SOO LINE CELEBRATE ORIGINS IN A RAILROAD GRAIN By 1860, Minnesota was producing over seven million bushels of grain. circa 1856 circa 1875 circa 1890 Two years later, the first Minnesota railroad was built to serve the Soo Line Railroad Company NEMESIS OF A Grain and Timber Products Carrier growing flour mills. Serving the Upper Midwest MINNEAPOLIS 1883-1992 MILLERS JAMES J. HILL Operator of Original Railroad CELEBRATING THE and Steamship Lines to and from Duluth-Superior The M.St.P&S.S.M. was formed purposely What is now known as the Soo Line, was launched to avoid the rail and ship lines operated by in 1883 by powerful Minneapolis industry titans who James Hill. sought alternate and more economical transportation With only nine years of formal schooling SOO LINE routes to obtain wheat and get their milled grain and from humble beginnings in rural to market. Canada, James Jerome Hill (September 16, 1838 – May 29, 1916), immigrated to the The Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway USA. He ultimately built a transportation Company (M.St.P&S.S.M.) was formed with a firm empire serving a substantial area of the RAILROAD purpose to avoid using existing independent railroads Upper Midwest, the northern Great Plains, operating between Minneapolis and Chicago — an and Pacific Northwest. He headed the Great upcoming gateway to eastern markets, and the current Northern Railway - the first transcontinental eastbound route of railroad and steamship lines built without public money and with only a operating to and from Duluth-Superior. few land grants. The M.St.P&S.S.M. was entirely financed by Due to the vast size and economic Minneapolis interests with the flour millers owning dominance of his business interests, 75% of the stock. Hill became known during his lifetime as “The Empire Builder.” Within five years, 1888, additional funds were needed to continue rail construction and operational plans. HIll not only controlled shipping but The Canadian Pacific Railway Company stepped in to coal fuel supply lines as well. He was provide the necessary financing. The partnering with adept at how to make money. Under his management alone, the Minneapolis, St. the CP brought additional expansion opportunities. Paul & Manitoba Railroad’s (Great Northern) net worth went from $728,000 in 1880 to $25,000,000 in five short years. He expanded into banking. While not Catholic himself, he was a generous philanthropist to Catholic entities in St. Paul, Minnesota where he finally settled. He was an ardent Democrat and was a hands-on entrepreneur. PRESENTED BY TF2017-DISPLAY-PNL-1-FNL1.indd 1 11/6/17 1:50 PM TF2017-DISPLAY-PNL-2-FNL.indd 1 11/3/17 4:04 PM SOO LINE RAIL TIMELINE SYSTEM OF MANY PARTS Minneapolis Grain Mill ORIGINAL Business Interests The businessmen behind the formation LINES of the M.St.P&S.S.M. shared a number of common interests from Republican politics 4 to a commitment to the city of Minneapolis. Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Ordway, 1883 1883 Yet, the primary business focus was grain. Marie and Atlantic Railway Company Bismarck and incorporated to construct a line from Northwestern Railway Minneapolis through Wisconsin to Company chartered and Sault Ste. Marie. Line is operational reincorporated as the in January, 1888 Aberdeen, Bismarck and Northwestern Railway The Men Behind the Company in 1887 M.St.P&S.S.M. 1884 Minneapolis and Pacific Railway Company chartered to build William Drew Washburn; served as first west and reaches Dakota Territory in 1886 1884 Minneapolis president of the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. and St. Croix Railway Marie and Atlantic Railway Company - Company chartered a predecessor of the M.St.P&S.S.M. Thomas Lowry; served as the first Consolidation of Original Lines president of the M.St.P&S.S.M. 1888 Canadian Pacific gains control of the four original Clinton Morrison George R. Newell lines and incorporates them together as the Minneapolis, C. M. Loring Anthony Kelly St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway Company -- the W. W. Eastman J. K. Sidle soon to be known Soo Line. Under the M.St.P.