economic depression. Considerable blame was heaped upon the Northern Pacific Company because of its wild scheme to build a railroad through the wilderness to nowhere 10 By 1875, work had resumed on both ends of the railroad. In 1883, the Northern Pacific had completed its construction and the final spike was driven in about sixty miles west of Helena, Montana at Gold Creek. This marked the completion of the nations second transcontinental railroad, and the first one built by a single company.11In 1883, a German immigrant named Henry Villard obtained control of the Northern Pacific. He connected it to the line of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, which also bought the Oregon Steamship Company which provided service from Portland to San Francisco. Previously, in 1879, he had gained control of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company and had begun building a railroad along the south bank of the Columbia River to its junction with the Snake River. Villard formed a new corporation, the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. He planned to make Portland the trade outlet of the Northwest. However, in 1884, Villard lost control of his two lines. His partners from the Puget Sound area wasted no time in building a link from the Snake River over the Cascade Mountains to Tacoma, bypassing Portland. Villard was not one to give up. In 1889, he organized the Oregon Transcontinental Company. It took over the Northern Pacific and shared ownership of the OR and N with the Union Pacific. 12The depression of 1873 brought the dream of a lifetime to a Canadian citizen by the name of James J. Hill. He had come to the United States with the purpose of making his fortune. He later received the nickname the empire builder because of his remarkable achievements. He was a storekeeper in St. Paul, Minnesota, when he and a partner founded the Red River Transportation Company, which was a financial success. He began dreaming of a Northwest Empire ...
