On July 2, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress creating the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. The railroad was chartered to build from Lake Superior to Puget Sound. To finance the railroad, it was granted land rights along the proposed route of nearly 2000 miles. This land could be sold by the railroad to settlers to finance the railroad. Due to financial difficulties, however, it was not until 1870 that the railroad really got underway. Groundbreaking on the eastern section began near Carlton, Minnesota in 1870.
The original plan of the directors of the Northern Pacific railroad was to follow closely the route taken by a government expedition in 1854 sent to find the best northern railroad route to the west coast. This route headed northwest from Detroit Lakes to Devil's Lake and then west. The land west of the Red River belonged to Native Americans (Sioux, Chippewa, Crow, and others. An 1867 treaty between the Government and the Indians provided that no white man should cross the Red River west for any purpose. Little was known of the area. Thomas Hawley Canfield was sent west in the late 1860's to explore and select a route for the Northern Pacific.
Canfield recommended a more southerly route than originally planned. He recommended going west to Yellowstone rather than north of the Missouri River as planned. Canfield's recommendation was adopted in 1870.
It was generally conceded that the point where the railroad crossed the Red River would arise the next great city west of Minneapolis & St. Paul, which each had a population of about 10-15,000 at the time.
Canfield (President of the Lake Superior and Puget Sound Company, a townsite company auxiliary to the Northern Pacific) worked with railroad engineers to select a site for the railroad to cross the Red River. Their work was held in strict secrecy to thwart land speculators.
Early in the spring of 1871, Canfield and George B. Wright traveled to Georgetown on the east bank of the Red River, about 15 miles north of present-day Moorhead. Wright was employed by the Northern Pacific railroad and had been the government surveyor of the lands in northwestern Minnesota.
Fargo, North Dakota
In the Beginning Was the Railroad
There was a tradition among the Indians (corroborated by Hudson Bay Company employees to Canfield) that the Red River overflowed its banks and the whole Red River Valley became a sea in the spring. Canfield and Wright spent some time that spring going up and down the river searching for high embankments upon which to build a railroad bridge to cross the river. Canfield and Wright decided that Moorhead was the highest point as far as they could determine without instruments.
Meanwhile, a Mr. Linsley, an NP engineer, was examining the countryside. The three meet in Mankato and decided that the crossing point would be a few miles south of the 44th parallel of latitude (the present site of Moorhead). Before the crossing point was announced, however, it became necessary to secure the where Fargo and Moorhead were to be built.
A small strip of land on the east side of the river had been surveyed by the government years before and sold at $1.25 per acre. Canfield found that the quarter section where Moorhead is, was owned by Joab Smith of Alexandria. The land west of the river was Indian Territory and had never been surveyed and could not be taken by pre-emption, purchase, or homestead. Canfield obtained $50,000 in Sioux scrip issued by the Government.
The law required that at least a half acre be broken on every quarter section and that large corner and section stakes be placed with the number of each scrip plainly marked on them. Canfield had to guess at the section lines on the west side of the river based on the section lines on the east side of the river.
Canfield and Wright returned to the east side of the river for the night and awoke to find Andrew Holes and his "prairie schooner" nearby. Holes and his wife were taking a summer vacation exploring the country. Canfield persuaded Holes to put up a log shanty for himself and his wife and thereby claim the land by pre-emption. Canfield also sent Holes to buy Joab Smith's land on the west side of the river. Canfield also hired Major G.G. Beardsley to go to southern Minnesota and buy some oxen, plows,supplies, etc.
While this was going on, Canfield set in motion subterfuges to mislead land speculators trying to determine the crossing point. Canfield had his engineers run a line from Muskoda to the river at Probsfield, stake out the bridge, and extend the line into Dakota. A new city quickly sprung up, buildings were built, and businesses commenced as speculators were sure that this was to be crossing point.
Holes returned in about two weeks with the deed to the Joab Smith land. He had purchased Smith's 173 acres for $2000. Holes retained 24 acres for his own speculative purposes and deeded the remainder to Canfield on August 28, 1871.
Canfield then ordered Beardsley to cross the Red River by light of a full moon and begin the improvements required by law to several sections of land across from the Joab Smith land. Canfield immediately sent a messenger to Pembina to deposit the scrip in the land office. The Northern Pacific had successfully secured the land on both sides of the Red River at the railroad crossing point.
On September 15, 1871, Canfield sent a telegram to Joseph E. Turner (surveyor) and John W. Taylor (land agent) tellign them to "Proceed with the surveys of town on Wast side of Red River at Joab Smith's." Only a month Canfiled reported to the Presdient of the Northern Pacific that "We have Moorhead laid out--411 lots sold and two hotels up."
The material above are primrily from Canfield's account of the events as published in the July 7, 1894 Argus newspaper and Caroll Engelhardt's article "The Incorpration of America" in Volume 68, Number 4 (2001) of North Dakota History.