(acoustic instrumental music) - "These railway kings are among the greatest men in America.

They have wealth, else they could not hold the position.

They have fame, for everyone has heard of their achievements.

Every newspaper chronicles their movements.

They have power, more power than perhaps anyone in political life.

Governors of states and territories bow before him."

James Bryce, the American Commonwealth.

- [Narrator] By 1885, four railroads traversed the continent, permeating every aspect of the economy.

In the 16 years since the completion of the first transcontinental, more than seven million people moved to states and territories west of the Mississippi River.

The railroads brought in nearly twice the revenue of the federal government, and were the nation's largest employer, with one out of every 10 jobs dependent on their success.

- Nothing was more desired for any community than the railroad.

- If you had a wheat farm in North Dakota, and no railroad, you just wouldn't be there because there was no way to get your wheat to market.

- The power of a late 19th century railroad tycoon was enormous, and that power included the power to make or break a town.

- [Narrator] Railroad monopolies gave owners the ability to raise passenger and cargo rates indiscriminately, prompting newly settled German farmers to introduce the term, "raubritter," or robber baron, to the American lexicon.

- All of the robber barons were hated.

I mean, they were extremely rich.

There was a lot of poverty and there was not the safety nets we have today for poor people.

- There were a lot of so-called railroad barons that were in it to make as much money as could be done quickly and then get out.

And they pulled enormous numbers of tricks on shareholders, watering stock, using dishonest figures, to indicate how much money the railroad was making.

- They built the railroad in order to make money for themselves, not to develop the land or to improve the value of the United States.

- [Narrator] Land grants obtained through the Pacific Railway Act served as a powerful catalyst for railroad construction, but also motivated the railroad owners to game the system.

- The railroad would be given a section of land, and then there would be a section that would remain in federal hands, for sale, for homesteading.

The railroad could then sell their own land to raise revenue.

- [Narrator] The race for land grants had motivated transcontinentals to build their lines cheaply, quickly, and with inefficient routes.

- In the case of the Union Pacific, the rails curved throughout Nebraska, in order to secure more subsidy, because they were paid by the mile.

In the case of Villard with the Northern Pacific, he wanted to produce a scenic route, giving tourists an impressive view of the Northwest.

Thus, he didn't build for efficiency.

- [Narrator] The Northern Pacific alone received 47 million acres, the largest subsidy ever bestowed on a private entity.

The Pacific Railway Act enabled the railroads to become the largest private landowners in the country, accumulating more than 10% of all the land in the United States.

- Some of the other transcontinentals were built so badly that by the time the railroad was completed, the earlier parts of the track were already having to be replaced.

- [Narrator] The power and corruption that grew from the federal land grants, brought the subsidies to an end, years before James J. Hill entered the railroad business.

- He has to build a very different railroad, and he has to finance it by building a railroad that functions well as a railroad and hauls a lot of goods.

(train whistle blowing) (acoustic guitar music) - [Narrator] In St. Paul, Minnesota, James J. Hill had turned a small bankrupt line into a burgeoning railroad that blanketed the Red River Valley in Minnesota and Dakota territory.

By 1883, 5 years after he and The Associates took control of the line, total rail mileage of the St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba had doubled, passenger ridership had tripled, and freight quadrupled.

Both freight and passenger rates were cut by as much as a third, yet revenues continued to climb steadily.

Each of The Associates' one-fifth share was now worth the equivalent today of $118 million.

When his line reached Devil's Lake, Hill faced a difficult decision.

If he continued building west, his competition could bankrupt him, but if he remained a regional line, he risked being taken over by competing railroads with enormous resources.

During the early spring of 1886, Hill began laying rails west from Devil's Lake.

With the placement of every railroad tie, Hill insisted on the highest engineering standards.

As one newspaper stated, "his mind worked like a calculating machine, thrumming with figures and ratios."

- "What we want is the best possible line, shortest distance, lowest grades, and least curvature that we can build."

James J. Hill.

- And that was his creed throughout his lifetime that he welded to his managers, and those managers bought into that lock, stock, and barrel.

- Hill was a very hands-on manager.

He loved dealing with the details.

- James J. Hill's philosophy was if you're gonna do something, do it so that it lasts a long time.

You can see this in everything Hill touched.

- The Union Pacific Railroad, as part of receiving federal subsidies, had to agree to purchase American-made rails.

James J. Hill by contrast used the superior Bessemer rails imported from England.

He believed that even though these rails were more expensive, because they were more durable, that ultimately it would be profitable in the long run.

- [Narrator] By the end of the 1886 construction season, the Manitoba line had been extended 120 miles from Devil's Lake to central Dakota territory.

The 600-man construction crew made camp, calling their tent town, the "Magic City."

Over the next five months, the magic continued, as tents were replaced by houses and storefronts, and the population increased to 5,000.

- To me, that's one of the most exciting aspects of the railroad building in the 19th century, is that you could literally create a city out of nowhere, and leave your legacy on the map.

- [Narrator] The town was named after Hill's second vice president, Henry Minot, and was the definition of a railroad boomtown, with dance halls, gambling houses, and some 30 saloons.

For Minot and many other towns along his line, Hill was a catalyst for economic development, personally investing in startup businesses to help grow the community.

- As he's going out west, rather than again, with the other transcontinental lines, where the aim is just to get to the other end, Hill is interested in creating viable, prosperous communities that will use his railroad.

