Northern Pacific Railway Map

The Northern Pacific Railway was originally chartered by an act of congress and signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864. The initial goal was to build a line west from Lake Superior to a port on the Pacific coast. The Railway was given a land grant of 40,000,000 acres, though by 1869, with no real progress having been made, the Northern Pacific was in danger of losing both the charter and the land grant. Enter Jay Cooke, a major financier behind the Union war effort. Cooke saw the potential for Yellowstone as a tourist attraction and was instrumental in securing & financing painter Thomas Moran’s spot on the 1871 Geological Survey led by Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden. The paintings and photographs produced by Moran and William Henry Jackson as a result of the expedition were a vital component in persuading Congress to designate Yellowstone as a National Park, and some of Moran’s works were later used in advertisements for the NPR.

The Yellowstone Park Branch Line was first completed in 1883, originally ending at Cinnabar station three miles north of Gardiner, Montana. It was marketed as the first railroad line to a national park. The line was later extended to Gardiner in 1902 and the Cinnabar stop was abandoned.

This unique aerial map of Yellowstone published in 1904 looks to the south from Gardiner and was produced by Henry Wellge (1850-1917), a talented lithographer and bird’s eye view artist who is best known for his panoramic maps of various US cities.