THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 209 



DULTTTH EASTERN TERMINUS OF NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 



aid of this road, Congress made large grants of land, 

 the amount now being about 50,000,000 acres. 



The charter was granted during the last year of the 

 war, and matters were too unsettled then to allow the 

 company to commence the work at once, and it was not 

 until long after the close of the Rebellion that the con- 

 struction of the road was fairly begun. 



It was proposed to construct this road through the 

 most northern portion of the United States, and from 

 Lake Superior to the Pacific, a distance of 2000 miles. 

 The expense of the undertaking was enormous, and 

 the road was to be built through a section of country 

 that was simply a wilderness. There were scarcely 

 any settlements along its line, a great portion of which 

 lay through the territory of hostile Indians. Much of 

 the region through which it was to pass was barren 

 and unfit for settlements, and a large part of the pro- 

 posed route lay through the sterile region of the Yel- 

 14 