(fiddle music) - [Narrator] From 1870 to 1890, a period known as the "Great Dakota Boom," the territory's population grew from 2,000 to 190,000, more than half of whom were immigrants.

- "We consider ourselves and the people along our line as co-partners in the prosperity of the country we both occupy.

If the farmer is not prosperous, we are poor.

And I know what it is to be poor."

James J. Hill.

- My great grandfather's passion for agriculture was real.

- Primarily because he came from a small farm, and mainly his father was hired labor.

So Jim grew up in a fairly impoverished family.

- [Narrator] It was during this time that cheap land and new farming machinery gave rise to large single crop, bonanza farms.

Hill however, was more interested in populating the land along his line with smaller family farms.

- He liked the community aspect of small farms.

And if you have a bunch of big 15, 20, 30,000 acre farms, then you got one family controlling a whole bunch of land, where it could be 20 or 30 or 40 families building a community.

That's what he preferred.

- Clearly, dense, diversified farming would profit his railroad, but I also believe that he saw this as a moral issue, that independent farmers supplying their own food, meeting their own needs, were the best people for the nation - would make the best citizens, if you will.

And I think he really did believe that.

- Hill would say to the people coming out to the American Northwest, you are our children.

We either grow together or we fall together.

I'll help you get out here.

I'll give you good prices.

You grow good crops, and we will make money together.

- [Narrator] Hill's interest and efforts on behalf of farmers went well beyond ads and discounted tickets.

By the early 1880s, he had purchased 50,000 acres of farmland throughout Minnesota, and was particularly fond of the 5,000 acre farm he called North Oaks, located just 12 miles north of his home in St. Paul.

By June of 1884, 347 men were constructing a half dozen animal barns, a dairy, a granary, a blacksmith shop, a boarding house and homes for six families.

The largest structure was the greenhouse, filled with Hill's latest pet projects.

- He would use his North Oaks home as something of a private agricultural experiment station.

- He didn't really run these farms for a profit.

He ran them for a purpose, and that purpose was for the betterment of the farmers along his railroad.

- [Narrator] He experimented with various strains of corn and wheat, introduced farmers to the latest mechanical devices, and analyzed soil from the various regions along his line, constantly looking for ways to improve the crops farmers were growing.

Excited to promote his findings, Hill traveled up and down his line, giving speeches to towns and farming communities.

With a booming voice and the grand gestures of a conductor, he cautioned farmers about the possibility of a poor harvest and of overtaxing the soil.

He wanted them to protect their investment, and urged them to diversify their holdings by not just growing a variety of crops, but raising livestock as well.

- "A man who played the fiddle with one string didn't make much music, and I thought it would help them get another string to their bow."

James J. Hill.

- [Narrator] Hill also launched a husbandry program to breed a dual purpose cow that could produce both more milk and offspring that yielded better beef.

They were also bred to be tough enough to withstand the cold temperatures of northern states.

To improve his stock, he sent agents across the Atlantic to buy more than 800 head of Europe's finest cattle, sheep, and hogs.

- So from Scotland and England and Germany, he imported animals, some bulls he'd buy for 5,000, I think one was as high as 15,000.

That's like a quarter million dollars today.

- Mr. Hill has established here, not merely a private collection for his own satisfaction, but a livestock nursery for the whole northwest.

From the stables at North Oaks have gone animals that will diffuse the blood of thoroughbreds through all northern Minnesota and Dakota.

Bradstreet's Journal, 1886.

- [Narrator] Over the next several years, he gave farmers some 7,000 head of cattle.

- He would allow one farmer in each county along the railroad to have one of these prime bulls that were worth more than their farms were, to interbreed with the existing stock in those areas.

- "Dear Madam, I'm glad to learn that the bull is doing so well, and I feel sure that from his breeding, he will lay a good foundation of better stock in your district.

Yours very truly, James J.

Hill."

- This was a private individual doing this, not the federal government, not the state government.

- [Narrator] Farmers, however, were not always able to use Hill's gift as it was intended.

- The program ultimately proved very unsuccessful, and Hill was frustrated by this and he didn't understand this, but it takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of money to maintain a purebred bull.

You can't just in North Dakota, put them out in the field and expect for them to survive the winter.

And so I think most of them ended up as Sunday dinner.

- I respect what he tried to do and maybe didn't do as well.

It's an experiment.

- [Narrator] While Hill continually lost money on his personal farming ventures, the other strings in his bow were far more prosperous.

As more European immigrant farmers settled in the Red River Valley, annual wheat production grew from 2 million bushels to 57 million in just 12 years.

Minnesota became the world's largest producer of flour, with Hills railroad now hauling more than a third of all the wheat raised in the United States.

- Which is why this region here in the Red River Valley becomes so crucial to him.

It provided the capital and the profit making potential for Hill to be able to persuade people to invest in the line.

(acoustic guitar music) - [Narrator] For James J. Hill, Minot was a pivotal point of demarcation, located along what is known as the rainfall line, to the east was humid air and fertile farmlands, but to the west lay an arid, desolate landscape that stretched for hundreds of miles.

Hill's luck would once again provide an opportunity, as a new source of freight found in the west was growing in value.

- The copper mines in Butte, Montana territory were an incredibly valuable prize.

- You know, you've got the richest hill on Earth at Butte, Montana Territory, copper.

And by this time you've got Edison and Westinghouse on the scene with incandescent light bulbs and transformers and generators.

In other words, the electrical era was dawning.

