6/2/2013:
Transporting the enormous crops of the bonanza farms to market was a expensive and critical part of farming in the late 1800s. On this date in 1893, the bonanza farmers of The Amenia and Sharon Land Company incorporated the Red River Valley and Western Railroad to replace their slow horse-drawn wagons. 12 miles of track were built to connect Addison and Chafee, North Dakota.
The railroad was completed two years later, but conflicts within the Amenia and Sharon Land Company and lack of funding stopped its growth. The tracks were sold to the Great Northern Railroad in 1895. In 1987, a new Red River Valley and Western Railroad was formed, which today transports grain over five hundred miles of track in eastern North Dakota.
Dakota Datebook written by Derek Dahlsad
Sources:
Drache, Hiram M. The Day of the Bonanza. North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies, 1964.
The Red River Valley and Western Railroad website. http://www.rrvw.net/