Northern Pacific Railway
Logo The Northern Pacific Railway system map. The former Northern Pacific Office Building in Tacoma, Washington.
Reporting mark	NP
Locale	Ashland, Wisconsin and Saint Paul, Minnesota to Seattle, Washington, Tacoma, Washington and Portland, Oregon
Dates of operation	1864–1970
Successor	Burlington Northern
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge)
Headquarters	Saint Paul, Minnesota

The Northern Pacific Railway (reporting mark NP) was a railway that operated across the northern tier of the western United States. Construction began in 1870 and the main line opened all the way from the Great Lakes to the Pacific when former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in central Montana on Sept. 8, 1883. The railroad served a large area, including extensive trackage in the states of Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin. In addition the company had international lines to Winnipeg, Manitoba, and southeastern British Columbia, Canada. The company was headquartered first in Brainerd, Minnesota, then in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In 1970 it merged with other lines to form the Burlington Northern Railroad. At the end of 1967 it operated 6784 route-miles, not including the 19 miles of Class II subsidiary Walla Walla Valley.

History[link]

Organization and first rail[link]

The Northern Pacific Railway Company was chartered by Congress on July 2, 1864; it was formed with the goal of connecting the Great Lakes with Puget Sound on the Pacific, opening vast new lands for farming, ranching, lumbering and mining, and linking Washington and Oregon to the rest of the country.^[1] It was granted some 47 million acres (190,000 km²) of land in exchange for building rail transportation to an undeveloped territory. Josiah Perham (for whom Perham, Minnesota, is named) was elected its first president on December 7, 1864.^[1]

Jay Cooke appears[link]

For the next six years, backers of the road struggled to find financing. Though John Gregory Smith succeeded Perham as president on January 5, 1866, groundbreaking did not take place until February 15, 1870, at Thompson Junction, Minnesota, 25 miles (40 km) west of Duluth, Minnesota. The backing and promotions of famed Civil War financier Jay Cooke in the summer of 1870 brought the first real momentum to the company.

Over the course of 1870, the Northern Pacific pushed westward from Minnesota into present-day North Dakota. It also began reaching from Kalama, Washington Territory, on the Columbia River outside of Portland, Oregon, towards Puget Sound. Four small construction engines were purchased, the Minnetonka, Itaska, Ottertail and St. Cloud, the first of which was shipped to Kalama by ship around Cape Horn. In Minnesota, the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad completed construction of its 155-mile (249 km) line stretching from Saint Paul to Lake Superior at Duluth in 1870. It was leased to the Northern Pacific the following year, and was eventually absorbed by the Northern Pacific.

In 1871, Northern Pacific completed some 230 miles (370 km) of railroad on the east end of its system, reaching out to Moorhead, Minnesota, on the North Dakota border. In the west, the track extended 25 miles (40 km) north from Kalama. Surveys were carried out in North Dakota protected by 600 troops under General Winfield Scott Hancock. Headquarters and shops were established in Brainerd, Minnesota, a town named for the President John Gregory Smith's wife Anna Elizabeth Brainerd.

In 1872, the company put down 164 miles (264 km) of main line across North Dakota, with an additional 45 miles (72 km) in Washington. On November 1, General George Washington Cass became the third president of the company. Cass had been a vice-president and director of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and would lead the Northern Pacific through some of its most difficult times.

Attacks on survey parties and construction crews building in Native American homelands in North Dakota became so prevalent that the company appealed for Army protection from President Ulysses S. Grant.

In 1872 the Northern Pacific also opened colonization offices in Europe, seeking to attract settlers to the sparsely populated and undeveloped region it served. Survey parties accompanied by federal troops, railroad construction, permanent settlement and development, along with the discovery of gold in nearby South Dakota, all served as a backdrop leading up to the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the defeat of General George Armstrong Custer in 1876.

Panic of 1873 and first bankruptcy[link]

In 1873, Northern Pacific made impressive strides before a terrible stumble. Rails from the east reached the Missouri River on June 4. After several years of study, Tacoma, Washington, was selected as the road's western terminus on July 14. However, for the past three years the financial house of Jay Cooke and Company had been throwing money into the construction of the Northern Pacific. As with many western transcontinentals, the staggering costs of building a railroad into a vast wilderness were drastically underestimated.