- [Narrator] Hill immediately authorized nearly a million dollars to survey and study the minerals, climate, soil, and water of Montana.

One of Hill's St. Paul business associates, Paris Gibson, was also aware of the potential of western Montana and invited Hill to see the area for himself.

- "He stood on the riverbank and outlined to me a plan.

It has ever been my belief that no other capitalist in the world could have comprehended at a glance the resources and the possibilities of this great Rocky Mountain region."

Paris Gibson.

- [Narrator] As Gibson platted the new town he named Great Falls, Hill moved forward with his vision, building a local railroad to transport the ore from Butte to Great Falls.

There, he would construct a hydroelectric facility that would power a copper smelting plant.

- So Hill brought in not just a railroad, he brought in an economy with it, and he had it already preloaded.

He almost had it on the flat car ready to bring in.

- [Narrator] Hill chartered the Montana Central Railway in 1886, but kept his name off all documents and out of the newspapers.

- Being coy was part and parcel of railroad entrepreneurs and managers at that time.

- If you can start acquiring right of ways and resources before anybody knows what you're gonna do with them, it's cheaper.

- [Narrator] To impede construction of the Montana Central, the Northern Pacific increased its cargo rates, just on rails, and just on those going to central Montana.

Hill would have to wait until the Manitoba could bring the rails there itself.

- The Union Pacific and the Northern Pacific had a rate pooling arrangement for copper ore, kept the rates very high.

What Hill wants to do is build across the northern plains, break that rate pool and capture the copper ores.

That's very significant, because it's that same year that those mines in the Butte area become the number one copper producers in the nation.

- [Narrator] Planting a seed for future business, Hill wrote to Marcus Daly, president of the Anaconda Mining Company, and one of the three Montana copper kings.

- "What we want over our low grades is a heavy tonnage, and the heavier it is the lower we can make the rates."

James J. Hill.

- Hill will sign an alliance with Daly.

That's important, Anaconda ultimately will take over all of the other mines in that entire region.

They will corner the world's copper market for a number of years.

Meanwhile, the Northern Pacific and the Union Pacific will side with enemies of the Anaconda interests in the so-called "War of the Copper Kings."

Ultimately that consortium will lose out.

- [Narrator] Hill was adamant that his railway did not engage in town site speculation.

He did however, make his own personal investments.

In Great Falls, he brought together a who's who of investors, that included Indiana Senator Benjamin Harrison, meat packer Philip Armour, retail magnate Marshall Field, investor John Forbes, and Charles Perkins, President of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroad.

Within the span of a few years, Hill's investments were paying dividends.

The first hydroelectric dam on the Missouri River was generating electricity.

While the Sand Coulee Coal Company Hill purchased, employed 400 miners and produced more than 2,000 tons of coal every week.

- "James J. Hill is the magician, who with his wand, the railway, is transforming this rich and rugged state to the subjection of man."

The Neihart Herald.

- [Narrator] But Hill's vision for the region was still in question as his Manitoba line was still more than 700 miles away from Great Falls.

(acoustic instrumental music) - "We must build 783 miles of road next summer in eight months to ensure our position of advantage.

This is all to be done from one end, and is more track than has ever been laid in 10 months elsewhere.

The future of the company depends on this work."

James J. Hill.

- [Narrator] At the first sign of spring in 1887, Hill launched the Manitoba's construction west from Minot.

Grading crews, consisting of 8,000 men and 6,600 horses headed out first.

Following in their footsteps was a mostly brash and raucous gang of 650 track layers and timber workers.

- It was a remarkable enterprise.

Railroads take about 3,000 8-foot ties per mile.

Those ties had to be cut back in Minnesota, and rail, you don't find any steelworks in this part of the world, the fasteners, the spikes, everything.

And then what about a labor supply?

And then how do you feed this labor supply?

All these things had to be marshaled.

- [Narrator] By May 1st, crews completed the colossal Gassman Coulee trestle, landing them in the heart of Indian territory.

By the middle of the 19th century, the Blackfeet tribe numbered as many as 10,000, and occupied a vast area of the Montana and Alberta Plains.

- For at least 13,000 years, my people have roamed this northwestern plains area.

Our Blackfeet have never known another home.

- We were one of the first ones to acquire the horse on this plains area, and one of the first ones to acquire the gun.

That's what made us the fiercest tribe on the whole frontier.

- We were masters of the Great Plains.

- [Narrator] The Blackfeet were some of the best horsemen of all the Great Plains Indians, and were especially skilled at hunting buffalo.

- Iinii is what we call the buffalo.

It provided our clothing, our housing, it provided our food, provided everything.

- The buffalo was the central mover of our migrational patterns.

In spiritual terms, the buffalo was the single most important sacrament.

That was the blood of life.

- [Narrator] Beginning in 1851, the Blackfeet, Gros Ventre, River Crow, and Assiniboine were restricted to reservation land that spread across much of Montana territory.

But over the course of 30 years, the reservation had been reduced nine times by treaty and executive order.

- They said, we will take care of you.

We will give you food and clothing, and we will never bother you again for as long as the sun shines and the rivers flow and the grass grows.

We will never come and bother you guys again.

Well that wasn't very long.

- They moved away from treaty negotiations.

Now you had presidents that were just signing their name to a document, and it was taking away large areas of land.

And our people are constantly being moved, constantly being moved.

