West Shore Railroad Steam Locomotive #13 at Frankfort, New York in 1883

ID# 27,209

The Northern Pacific's Last Spike Excursion

ID # 1,002

THE NORTHERN PACIFIC'S LAST SPIKE EXCURSION

Not enough money and too many Indians slowed down the Northern Pacific s drive west from Lake Superior to Puget Sound. The national panic of 1873 had halted N. P. construction for five years, but under the presidency of Frederick Billings, for whom a Montana city is named, the railroad builders resumed their westward march. The N. P.'s next president, Henry Villard, pushed the line to completion despite trouble with the Sioux. The last spike was driven at Gold Creek, Montana, on September 8, 1883. Excursion trains such as this one took celebrities over the new line, stopping at Gold Creek for the ceremony. Among them were President Ulysses S. Grant, cabinet officials, Senators, Congressmen, governors of states, editors, and Army generals. This decorated engine, No. 154, bears the legend: "N. P. R. R. St. Paul, Minnesota, to Portland, Oregon." She was a woodburner (later converted to coal, renumbered 696), built by Baldwin in Philadelphia in 1883 and shipped via steamship all the way around Cape Horn to Sprague, Washington. She was scrapped in 1913.

NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY