Northern Pacific Railroad Minnesota Division, Labor Records

The Northern Pacific Railroad Company [NP] was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern part of the continental United States from Minnesota to the Puget Sound. It was organized in 1864 with a charter by the United States Congress signed by President Abraham Lincoln. Construction in both Minnesota and Washington Territory (now Washington State) began in 1870. The lines were joined in western Montana in 1883, where former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the golden spike. The railroad was fully completed in 1888 when a tunnel under the Cascade Mountains was completed, replacing a series of switchbacks over Stampede Pass that had been used as a temporary measure to transverse the natural barrier.



The NP was headquartered in St. Paul Minnesota, and its trackage and operations were organized into regional divisions. These regions changed over time (see Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association's "NP Division Evolution") as the railroad expanded its operations. The Minnesota Division, later called the St. Paul Division, was predominantly the area stretching from the Great Lakes to the Minnesota - North Dakota border. The main routes were St. Paul to Staples, Minnesota; St. Paul to White Bear Lake; and Staples to Dilworth, Minnesota.



Although this collection is from the Minnesota Division, there are reports from other divisions, such as Fargo, Dakota and Yellowstone, in the correspondence and claims files.



The NP was famous for its passenger service from Chicago to Seattle on the North Coast Limited train. It was also a major transporter of freight across the northern United States. In addition to providing access to newly opened lands, the NP also aided in their settlement by white Europeans, opening colonization offices in Germany and the Scandinavian countries, where they attracted immigrants with cheap but productive farmland, whose goods were then transported on NP trains. These populations settled primarily in Minnesota and the Dakota territories.



The NP also hired large numbers of Chinese laborers, mostly from the southern provinces around Hong Kong, though some may have been previously employed in the building of the Central Pacific Railroad. It is estimated by BNSF, the NP's successor railroad, that 15,000 of the 25,000 required laborers needed in 1882 ( source)were Chinese immigrants. However unlike their German and Scandinavian counterparts, there are minimal records about these employees.



In addition to its key role in the westward expansion of the United States, the NP was also an innovator in technology, pioneering locomotive designs such as the 4-8-4, called the Northern, and the 2-8-8-4, called the Yellowstone.



In 1970, NP merged with the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and the Great Northern Railway to form the Burlington Northern Railroad Company. In 1996, the Burlinton Norther merged with the Santa Fe Railway to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway [BNSF], one of the largest freight railroads in the United States, and as of 2007 one of seven remaining North American Class I railroads.