- [Narrator] By the 1880s, the tens of millions of buffalo that once roamed the Great Plains had been slaughtered to near extinction.

- When the buffalo started to disappear, our people were starving.

- 'Cause when you look at getting rid of our food source, getting rid of our spirituality, connection to environment, it's a way of crushing people.

- What happens to the self-esteem of a person that is no longer able to make his or her way?

- [Narrator] The Blackfeet, once the most powerful and numerous tribe in the region, were now dependent on the US government to supply them with provisions.

The Office of Indian Affairs sent an agent to live on the reservation, and teach the Blackfeet how to farm.

- We were hunters and gatherers.

We were used to living just off of the wild.

So all of a sudden they're saying, "well, agriculture's gonna come in.

You're gonna stay in this one spot here."

How do you take a person that's followed the buffalo for hundreds of years and say, you can't follow it anymore?

- We're up here at 4,000 feet, so, you know, corn don't grow here, and you can't grow a whole bunch of stuff here.

- That mentality of trying to make Indians farmers in this area, wasn't working.

- [Narrator] Hunger was a persistent issue.

And the winter of 1883-84 was brutally cold, with temperatures often dropping to 40 and even 50 degrees below zero.

- The agent could see that there was starvation.

He warned the US government.

He sent out messages.

- But the government never, never provided us the provisions to make us that adequate people.

- [Narrator] The very youngest and oldest were the first to die from starvation.

- "The little children were so emaciated that it did not seem possible for them to live long.

I broke down.

To see so much misery and feel myself utterly powerless to relieve it, was more than I could stand."

Major Reuben Allen, Blackfeet agent, 1884.

- [Narrator] Among the Blackfeet, it was a time known as "the starvation winter," or "the winter we ate dogs."

Of the 7,500 Blackfeet counted in 1881, two-thirds had died over the next four years.

- How difficult that must have been for the women to not be able to feed their children.

- [Narrator] By 1886, the Blackfeet Reservation and the Fort Berthold Reservation, inhabited by the Arikara, the Hidatsa, and the Mandan, were now in the sights of James J. Hill.

He insisted on the most direct and economical route, requiring right of ways through these Indian territories, as well as opening their land to new settlers.

- I think with James Hill, when he started looking at moving west, he wanted to get rid of the Indian, because he knew the economics that were happening at the time.

And so his association with a lot of the political factors in Helena had a big influence.

- [Narrator] But to gain right of ways and open up Indian territory, would require federal legislation.

Hill called upon Martin Maginnis, an old friend from his days in the Pioneer Guard.

Over his 12 years as Montana's territorial representative, Maginnis had been successful passing legislation to reduce the size of Indian reservations.

Hill convinced Maginnis, now retired from Congress, to return to Washington to lobby on his behalf.

Hill, for his part, was busy writing letters to Congressman.

- "Mr.Maginnis is interested, on behalf of his territory, in a bill granting right of way to railroads in northern Montana.

Any assistance you can render him will be a personal favor to me and to our friends, for which I will be glad at any time to reciprocate.

Yours very truly, James J.

Hill."

- [Narrator] One week later, the right of way bill passed Congress and was sent to President Cleveland's desk.

Hill had been a longtime Bourbon Democrat, and a generous supporter of Cleveland's presidential campaign.

The President had signed similar legislation in the past and Hill had every reason to feel confident he would do so again.

- So he launches these construction crews, thousands of men, animals, supplies.

There are already cutting through the Fort Berthold Reservation, but he did so before President Cleveland had signed the measure into law.

Much to Hill's dismay, and despite frantic, last minute telegrams to the White House, his old friend in the White House vetoes the right of way legislation.

And then it goes on to, paraphrasing Cleveland's message here, "to open these lands to railroads would be to open them to a class of unscrupulous plunderers - would reignite the Indian wars."

With friends like this who needs enemies?

- "The reason that he gives is ridiculous, and against the acts and actions of Congress for the past 40 years."

James J. Hill, 1886.

- [Narrator] It was no surprise to Hill, when he learned days later, that Cleveland had been pressured by the Union Pacific and Northern Pacific to veto the bill.

Hill again worked back channels to get the legislation rewritten.

And in early 1887, President Cleveland signed the new bill, giving the Manitoba the right of way through Indian territory.

But unlike any prior legislation, it required Hill's railroad to compensate the tribes for their land.

While Hill's right of way legislation was being debated in Washington, a committee authorized by Congress, met with tribal leaders of the region to reduce Indian land and opened the territory to new settlers.

- The 1888 agreement that came, well that was just right after the starvation winter.

You have hundreds of people that are dying.

You have leaders that have to make some real hard decisions, and what do we have of value?

And so you have land.

The Blackfeet are open to it because they have no choice.

- [Narrator] The tribes living on the Blackfeet and Fort Berthold reservations accepted the terms, drastically reducing their territory by 19 and a half million acres.

- One of the most important places that we had was the Sweetgrass Hills.

We lost a piece that connects us to our origin stories.

To sell such a place, had to mean desperation.

- So it all was very timely, and getting the reservation established in the more confined area, but opening up that land for the Homestead Act of where now people can now move into that area.

- [Narrator] Hill had gained everything he had hoped for and that summer renewed his friendship with President Cleveland on a fishing trip off the coast of Fire Island.

(fiddle music) - [Narrator] Construction of the Manitoba from Minot to Great Falls continued.

At the top of the labor hierarchy, engineers, surveyors, and foremen were paid the most and lived in retired sleeper cars.