&S.S.M. Charles Pillsbury William D. Hale flag, a 781 mile line is created H. T. Welles Charles J. Martin John Martin GROWTH OF CHARLES THE SOO LINE ALFRED In 1888 the Canadian Pacific acquired the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Railroad, giving them access to Duluth. The DSS&A served the Michigan Upper Peninsula and Wisconsin’s Lake Superior shoreline and became formally part of the Soo Line Railroad in 1961 PILLSBURY 1900 Rice Lake, Dallas & 1909 Majority 1842–1899 Menomonie Railroad acquired ownership of During the 1880s, Charles A. Pillsbury Bismarck, 1904 Wisconsin Central was one of the most notable grain figures Washburn & Great Railroad acquired of his time. He built his company from Falls acquired (formed in 1871) 1915 a floundering enterprise into one of the Fairmount & world’s largest milling organizations. Veblen and A New Hampshire shopkeeper’s son, Minnesota Wisconsin & Northern acquired 1921 Pillsbury graduated from Dartmouth Northwestern College in 1863. Six years later he moved DURING THE S, Electric acquired “ 1880 to Minneapolis at his uncle’s request CHARLES A. PILLSBURY WAS 1961 Long known as the 1982 Minnesota, - John S. Pillsbury, soon to be elected Soo Line, the name is formally Northfield & Southern governor of Minnesota. ONE OF THE MOST adopted with the merger of Railroad acquired With no personal milling experience but the M.St.P.&S.S.M., Wisconsin NOTABLE GRAIN with a loan of $10,000 from his uncle and Central Railway, and the Duluth 1985 Soo Line father, Charles purchased a third of a local FIGURES South Shore & Atlantic Railroad purchases the flour business. He applied his education OF HIS TIME. Milwaukee Road and made many improvements including ” whose first railroad, installing purifiers and steam rollers the Milwaukee and (versus burr stones to crush the wheat) to Waukesha, had 1990 The Soo Line consists of 1992 the business. Within a year, the business incorporated in 1847 a 3,450-mile core rail system and The use of the Soo turned a remarkable $6,000 profit. 2,350 miles of feeder lines with Line name was three Canadian gateways: Portal, discontinued and In three short years, Noyes, and Detroit. formerly replaced with 1872, he founded CP Rail System Charles A. Pillsbury and Co. and began purchasing and building more mills. The Pillsbury mills produced 10,000 barrels a day by 1886. ® ® TF2017-DISPLAY-PNL-3-FNL2.indd 1 11/3/17 4:05 PM TF2017-DISPLAY-PNL-4-FNL2.indd 1 11/3/17 4:10 PM MAP OF NOTABLE SOO LINE FIRSTS The Soo Line west of Minneapolis was traditionally agriculturally oriented as it was a grain gathering system. East of Minneapolis, the Soo Line was industrially oriented and, in particular, a transporter of forest and paper industry products. Originally the 600 was built as a Vauclain Compound, and renamed the 950 locomotive after being rebuilt by the Baldwin Locomotive Works as a simple locomotive with electric lights and a new valve gear. 36.96% In 1958, the line’s revenue AGRICULTURE from carload freight traffic, by 1964 commodity groups, consisted of PRODUCTS UNIT TRAINS 1966 agriculture products (36.96%), A historic first in rail transportation. Service began January 8, 1964 from animals and animal products Duluth-Superior to Buffalo, NY. Each train carried about 10,450,000 (1.99%), products of mines pounds of grain at rates substantially lower than a single carload rate. PIGGYBACK (10.83%), forest products (19.02%), and manufactured/miscellaneous 19.02% Unit train service earned the Soo Line: SERVICE commodities (31.2%). FOREST PRODUCTS • First U.S. application of the unit train concept for a commodity The first piggyback service to 10.83% other than coal or ore Alaska by a U.S. railroad was PRODUCTS • First train service of its type in the Upper Midwest established by the Soo along OF MINES with the Canadian Pacific in 1966. • First unit train planned by two railroads across long distances The service handled piggyback and between rate territories (the Soo and Pennsylvania Railroad) traffic originating in Chicago and Minneapolis over the Soo or Noyes 1.99% then over the Canadian Pacific ANIMALS & to Edmonton or Dawson Creek, ANIMAL where trucks hauled the trailers PRODUCTS over the Alcan Highway to points 31.2% in Alaska. MANUFACTURED COMMODITIES In 1900, the Soo purchased the world’s largest locomotive, the 2-10-0 Decapod. TF2017-DISPLAY-PNL-5-FNL.indd 1 11/3/17 4:11 PM TF2017-DISPLAY-PNL-6-FNL.indd 1 11/3/17 4:14 PM INDUSTRIES CHRISTMAS The Soo Line was created to haul SERVED grain and milled products. TREES AND THE SOO Roy Halverson of Duluth contracted with the Soo to be a primary transportation arm of nearly a million and a half table size In later years the railroad Christmas trees each year. would also carry lumber, iron ore, potash, liquefied petroleum gases, In his lifetime, Halverson selectively cut more livestock, in addition to newsprint, than 130,000 acres of wilderness; partly his primary metals, and steel scrap. own land and partly acreage leased from Canada and the State of Minnesota. Trees were ultimately shipped to all 48 contiguous states and then around the world. Transportation of the trees was planned months in advance. A special lease arrangement between Soo warehouse facilities and Halverson helped accomplish the delivery of fresh trees. By law, livestock could only be confined in a car for 28 hours. A shipper could extend that period to 36 hours. Special care was taken to keep animals cool while in the cars.