The Northern Pacific Railway's Last Spike Celebration

The Northern Pacific Railway's Last Spike Celebration. . While the construction of the Northern Pacific Railway was an epic undertaking, the celebration to mark its completion was less than extraordinary. The railroad's president, Henry Villard, planned a last spike ceremony for September 8, 1883 near the mouth of Independence Creek, "an impoverished flat surrounded by negligible heights" about three miles southeast of here. He had a large pavilion built and decorated with flags, bunting, and pine boughs. The massive pavilion could seat a thousand people in upholstered seats. Villard also built a large wooden platform next to the tracks and a showy bandstand from which Fort Keogh's Fifth Infantry band could entertain his invited guests. He brought in five posh excursion cars from Minnesota, each one filled with dignitaries - mostly Europeans who provided financial support for the railroad - and a delegation of Crow Indians lead by Iron Bull. President Ulysses Grand and former Secretary of State William Dewart were also among the assembled luminaries. , The big day dawned oppressively hot. Villard scheduled the celebration for 10 a.m., but it didn't start for another five hours. While the invited guests lounged about in the shade of the pavilion, hundreds of people from Helena and other surrounding communities arrived uninvited to watch the proceedings. Villard provided food to his guests, but not to the Montanans. The endless speeches continued and the crowd grew restless -- especially since the speeches were directed at those in the pavilion and not the majority of attendees. As Secretary Dewat "spoke as long as should have been possible, then droned on and on," the multitude began calling for President Grant to say a few words. The disruption became bad enough that Villard threatened to call in the military to restore order; the crowd didn't back down and the yelling became louder, Finally Grant stood and directly addressed the throng, giving what many felt was the best speech of the long afternoon. , It wasn't until 5:30 that Villard proceeded to the railroad tracks drove the last spike, symbolically completing the railroad. It was too dark by then to take any photographs. As two locomotives advance and touched cowcatchers, the engineers descended, shook hands and climbed back aboard. The dignitaries then rebounded the trains and continued on to the west coast, leaving Villard $250,000 poorer and the mob to find their way back home with empty stomachs. , (Side-bar on right:) , John Mullan . , One of the 332 guests sitting in the shade of the pavilion on September 8th was a rather unremarkable man. He wasn't an industrialist, European royalty, or a politician. But he had played a critical role in the proceedings they'd all come to witness. John Mullan came west in 1852 as a lieutenant in the US Corps of Topographical Engineers. A recent graduate of West Point, the Army assigned him to assist Washington territorial governor Issac Stevens in the survey for a northern transcontinental railroad route. For the next nine years, Mullan enthusiastically carried out his mission and from 1853 to 1862, constructed a military wagon supply route from Walla Walla, Washington to Fort Benton, the head of steamboat navigation on the upper Missouri River. The road, while not entirely a success, did much to open up western Montana to settlement in the 1860s and 1870s. , The Northern Pacific Railway eventually paralleled the Mullan Road for Mullan Pass west of Helena to Spokane, Washington.. None of the speeches that preceded the driving of the last spike mentioned John Mullan and his efforts to bring a railroad to the northern Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest. Despite the snub Mullan must have felt, he was proud of his contribution to the construction of the railroad. He later wrote an old friend that "you can well imagine that my heart wells up with gladness at seeing realized one of the germs of my live and fulfillment of so many years of hard and patient toil in the mountains where I was so largely a pioneer thirty years ago." , (sic, paragraph duplicated) , The Northern Pacific Railway eventually paralleled the Mullan Road for Mullan Pass west of Helena to Spokane, Washington.. None of the speeches that preceded the driving of the last spike mentioned John Mullan and his efforts to bring a railroad to the northern Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest. Despite the snub Mullan must have felt, he was proud of his contribution to the construction of the railroad. He later wrote an old friend that "you can well imagine that my heart wells up with gladness at seeing realized one of the germs of my live and fulfillment of so many years of hard and patient toil in the mountains where I was so largely a pioneer thirty years ago." ,