A cooking staff of more than a dozen, along with a handful of hunters, were kept busy from the earliest meal until the last.

Track layers lived in a half dozen dormitory cars, while unskilled immigrants, who were paid the least, were employed as graders and lived in tents, working ahead of the line.

- It was very typical for contractors to advertise for Scandinavian laborers or Italian laborers.

- Those folks came to this country and had to have a job.

And one place you could get one was on the railroad.

- Construction railroad workers had a hard life.

It often meant getting to the job before sunrise, and leaving the job after sunset.

12 hours a day of work was common, and they usually had one day off, Sunday.

They would live in these construction camps, which were generally all male.

If they had families, they generally weren't with their families.

And basically they were hired muscle.

And all of this was backbreaking, sweat-inducing labor.

But like so many young men, they were proud of their physical prowess, and were glad to show it off by working hard.

- [Narrator] James J. Hill was a constant presence at the construction site, driving his crews, while always on the lookout for every efficiency he could gain.

- He was a tough task master, and because he knew so much himself, he actually knew more about the details locally, than sometimes the local people who were right there.

- And he always stopped and talked to the gangs.

He wanted people to know who they were working for.

- He did have an appreciation for those who had dirt under their fingernails.

- The railroad workers knew that Hill was a powerful individual, but I think many of them, from what I've read, identified with Hill, yeah, I'm working for Jim Hill.

- He was good at identifying with the little guy, but the little guy had better do his work.

- [Narrator] Hill pushed his crews relentlessly, knowing he would lose millions if he didn't reach Great Falls before winter arrived.

Construction crews broke record after record for miles of track laid in a day.

And in the heat of August they hit their peak, with 8.3 miles of track pinned to the earth.

Hill noted with pride that if an axle of a supply car had not broken, it would've been even more.

In mid-October, after 10 months of building nearly 700 miles of track, the Manitoba reached Great Falls.

No other railroad had ever laid as much track in one season.

Charles Dudley Warner, author of the epoch naming book, "The Gilded Age," with Mark Twain, called it "one of the most striking achievements in civilization."

Hill called it "a hard summer's work."

(bright period music) Celebrations were held all along the line.

On September 29th, 1887, Jim and his wife Mary were greeted heartily by the residents of Fort Benton, and cheered as Mrs. Hill drove the silver spike into place.

After a brief stay, the Hills continued southwest, where the celebration was repeated in Helena.

- "Today, the arrival of the Hill special train was greeted in royal manner.

A procession of 5,000 people marched to the depot to meet the train with flags flying and brass band music."

The St. Paul Daily Globe.

- [Narrator] In the coming weeks, the Manitoba was running four to 10 hours ahead of the Northern Pacific.

Hill had broken the Union Pacific and Northern Pacific's rate pooling agreement, with rates that were 20 to 23% lower.

To no one's surprise, the Montana Central was purchased by the Manitoba.

When one of the investors, Senator Harrison, was not satisfied with the purchase price, Hill paid him more for his shares than they were worth.

- "His cheek is immense, and there is no use in bothering with such people, and when you find one on your list it will be always the cheapest and best to get rid of him in the most direct manner."

James J. Hill.

- [Narrator] A year later, Senator Benjamin Harrison was inaugurated as the 23rd president of the United States.

In September of 1888 Hill turned 50, and enjoyed working from his railway's new building, just five blocks from his home in Lowertown.

His outward blustery manner was always softened by the presence of his wife, Mary.

Her shy and calm demeanor, belied her resilience and strength, which Hill often relied upon in his most dire moments.

- He and Mary Hill were in sync.

You get the feeling that they marched on the same path.

- [Narrator] Mary embraced the Victorian ideals of womanhood.

She focused her energies on the care of their home and the raising of their nine children, six girls and three boys, each one born roughly two years apart.

Their fifth child, Katie, died in infancy.

Mamie, the oldest, was recently married and in short time gave the Hills their first grandchild.

At the same time Hill was extending the Manitoba west into Montana, he also recognized a price fixing scheme among the railroad owners surrounding the Great Lakes.

He chartered the Eastern Railway of Minnesota, and built a line connecting St. Paul to the western shore of Lake Superior.

He then launched the Northern Steamship Company, and built six high capacity freighters to traverse the Great Lakes.

A massive grain operation was built in Duluth and Buffalo, and was named the Great Northern Elevator Company.

To capture the passenger traffic, Hill built two luxury liners, the North West and the North Land.

Hill lowered his shipping rates and disrupted the market.

The region's railroad owners asked him if they could discuss rates they could all agree upon.

Hill declined, firing back, "why shouldn't we carry freight cheaper?"

Once again, Hill had broken the price fixing scheme with greater tonnage and lower fares.

(train running) By the end of the 19th century, the railroad had changed people's perception of distance.

Time was next.

Up to this point, towns independently set the time, using clocks in church towers and civic buildings.

Across the country, there were over 300 local time zones.

In Michigan alone, there were 27.

- Time before the coming of the railroads was fairly flexible.

People didn't travel fast enough or far enough that it made any difference.

Railroads however, needed a very precise measure of time, not only to make connections simple, but also to order conductors to wait till a certain time for another train to pass, coming the opposite direction, to operate their train safely.

- [Narrator] November 18th, 1883 was referred to as "the day of two noons," the day railroads collectively agreed to adopt four time zones across the country.

Many Americans saw it as further proof of the railroad's growing power.

