He continued to describe all of the atrocities that his people had endured at the hands of the whites. government and the expansion of white settlers into Lakota territory. One of the most notable dignitaries, however, was Sitting Bull, the Hunkpapa Lakota leader who had guided his people in their efforts to resist the U.S. Grant, governors from all of the states that the railroad crossed bankers and investors, and foreign diplomats from Europe. Those in attendance included railroad officials, former U.S. Five trains carried dignitaries from the east and the west coasts, with over 300 people there to witness the symbolic driving-in of the golden spike. A lavish celebration was planned for the occasion. Following the example of the Union and Central Pacific, the northern route was constructed with two crews, one working east to west and the other working west to east.įourteen years and 6,800 miles of railroad track later, the two crews met near Gold Creek, Montana (where the first gold in the state was discovered in 1852), about forty miles west of Helena.
The Northern Pacific Railroad was given a charter by Congress in 1864 and the work began in 1870, one year after the Union Pacific and Central Pacific route had been completed with the golden spike ceremony at Promontory Point in Utah. The Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads had accomplished this task in 1869 by linking New York City with Sacramento, California, but a northern route was deemed necessary, joining the Great Lakes at Duluth, Minnesota to Puget Sound in Washington. It was the day that the growing nation was joined east-to-west with the completion of the northern transcontinental railroad. September 8, 1883, was a milestone for the people of the United States.
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