4/4/2011:
As late as 1871, General W. D. Hazen reported to the War Department that the country now known as North Dakota was uninhabitable and fit only for the buffalo and the Indian. However, when the Northern Pacific Railroad crossed the Red River in 1872, it touched off a wave of immigration as thousands of Europeans migrated to Dakota Territory in search of the rich, fertile land buried under a sea of waving grass. Following the railroad right of way westward, the throngs of Scandinavians, Germans and Canadians, along with land seekers from the Eastern United States, spread like a wild prairie fire to engulf the free land. Large bonanza farms emerged, and in a two year stretch in the early 1880s, over two hundred grain elevators sprang up, towering above the flat prairie. Towns appeared almost overnight as speculators attempted to profit from the rapid development of the territory. By 1889 the population of Dakota Territory had reached one hundred and eighty-two thousand.
The 1890s began with some dry years, and immigration slowed, although the large influx of German Russian settlers into the south central and southwestern counties continued. A recession curtailed some of the development, but free land continued to draw settlers to the northern and western counties.
On this date in 1895, the St. Paul Dispatch, reported that the scene at Union Station was reminiscent of the early 1880s as a trainload of settlers bound for Dakota were packed in emigrant cars. Agent Sam Bass of the Great Northern Railroad had organized a large immigrant force for North Dakota of approximately 425 people. The party was comprised of Dunkards from Kansas and Indiana, and Amish from Pennsylvania and other Eastern states. The railcars were loaded with all of their household effects, livestock and farming implements.
Most of the immigrants had already selected the lands on which to homestead. Many would remain around Mayville, but the greater number planned on going to Devils Lake and the Turtle Mountains where considerable government land remained available for homesteading. This scene would be played out again well into the early 1900s as the railroads continued to lay additional tracks across the plains, like the Soo Line, which helped populate the northern tier of counties.
Advanced farming methods encouraged still more immigrants, and the trains continued to roll through Union Station in St. Paul, carrying the hopes and dreams of thousands.
Dakota Datebook written by Jim Davis
Sources:
The Bismarck Daily Tribune April 5, 1895
History of North Dakota by W. B. Hennessy, Bismarck Tribune Publishing, 1910