Editing James J. Hill (section)

==="Empire Builder"===
Between 1883 and 1889, Hill built his railroads across [[Minnesota]], into [[Wisconsin]], and across [[North Dakota]] to [[Montana]].

When there was not enough industry in the areas Hill was building, Hill brought the industry in, often by buying out a company and placing plants along his railroad lines. By 1889, Hill decided that his future lay in expanding into a [[transcontinental railroad]].

"What we want," Hill is quoted as saying, "is the best possible line, shortest distance, lowest grades, and least curvature we can build. We do not care enough for [[Rocky Mountains]] scenery to spend a large sum of money developing it."<ref>{{cite book |title= James J. Hill and the opening of the Northwest|last= Marin |first= Albro |year= 1991 |publisher= Minnesota Historical Society Press |isbn= 0-87351-261-8 |page= 366}}</ref> Hill got what he wanted, and in January 1893 his [[Great Northern Railway (U.S.)|Great Northern Railway]], running from St. Paul, Minnesota to Seattle, Washington — a distance of more than {{convert|1700|mi|km}} — was completed. The Great Northern was the first transcontinental built without public money and just a few [[land grant]]s, and was one of the few transcontinental railroads not to go bankrupt.

Hill chose to build his transcontinental railroad north of the competing Northern Pacific line, which had reached the Pacific Northwest over much more difficult terrain with more bridges, steeper grades, and tunnelling. Hill did much of the route planning himself, travelling over proposed routes on horseback. The key to the Great Northern line was Hill's use of the previously unmapped [[Marias Pass]]. The pass had initially been described by Lewis and Clark in 1805, but no one since had been able to find it so Hill hired Santiago Jameson to find it. Jameson discovered the pass 1889 and it shortened the Great Northern's route by almost one hundred miles.{{sfnp|Folsom|2003|p=28}} The pass had been discovered by [[John Frank Stevens]], principal engineer of the Great Northern Railway, in December 1889, and offered an easier route across the Rockies than that taken by the Northern Pacific.

The Great Northern reached Seattle on January 7, 1893.<ref name="ws">{{cite book |last1=Speidel |first1=William |title=Sons of the Profits |date=1967 |publisher=Nettle Creek Publishing Company |location=Seattle |pages=182, 203–209}}</ref>

In 1898 Hill purchased control of large parts of the [[Mesabi Range]] iron mining district in Minnesota, along with its rail lines. The Great Northern began large-scale shipment of ore to the steel mills of the Midwest.<ref>Don L. Hofsommer, "Ore Docks and Trains: The Great Northern Railway and the Mesabi Range," ''Railroad History'' (1996) Issue 174, pp 5-25</ref>

====Settlements====
The Great Northern energetically promoted settlement along its lines in North Dakota and Montana, especially by Germans and Scandinavians from Europe. The Great Northern bought its lands from the federal government—it received no land grants—and resold them to farmers at cheap prices. It operated agencies in Germany and Scandinavia that promoted its lands, and brought families over at low cost. Hill also invested in founding schools and churches for these communities and promoted a variety of progressive techniques to ensure they prospered.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Robber Barons|url=https://archive.org/details/robberbaronsgrea00jose|url-access=registration|last=Josephson|first=Matthew|publisher=Harcourt, Brace and Company|year=1934|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/robberbaronsgrea00jose/page/237 237]}}</ref> This "Dakota Boom" peaked in 1882 as 42,000 immigrants, largely from northern Europe, poured into the Red River Valley running through the region.<ref>{{Cite book|title=James J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest|last=Malone|first=Michael|publisher=University of Oklahoma|year=1996|isbn=0-8061-2860-7|location=Norman|pages=[https://archive.org/details/jamesjhill00mich/page/27 27]|url=https://archive.org/details/jamesjhill00mich/page/27}}</ref> The rapidly increasing settlement in North Dakota's [[Red River Valley]] along the Minnesota border between 1871 and 1890 was a major example of large-scale "bonanza" farming.<sup>[8][9][10]</sup>