Most towns in North Dakota grew up along the railroad tracks that stretched west across the prairie. In Bottineau’s case, it had to move. The village was first established in 1884, but in 1886, when the Great Northern Railroad made plans to lay tracks about a mile to the south businesses began moving. Interestingly, the new railroad grade helped spare part of the town from a wildfire that swept 500 square miles in the Turtle Mountains area. While some of Bottineau’s buildings were lost, the fire mostly claimed the area’s fields and haystacks.
The railroad brought a boom to Bottineau. The first scheduled train arrived on this date in 1887. The new village was under heavy construction at the time. A large crowd was there to welcome the train and the new station agent. Ten carloads of lumber arrived the next day. More than 100 passengers arrived a few days later. Most of them were homesteaders, real estate agents or businessmen. Later in the summer, telegraph service was established. And in August, 17 bags of mail arrived by train. It was considered a great convenience at the time, but a few years later, Bottineau village council members complained to Washington that mail from Rugby to Bottineau was often delayed by two or three days. Consequently, private carriers and a stage coach took over the mail contracts for the next nine years.
However, the railroad could make or break a town. A branch line to Antler was laid by 1905. But when tracks were planned for the townsite of Westhope, the village of Richburg was doomed by being bypassed. Few towns in North Dakota have survived without railroad service. But one example, far from Bottineau, is Amidon in the southwest, which likely survived by being the Slope County seat.
Dakota Datebook by Jack Dura
Sources:
Bottineau County Historical Society. (1977). Historical highlights of Bottineau county. Quality Printing Service: Bismarck, ND
Diamond Anniversary Publication Committee. (1959). Diamond jubilee 1884-1959: A brief history of the county of Bottineau, North Dakota. N.p.
