within the Territories penetrated
and twenty alternate sections within the States through which the
railroad might pass.

The hazardous character of this undertaking will be realized when it is
remembered that at this time no railroad had yet penetrated the Rocky
Mountains; that the entire railroad system of the United States was less
than 40,000 miles; and that west of the Mississippi there was no mileage
worth mentioning. It was still less than a generation since Parkman and
his companions had made their four months' journey from St. Louis to
the mouth of the Columbia River, and between the fringe of civilization
along the Pacific slope and the region about Chicago and St. Louis lay
almost a third of the continent uninhabited, undeveloped, and unknown.
The scheme languished for several years until finally, in 1869, the
firm of Jay Cooke and Company of Philadelphia undertook to raise the
necessary capital.

The story of the Northern Pacific for the next few years was closely
bound up with that of Jay Cooke, who was one of the most conspicuous
characters of his time in the financial world. He was a man of
commanding personality, great energy, unusual resourcefulness, and with
a large personal following. He had built his reputation through his
great success in financing United States government loans during the
Civil War. He now undertook to raise more than one hundred million
dollars to carry through the Northern Pacific enterprise. He achieved
remarkable success for a time and within three years had built over five
hundred miles of the main line to the Pacific coast. But the outbreak of
the Franco-Prussian War and the consequent financial stringency abroad,
the difficulty of marketing bonds on an uncompleted enterprise, combined
with the poor showing made by those sections of the line completed and
in operation, brought matters to a crisis, and in September, 1873, Jay
Cooke and Company were obliged to close their doors. The affairs of the
railroad were so closely involved with those of the banking firm that,
although strenuous efforts were adopted to save the railroad, its
revenues were inadequate. As a result, in April, 1874, General Lewis
Cass was appointed receiver.

The uncompleted property was operated for some years thereafter under
the protection of the courts and no plan of reorganization was devised
until 1879. During the receivership only a moderate amount of additional
mileage was constructed, and it was