- There are actually accounts of ministers who gave sermons on the arrogance of the railroad in taking unto themselves the power that God alone had to set time.

- "It is a revolution, a revolt, a rebellion, anarchy, chaos.

The sun will be requested to rise and set by railroad time.

People will have to marry by railroad time, and die by railroad time."

The Indianapolis Daily Sentinel.

- [Narrator] Frequent rate hikes and inconsistent service added to the public's mistrust of railroads.

Frustrations were further fueled by the ever-widening gap between the haves and the have-nots.

Hill was certainly no stranger to these criticisms.

- I mean, Hill was a man who many people hated, and when Hill was attacked as being a mogul, as being a money grubber, he would always say that he never drew a salary.

He never took a penny from the Great Northern, and he didn't, it was all from investment, which he was very good at.

- And so the conspicuous display of wealth was very, very common in the Gilded Age, and people built mansions to outdo one another.

And so this caused members of Congress to sit up and take notice.

And so they began to pass legislation to rein in the railroads.

- [Narrator] In 1887, President Cleveland signed the Interstate Commerce Act, requiring railroad rates to be reasonable, and prohibiting different fares for short and long haul cargo.

- It was designed more to convince voters that you were doing something about the railroads, when in reality, it didn't change much at all.

- [Narrator] As ineffective as the act was, for the first time in American history, the federal government was trying its hand at regulating a private industry.

In 1889, four more stars were added to the American flag, as North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington joined the union, bringing the total number of states to 42.

For James J. Hill, it was a moment in time to map out his next moves.

- He was shrewd enough not to build ahead of demand, and he had to put discipline into the operation, and he was lucky.

The economy held, traffic came to the railroad, the filling in process with immigration followed the railroad.

And as a consequence, he was able to pay his bills, and then think ahead.

- [Narrator] Although building his line to the Pacific was still a question, Hill began speaking publicly about an even grander ambition.

- "Lying to the west of us is one third of the population of the globe.

The nation that has controlled the trade of the Orient has held the purse strings of the world.

Shall we take part in it, or shall we build a Chinese wall and go behind it?"

James J. Hill.

- [Narrator] Hill insisted that the future of farming depended on finding new markets throughout Asia, and sent agents to Japan, China, and Korea to assess the business opportunities.

But before he could open up trade across the Pacific, his line would have to thread the needle between two other transcontinentals on its way to the west coast.

- The Northern Pacific was completed in 1884, the Canadian Pacific, roughly around the same time, two Northern transcontinentals.

Why would you need a third?

- To believe that you can build in the midst of those existing railroads, and do it without one cent of federal aid is an enormous vision, one that nobody imagined that he could achieve.

- [Narrator] The New York Times stated, "that no sane man could think of paralleling these lines without inviting bankruptcy," and dubbed the notion, "Hill's Folly."

Building his line to the Pacific would involve crossing 800 miles of unsettled land, and required finding a low passage through the Rockies and the Cascades.

- He concluded that if the right passes could be found, he could become the low cost producer.

Hill was essentially banking that if he had a more cost efficient railroad, he could go head to head with NP and with CP up in Canada, and still make a go of it.

- [Narrator] As the leaves were turning color in Saint Paul, Hill found himself bedridden with a severe bout of rheumatism.

The downtime allowed him to pore through a set of maps known as the Pacific Survey.

In the entire 12-volume set, Hill found just one brief mention of a possible low passage through the Northern Rockies.

With this one glint of hope, he officially announced his intention to extend the Manitoba to the Puget Sound.

- This was done on faith.

He gave a go ahead before he really had these passes located.

That must have been a scary decision to make.

- [Narrator] He also decided to change the name of his railroad to one more suited to its lofty aspirations, calling it "The Great Northern Railway."

Hill needed to find a surveyor to trek through the Rockies and find a pass, but the winter of 1889 was particularly fierce, and few were willing.

Working as the assistant to the chief engineer of the Canadian Pacific, John F. Stevens was not only willing, but was confident in his abilities.

Stevens was hired by Hill, and in early December set out for Montana.

Upon reaching the Blackfeet Reservation at the foot of the Rockies, Stevens was told of a low route called Marias Pass.

He was also warned of the evil spirits that protected it, and that the Blackfeet had long ago shunned the trail and forgotten its location.

But he found a member of the Kalispell Tribe who was willing to guide him.

As the days passed and the temperature dropped to 40 degrees below zero, the Kalispell guide refused to go any further.

Stevens continued west, following a small east flowing stream through a valley.

Looking ahead, he trembled with excitement when he noticed another stream in the distance was flowing west.

He had reached the Continental Divide and a sure sign he had found the pass, but his perseverance had pushed him too far to return, and night was now upon him.

- "There was no possibility of making a fire, so I tramped a path, walking back and forth, until the first streak of light.

Had I not kept moving, I would've frozen to death."

John F. Stevens.

- [Narrator] At the first light of dawn, an exhausted Stevens hiked back to camp to report his good news.

Marias Pass would prove to be the lowest, straightest crossing through the Northern Rockies, but building through this mountainous terrain would be nothing short of daunting.

(dark fiddle music) - [Narrator] The last leg of the Great Northern would be built west from Havre, Montana to the Puget Sound, and would be led by Elbridge Beckler, the chief engineer of the Montana Central.

During the 1890 and 1891 construction seasons, massive trestles were constructed across Cutbank Creek and Two Medicine River until the line reached the foot of the Rockies.

