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anyone who wanted to leave. Lake
Superior was freezing over so boats weren't running, there were no railroads or highways out of Ashland, so the only way out for these men was to walk 80 miles of trails to Superior. The 1,000 men who were there were not happy about the situation. After some days, when Rich, the pay-master, and guards arrived at a place called Kelly's camp to settle up, the workers demanded pay up to that day, instead of the day work was stopped. When Rich refused, the men tried to take the money. Rich pulled his revolver to hold the men back. Then, he and his men jumped into their wagon and fled for Ashland, with angry workers in pursuit. Ashland shut down its saloons as the workers arrived to try to keep things under control. The city ended up calling in the Bayfield
450:, an economic crisis which was called the "Great Depression" in the U.S. until the depression of the 1930s took over that name. One of the causes of this economic slump in 1873 was speculation on railroads. The Wisconsin Central had received financial support from towns like Menasha and Stevens Point. By this time, they had spent that money, and with the nationwide economic slump, financier Gardner Colby was having trouble raising more money from his investors. They were already behind on payments to subcontractors and for that reason, in 1874, the construction contractor on the south end quit.
291:. The second corporation, the Portage and Superior Railroad Company, intended to build from the city of Portage north to Stevens Point, also to Superior. The two railroads were consolidated in 1869 to become the Portage, Winnebago, and Superior Railroad Company, and this railroad's name was changed to the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company in 1871. The Manitowoc and Minnesota Railroad, which Reed also headed, was consolidated into the Wisconsin Central in July 1871. None of these early railroad companies laid track, but their mergers provided corporate structure to move forward.
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363:, with a half mile of trestle approaches. The road bed was formed 16 feet wide at the top, with nine-foot hand-hewn cross ties. Then the iron rails were laid. Given equipment at that time, they made remarkable progress, averaging a mile per day. By October, two trains were running daily to Waupaca, and the first train steamed into Stevens Point on November 15, an occasion for celebration there.
443:. From the south, rails were laid from Colby north to Worcester, just south of modern Phillips. Then, with 194 miles of track built, construction stopped again, leaving a 57-mile stretch of wilderness blocking the way to Lake Superior and the land grant money. This time, construction didn't resume for three years.
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The
Wisconsin Central's existence as an independent carrier was short-lived. Much of the Wisconsin Central right of way was built over land obtained through a federal land grant. It was the only land grant railroad in Wisconsin. The railroad's tracks reached Ashland in 1877, St. Paul in 1884, Chicago
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The second construction season in 1872 also went well, though it was a different operation. Beyond
Stevens Point, the route passed through a wilderness of forests and swamps, with occasional camps of Indians, timber cruisers, and pioneer settlers. This time, the Hooper, Boyle and Seymour Construction
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At the southern construction camp, the year didn't end much better. When work was suspended, the workers waited in the camp at Colby two weeks without pay. Finally, 900 frustrated men commandeered a train and rode it down to
Stevens Point, where they smeared tar on the Wisconsin Central's new bridge
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Construction began June 15, 1871 in West
Menasha. Reuben Scott of Menasha oversaw this first 63-mile leg to Stevens Point. Two subcontractors cleared and graded the roadbed, employing as many as 2,000 men, 600 horses, and 100 yoke of oxen. Other contractors built bridges, culverts, and trestles. The
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With financial backing secured, Judge Reed went back to
Wisconsin to lay more groundwork. He had a civil engineer plan and estimate the first portion of the proposed railroad. That stretch from Menasha to Stevens Point was already somewhat settled, and Reed traveled up and down it raising support
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Things would soon come to a halt. One
December morning, word came to stop all work on the northern section of the railroad. The Wisconsin Central was short on funds. Captain Rich was in charge of this northern division of the railroad and his orders were to pay off the workers and help transport
260:, where the government gave the road-builders timber and land close to the roads. However, these stump-choked wagon roads would have transported war materials very slowly, so in 1864 the U.S. Congress offered similar land grants to encourage several proposed railroad-building projects from
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during the Civil War. Interested in
Wisconsin timber and iron ore, he could arrange the financing that Judge Reed's group needed. However, Colby didn't know anything about building a railroad, so he brought in Elijah B. Phillips, president of the Lake Shore and Northern Indiana Railway.
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By next spring, in early 1873, the railroad had scraped together enough money to resume construction. That year, another 24 miles of track was completed south of
Ashland, to a place called Penokee Gap, including another huge bridge near the place still called
402:, an existing town, to be the terminal on Lake Superior, but then decided Ashland was more suitable. In 1870, when the railroad's civil engineer surveyed Ashland, its population was five. With news of the railroad's plans, businesses poured in. The
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and Matt
Wadleigh, a lumber man from Stevens Point. They had the right to the land grant, but it paid only after track was built, so they needed money to get the project rolling. Judge Reed went east looking for financing.
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to the new dock in Ashland, then up the track as it was built. By late 1872, over a thousand men were working on this northern segment. Progress was slow, and by winter the line had progressed only six miles, to
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in 1886 and Superior in 1908. The line was leased from 1889 to 1893 by the Northern Pacific Railway. The lease was terminated when the Northern Pacific declared bankruptcy during the Panic of 1893.
