-Yellowstone Brochure 1904.JPG|thumb|left|[[Yellowstone National Park]]'s N.P.R.R.-Yellowstone Park Line brochure, 1904|alt=]]
[[File:Oregon and Transcontinental stock.JPG|right|thumb|[[Oregon and Transcontinental|Oregon and Transcontinental Company]] stock certificate owned by 6th N.P.R.R. president, 1881-1884 [[Henry Villard]].]]
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 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 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 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 a daring raid. Using his European connections and a reputation for having "bested" [[Jay Gould]] in a battle for control of the [[Kansas Pacific|Kansas Pacific Railroad]] years before, Villard solicited and raised $8&nbsp;million 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, he used the funds to purchase control of the Northern Pacific.
[[File:NPcrash2.jpg|thumb|A Northern Pacific train derailment on the S-curve trestle of the [[Coeur d'Alene, Idaho|Coeur d'Alene]] cutoff near [[Mullan, Idaho]] (1903)]]

[[File:Driving the Golden Spike 01.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Amédée Joullin, ''Driving the Golden Spike'', (1903). Oil on canvas painting commemorating the “golden spike” driven uniting the east and west sections completing the Northern Pacific Railroad route after 13 years near [[Gold Creek, Montana]] in 1883]]

Despite a tough fight, Billings and his backers were forced to capitulate; he resigned the presidency June 9, 1881. [[Ashbel H. Barney]], former [[List of Wells Fargo presidents|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 the next two years, Villard and the Northern Pacific rode the whirlwind.

In 1882, {{convert|360|mi}} of main line and {{convert|368|mi}} of [[branch line]] were completed, bringing totals to {{convert|1347|mi}} and {{convert|731|mi}}, respectively. On October 10, 1882, the line from [[Wadena, Minnesota]], to [[Fergus Falls, Minnesota]], opened for service. The upper [[Missouri River]] 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 [[American Civil War|Civil War]], builder then of the wartime [[United States Military Railroad]] lines and 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, 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 a mile and half ({{Convert|1.5|mi|disp=out}}) of track each day. The track was technically completed on August 22. But to celebrate, and gain national publicity for investment opportunities in his region, Villard chartered four trains from the East and one train from the West to carry about 300 people for an official "Golden Spike" Ceremony at [[Northern Pacific Railroad Completion Site, 1883|Independence Creek]], a few miles east of the station at [[Gold Creek (Montana)|Gold Creek]] in [[Montana Territory]]. No expense was spared, and the list of guests included former President [[Ulysses S. Grant]], only two years before his tragic death from cancer, and Villard's in-laws, the family of famed longtime abolitionist [[William Lloyd Garrison]], who had just died four years earlier. After tearing up a short section of track in anticipation of the ceremony and then laying it back down at the event on September 8, 1883, the ceremonial Last Spike was driven in.<ref>{{cite journal | first=Jan| last=Taylor| title=The Northern Pacific Railroad's Last Spike Excursion| journal=Montana: The Magazine of Western History| date=2010| volume=60| issue=4| pages=16–35}}</ref>