For surveyors, muckers, and graders, laying track through the mountainous terrain was nothing like crossing the Great Plains, where a half dozen miles could be built in a single day.

Horses could not be used on the steep slopes, and manpower alone was used to carve embankments.

A constant deluge of rain, snow, and mudslides, impeded construction.

As one demoralized worker put it, "the only track laid today was our tracks in the snow."

The work was not for the weak, and many simply walked off the job.

Dozens of men lost their lives in accidents or from exposure, and were buried near the tracks.

Replenishing the labor supply became more difficult the deeper they built into the mountains.

Beckler had the unenviable task of reporting back to Hill that only a few miles could be built in a week.

- "Mr. Beckler, I can hardly tell you how much of a disappointment this is.

I see no reason why that work should not have been completed before now, and that I am forced to the conclusion that your men were not well selected.

I fear you will jeopardize the company's interests if you cannot get this line completed.

Let me know, and I can then take whatever steps may be necessary.

Yours truly, James J.

Hill."

- He was a tough guy to work for.

- He could lose his temper, and on one occasion he picked up his telephone and threw it through the glass window of his office door.

- Hill was so impatient to get the thing done, get the thing done.

Well, here was Hill back in Saint Paul, nice and warm perhaps in his office and these engineers were out there working hard, trying to get things done.

So maybe Hill didn't have the greatest grasp of the reality of putting track down in that difficult territory.

- [Narrator] Along the construction line, boomtowns sprouted.

McCarthyville was described as a "seething Sodom of wickedness."

In the span of two years, more than 200 people died there, several in gunfights, many from influenza and pneumonia.

Their only treatment was in a makeshift hospital run by a veterinarian.

When construction progressed too far for railroad workers to return, towns vanished, as most residents simply left, while others moved their entire home to the next locale.

As construction continued through Montana, Hill traveled to the Northwest and was captivated by its resources.

- "The timber between the Cascade range and the Puget Sound is the largest and best quality I've ever seen.

It is impossible to realize the immense growth of these trees without seeing them in their native forests.

From the traffic in the lumber alone will come our largest revenue."

James J. Hill, 1890.

(banjo music) - [Narrator] Located in the heart of Puget Sound, Seattle was a flourishing metropolis, with a population that had ballooned to nearly 43,000 by 1890.

Hill favored Seattle as the western terminus for his Great Northern line, but before revealing his hand, he needed someone locally with the right connections and influence to discreetly put his plans into motion.

He found the perfect candidate in Judge Thomas Burke, a former Chief Justice of the Washington Territory Supreme Court, and an ardent civic booster.

Burke was also an entrepreneur himself, having built the 200-mile Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway with his partner, Daniel Gilman.

- Burke was shrewd, pugnacious, diligent, and fiercely loyal.

- [Narrator] Burke incorporated the Seattle and Montana Railway, and purchased the charters of two other lines, that when built would give Hill a route from Seattle to Vancouver, British Columbia.

- Hill brought so much power with him, and he was able to hire and influence local power at the same time, and was able to get things done that were really quite extraordinary.

- "He knows what he wants, and isn't afraid to ask for it, and I may add generally gets it."

Judge Thomas Burke.

- [Narrator] Over the next several months, Burke quietly purchased 65 acres of land from Salmon Bay to Smith Cove, and 140 acres of tide flats south of downtown Seattle.

He also secured crucial access along the city's waterfront.

But Hill was still without a route through the Cascade Range of Washington.

For months, John Stevens and his men hiked through the woods, following any stream or river that looked promising.

When they came upon Nason Creek, it seemed to come from a low gap in the mountains.

Stevens sent his surveying assistant, Charles Haskell, to confirm.

Later that night, Stevens looked to the east, and saw a tree burning on the summit.

Haskell had found the route, and declared it Stevens Pass.

Stevens sent a detailed report back to Hill.

- And apparently Mr. Hill discovered in one place, there was to be a 13 degree curve, which in Hill's mind was totally unreasonable, so he directed Stevens and the construction crews, stop until I get out there.

He confronted Stevens right on the ground and said, show me this curve.

- "Mr. Hill kept everyone on the jump, and not always by suave comments.

I learned early to answer his questions if I knew the correct answer.

And if I did not, I told him so."

John F. Stevens.

- Hill just turned to Stevens and said, John, you had no choice.

- [Narrator] Despite learning that Stevens had defied his orders and did not stop construction, Hill rewarded his judgment by raising his salary 50%.

Adding to the challenges, to scale the elevation to cross the Cascades, Hill would have to build switchbacks.

It was every railroad man's nightmare, requiring that all trains be broken into seven or eight cars, and be pushed back and forth over the pass in a time-consuming manner.

- The switchbacks were an absolute contradiction to the Hill credo, but to get the railroad completed, he had to do that, knowing that there would be a big cash outlay to lower the grades eventually.

- [Narrator] In the winter of 1891, Hill was running low on cash and traveled to New York to seek out a fresh source of capital, meeting with Jacob Schiff, a senior partner at Kuhn, Loeb and Company.

In the world of finance, Schiff's firm was regarded as the primary source of railroad capital, and second only to JP Morgan's firm, as a national banking powerhouse.

Schiff, a tall, tailored man of German-Jewish descent, and Hill, a short barrel-chested Irish-Scottish mix, could not have been more different, but the two became fast friends after Hill invited him to travel together to the Rockies, to sell him on the potential of his line.

