Page 1 of 4 - A Historical Perspective of the
Cascade & North Western Railroad

Hi young feller. Sure is a pretty day. What? Do I know anything about the C&NW? Well, when it comes to that little railroad I guess I am the best historical resource available today. My mother used to say that I was born with railroading in my blood. OK, OK, you might get a little chuckle out of that but it's true! My dad started as an engineer and retired as Road Foreman thirty-seven years later. My mom was the first female telegrapher in the whole state and she worked in the Public Relations Department even after my dad passed on.

Me? Well, like I said, my mom used to say that I was born with this railroad in my blood and she was serious! As the story goes I was born at four twenty-three in the afternoon in a little house that backed up against the main line. Before I ever heard my momma's voice I heard the whistle of the Cascadian as it went by that afternoon with my dad on the whistle playing a tune for my mom as he passed.

If you're still interested I can spin you a great yarn. Well then sit and stay a while. I know it's a little warm out here on the passenger platform and most people like to wait inside the station in the air conditioning but I prefer sitting out here on the bench where I can see the activity in the yard. Now where was I . . . . oh yes you wanted to hear the history of the C&NW. Well, we will really have to go back a lot farther than when I was born for the whole story. Even I'm not that old.

To tell the story proper I guess we better set the stage. The history of railroading out here in the west is notably shorter than that of the eastern railroads but it is significantly more colorful. It all began with the great race to build a Transcontinental Railroad. Even before the first transcontinental was complete plans were being made for a southern and a northern transcontinental and this was just the beginning of a colorful story that continues to unfold today with the mergers and acquisitions currently taking place.

Others can tell that story better than I can but you have to understand the mood of the country at the time. The activities and things happening across the country relate to the Cascade & North Western Railroad and are a part of our story. The history of the C&NW and how it continues to survive and prosper as an independent entity is a fascinating yarn all by itself but humor an old man as I set the stage.

The first railroads to reach California and the great Northest Territories used wood as a fuel for the locomotives even though eastern railroads were well along in the process of converting to coal as their main source of fuel. No, the reason wasn't because we were more backward than our Eastern cousins. The reason was simple, availability! The west and north west was a veritable bonanza of virgin forests and the railroad builders were quick to utilize this available and plentiful commodity.

There were forests out here with trees over a hundred feet tall. A number of these trees had to be removed to clear the right of way where the tracks would be laid. Many others were felled for cross ties, trestle timbers, fuel and even lumber to sustain the many small towns that sprang up along the lines.

Once the main transcontinental rail lines were complete a spider web network of small railroads began to grow branching off into areas with sufficient population and industries to support them. The major transcontinental railroads promoted these smaller lines because they needed a reliable source of import/export traffic to remain viable. Without these branches and independent railroads the major lines would quickly become unsustainable. In fact many large and small railroads failed in the early years. Most of these smaller branches and independent railroads focused on the removal of timber and other natural resources. The lumber industry and the corresponding industries such as paper mills, lumber, chipboard and plywood mills remain as strong railroad customers and thrive to this day.

The C&NW could not have come into being without lumber and lumber products but it was other commodities that provided additional major resources and sustain the railroad that we know today as the Cascade & North Western. The railroads knew that they could not depend on timber as the principle source of fuel forever. Coal was what was needed but having it shipped into Seattle or other ports from the coal fields of the north and east and then hauled back down the line by train was an expensive proposition.

If a reliable source of coal could be discovered in the area it would just about assure the future of the C&NW.

Young fella you sure are twitchy. I know you asked about the history of the C&NW but like any play you have to set the stage before you can begin. The history of the C&NW is a rich and colorful one but it will take a little time in the telling so maybe you ought to go get a soda and then come on back and settle in for a spell. While your gone I'll just lean back and organize my thoughts and then . . . . . . zzzzz . . . . .zzzzzzzzz.

What! Hunh! Oh, it's you. Where have you been? I've been sitting here organizing my thoughts. Asleep? Of course not. Now, where were we? Oh yes . . .

We were starting to discuss the importance that coal would play in the history of the C&NW but the story of the Cascade & North Western actually begins several years earlier on July 2, 1864. That was the day that President Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress creating the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. It took six years and it was not until 1870 that groundbreaking took place near Duluth, Minnesota. The goal of the NP was to gain access to the Great Lakes with a rail connection westward all the way through the Cascade Mountains eventually ending on the west coast at Seattle.

They immediately began building from Seattle and Chicago at the same time. By 1883, only 300 miles remained between the two railheads. Completion of the Northern Pacific, the first of the northern transcontinental railroads, was the signal for a lavish celebration at Gold Creek, Montana Territory, where tracks from the east and the west were joined on September 8, 1883.

During this time a healthy logging industry had grown up around Nuggett and some of the other towns in the area. It was the need to find an outlet for their lumber products that prompted several of the town fathers of Nuggett to gather on a cold and blustery night in 1880 to discuss the prospect of building a railroad to transport lumber and other goods west toward Ada and the eventual connection with the Northern Pacific.

Everyone had a different opinion and, almost before the meeting began, tempers flared. It took several more meetings before the group decided to invest the princely sum of $750,000 to build the railroad. At about the same time a similar group of would be railroaders had decided to begin a railroad from Ada moving eastward.