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As corporate consolidation proceeded, Reed planned to build the first leg of the Wisconsin Central from Menasha to Stevens Point. Reed's colleagues included Menasha civic leader (and his brother)
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Two companies were established in 1866 to take advantage of Congress's offered land grants. The first corporation, the Winnebago and Lake Superior Railroad Company, was chartered to build from
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for ten days. The workers were soon paid and the militia escorted over 1,000 men out of Ashland to walk the 80 miles to Superior in January. This episode came to be called the "Ashland War".
142:. It built lines up through the forested wilderness, and opened large tracts to logging and settlement. It established stations which would grow into a string of cities and towns between
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had begun along the rivers, where the product could be floated out, but some stretches of timber stood far from large enough streams for river-logging. One such stretch lay between the
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described it as "the Future Iron City of Lake Superior". In 1872, the Wisconsin Central built its dock at Ashland. The general contractor on this stretch was Stoughton Brothers of
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wanted the ability to move troops and supplies to the border. Toward that end, the government cut military wagon roads through the northern forest. These were financed in part by
201:, the southern half of Wisconsin was somewhat settled. Much of the north, however, remained wilderness, including swaths of virgin timber and deposits of iron ore. Treaties with
268:. Generally, if a railroad was built of adequate quality, its company received half the land and timber for ten miles on either side of the segments built - the odd-numbered
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and shops there. By September, the rails had reached 51 miles northwest of Stevens Point, to a place initially called "Section 53". Shortly, they named the station
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474:'s great Romanesque Grand Central Station in Chicago in 1889 as its southern terminus. When Northern Pacific defaulted on its lease terms in 1893, the
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The History of Wisconsin: From Prehistoric to Present Periods ; the Story of the State Interspersed with Realistic and Romantic Events
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had worked his way up from store clerk to store owner to importer, then bought a textile mill and made his fortune selling clothing to the
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from the young towns that stood to profit from a rail connection. The arrangement with Colby was that locally raised money would buy the
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where the contractors and the Chicago Bridge Company built a bridge 1,600 feet long and 110 feet above the water in the ravine below.
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across the Wisconsin River, and threatened to burn it if they weren't paid. The railroad soon complied and paid the workers.
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railroad bridge. The railroad also established its operating headquarters in Stevens Point, building a six-stall
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to each give $ 50,000 to the project, Stevens Point $ 30,000, Ashland $ 20,000, and other towns smaller amounts.
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Despite these successes, it struggled financially from the start and was bankrupt by 1879. It was leased to the
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714:. Boston, Mass.: The Railroad and Locomotive Historical Society, Inc., Baker Library, Harvard Business School.
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acquired the several Chicago properties of the Wisconsin Central including Grand Central Station to form the
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In April of the same year, construction began south from Ashland. The railroad had originally planned for
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and other dignitaries rode the new railroad late in the year and were impressed with its smoothness.
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had placed most of this land in the hands of the federal government. Logging of the
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just west of Stevens Point, a bridge-building contractor constructed a three-span
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A Glimpse at the Early History of the State of Wisconsin Relating to Price County
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from 1889 to 1893, and was finally reorganized from bankruptcy in 1897 as the
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were complicated. Britain was officially neutral during the Civil War, but
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Predecessors of the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad
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Company organized the road-building work, beginning March 18. At the
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was a major early railroad that operated throughout northern
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largest such project was the 200-foot bridge across the
732:"Appendix A: Ecological History of Wisconsin's Forests"
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Saga of the Soo Vol III: EAST, WEST and to the NORTH
712:History of the Wisconsin Central (Bulletin No. 54)
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410:and supplies had to be shipped in through the
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480:Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad
737:. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
725:. Wisconsin Historical Publishing Company.
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166:. It also played a major role in building
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805:Soo Line Historical and Technical Society
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830:Railway companies disestablished in 1899
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705:. Moorhead, Minn.: Agassiz Publications.
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350:Wisconsin Central Railroad lands in 1881
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264:up through the center of the state to
226:many of the British elites sympathized
825:Railway companies established in 1871
27:Defunct American railway (1871–1897)
18:Wisconsin Central Railroad (1871–99)
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136:Wisconsin Central Railroad Company
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462:Newspaper advertisement from 1883
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730:Mladenoff, David; Sickley, Ted.
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701:Gjevre, John A. (2006).
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790:Laws of Wisconsin
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441:Highbridge
381:roundhouse
377:Howe truss
357:Wolf River
311:Union Army
252:, and the
207:white pine
185:Background
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552:Matteson.
412:Soo Locks
389:Worcester
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228:with the
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60:Wisconsin
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164:St. Paul
117: in
68:Illinois
51:Overview
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336:Waupaca
277:Menasha
262:Portage
160:Chicago
156:Medford
148:Ashland
112:⁄
408:Winona
334:, and
332:Neenah
307:Boston
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