Upon his return to New York, Schiff purchased 7,500 shares of Great Northern stock for five million dollars.

- "My dearest Mary, while east I raised the last money to finish our line to the Pacific Coast, the greatest work I've ever done or will have to do.

I hope we are not to be separated so long again."

James J. Hill.

- [Narrator] But Hill was soon back in his private car, traveling west to Spokane, Washington.

The town was an ideal location to build his railroad facilities, and Hill announced to its 20,000 residents, that given the right inducements, he could foresee spending nearly a million dollars there.

It wasn't long before Hill was given right of ways through downtown Spokane, and land to the northeast for a Great Northern railyard.

Within three years, a town appropriately named "Hillyard" appeared on the map.

Many of its 500 residents were immigrants, and roughly three quarters were employed at the Great Northern's expanding facilities.

In the fall of 1891, Hill's northwest rail lines had finished construction from Vancouver to Seattle, while the Great Northern had been built to the Cascades.

Hill had not yet announced which city would be chosen as the western terminus of the newest transcontinental, and his arrival in the northwest was greeted with celebration and anticipation.

- Everyone wanted to be the terminus.

Being a railroad terminus was open sesame to the riches of the world.

You had hundreds of railroad jobs, thousands more in related industries, and it had psychological significance.

People wanted their city to be it.

- [Narrator] City boosters, politicians, and landowners, who continued to make their pitch, gathered in throngs to hear Hill speak.

- "I intend to have a road like a rake, the handle will be the trunk line, extending east with Seattle at the focal point, and prongs that reach all the principle cities of the Northwest."

James J. Hill.

- [Narrator] Hill knew that the success of the Pacific extension was riding on his ability to fill railroad cars in both directions.

Westbound lines would be filled with new settlers and the bounty of the Midwest, but he needed to be sure his eastbound cars were fully loaded as well.

- To efficiently run a railroad, you don't want to deadhead anything.

You want full cars going both ways along the line.

- [Narrator] Hill would often lecture that an empty box car was a thief, and to protect his bottom line from being robbed, he made an offer.

At a meeting with Washington State's leading timber producers, he asked them to recommend a cargo rate to carry their lumber to the Midwest.

With the going rate at 90 cents per 100 pounds, the timbermen cautiously suggested 60 cents.

- "60 cents?

They're crazy.

At that rate, they couldn't compete with southern pine.

Unless I move that crop, I might as well not have built the railroad."

James J. Hill.

- [Narrator] To the disbelief of everyone, Hill countered with the unbelievably low rate of 40 cents.

Clarence Bagley noted the moment in his seminal history of Seattle.

- "Seattle lumbermen were astounded.

The result of this sweeping cut was magical.

The woods became alive, and instead of the empty cars going eastward, they were soon coming westward.

It was the lowest rate ever given in the world under anything like the same conditions."

- And it really did open the era of large scale logging in Washington State, and it electrified the whole region.

- [Narrator] In the final construction push through the Cascades, some 3,000 men were employed by the Great Northern.

Crews lived in camps set up near the site, and worked a 12 hour day, seven days a week, for the equivalent of $53 a day.

At the end of their shift, returning to camp for a hot meal was a welcome relief from the constant cold and dampness.

Saloons were often the next stop, or perhaps an evening at the theater.

After two years of grading mountain slopes, laying track through the dense forest, and building a multitude of trestles, construction was nearly completed.

On January 6th, 1893, just west of the town of Scenic, Washington, the eastern and western sections of the Great Northern Railway were connected.

As two superintendents took turns driving home the final spike, revolvers shot into the air amid the cheers of 200 rail workers.

It was a moment that crystallized Hill's longtime dream of a transcontinental railway of his own, yet he was noticeably absent from the milestone.

- Hill was sick.

Hill was ill back here in Saint Paul.

And for a variety of reasons, you didn't have this traditional kind of gold spike celebration.

I think that had passed.

And maybe there's more to the story.

Maybe Hill just didn't like that kind of falderol.

- [Narrator] In Saint Paul, the city's business leaders gathered to discuss a celebration to honor Hill, and the completion of the Great Northern.

Hill appreciated the gesture, but suggested the money be spent on a public library instead, and offered to double the funds if used for that purpose.

To no avail.

On June 9th, 1893, downtown Saint Paul was decked out with celebratory arches and banners.

With two transcontinentals now at its doorstep, Saint Paul declared itself the center of the continent.

The city's very own Jim Hill was treated to a grand parade of floats that passed by for two hours.

A week later, the first passenger train left Saint Paul for Seattle.

Traveling at up to 60 miles per hour, it pulled into the temporary terminal at Smith Cove, four days later.

- "The building of the Great Northern Railway from the Great Lakes to Seattle, has been one of the great accomplishments of this busy century.

The benefits conferred upon the city, by inaugurating further reduction in carrying rates has added much to the future hopes of our people, and the prosperity of the entire state."

The Seattle Times.

- [Narrator] Bold, efficient, and with an unflinching gaze toward the future, the Great Northern Railway reflected the character of its leader like few other industrial organizations.

What was once derided as "Hill's Folly" had crossed more than a thousand miles and two formidable mountain ranges to reach the West Coast.

More and more, James J. Hill was commonly referred to as "the Empire Builder," and while he was flattered by the sobriquet, he knew that his empire was far from complete.

(acoustic guitar music)