For a variety of reasons, led by the costs of constructing the railroad itself, Cooke and Company closed its doors on September 18. Soon, the Panic of 1873 engulfed the United States, ushering in a severe recession which would drag on for several years.

The Northern Pacific, however, survived bankruptcy that year, due to austerity measures put in place by President Cass. In fact, working with last-minute loans from Director John C. Ainsworth of Portland, the Northern Pacific completed the line from Kalama to Tacoma, 110 miles (180 km), before the end of the year. On December 16, the first steam train arrived in Tacoma. The year of 1874, however, found the company moribund.

Northern Pacific slipped into its first bankruptcy on June 30, 1875. Cass resigned to become receiver of the company, and Charles Barstow Wright became fourth president of the company. Frederick Billings, namesake of Billings, Montana, formulated a reorganization plan which was put into effect. This same year George Custer was assigned to Fort Rice, Dakota Territory, and charged with protecting the railroad survey and construction crews.

Frederick Billings and first reorganization[link]

In 1877, construction resumed in a small way. Northern Pacific pushed a branch line southeast from Tacoma to Puyallup, Washington and on to the coal fields around Wilkeson, Washington. Much of the coal was destined for export through Tacoma to San Francisco, California, where it would be thrown into the fireboxes of Central Pacific Railroad steam engines.

This small amount of construction was one of the largest projects the company would undertake in the years between 1874 and 1880. That same year the company built a large shop complex at South Tacoma, Washington. For many years the shops at Brainerd and South Tacoma would carry out heavy repairs and build equipment for the railroad.

On May 24, 1879, Vermont lawyer Frederick Billings became the president of the company. Billings' tenure would be short but ferocious. Reorganization, bond sales, and improvement in the U.S. economy allowed Northern Pacific to strike out across the Missouri River by letting a contract to build 100 miles (160 km) of railroad west of the river. The railroad's new-found strength, however, would be seen as a threat in certain quarters.

Henry Villard, Gold Creek, Gold Spike[link]

Yellowstone Park Line Brochure 1904

Oregon and Transcontinental stock owned by Henry Villard.

Ferdinand Heinrich Gustav Hilgard had been born in Bavaria in 1835, emigrating to America in 1853, at the age of 18. Settling in Illinois, the well-educated Hilgard became a journalist and editor, covering the Lincoln-Douglas debates, then the American Civil War for the larger New York papers, changing his name to Henry Villard along the way. He went back to his native Germany in 1871, where he came in contact with European financial interests speculating in American railroads.

When he returned to the United States after the Panic of 1873, he was the representative of these concerns. In the few short years prior to 1880, Villard intervened on the behalf of these interests in several transportation systems in Oregon. Through Villard's work, most of these lines wound up in the hands of the European creditors' holding company, the Oregon and Transcontinental Company.

Of the lines held by the Oregon and Transcontinental, the most important was the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, a line running east from Portland along the south bank of the Columbia River to a connection with the Union Pacific Railroad's Oregon Short Line at the confluence of the Columbia River and the Snake River near Wallula, Washington.

Within a decade of his return, Henry Villard became the head of a transportation empire in the Pacific Northwest that had but one real competitor, the ever-expanding Northern Pacific. Northern Pacific's completion threatened the holdings of Villard in the Northwest, and especially in Portland. Portland would become a second-class city if the Puget Sound ports at Tacoma and Seattle, Washington, were connected to the East by rail.

Villard, who had been building a monopoly of river and rail transportation in Oregon for several years, now launched a daring raid. Using his European connections and a reputation for having "bested" Jay Gould in a battle for control of the Kansas Pacific years before, Villard solicited — and raised — $8 million from his associates. This was his famous "Blind Pool," Villard's associates were not told what the money would be used for. In this case, the funds were used to purchase control of the Northern Pacific.

Despite a tough fight, Billings and his backers were forced to capitulate; he resigned the presidency June 9. Ashabel H. Barney was brought in as an interim caretaker of the railroad from June 19 to September 15, when Villard was finally elected president by the stockholders. For the next two years, Villard and the Northern Pacific rode the whirlwind.

In 1882, 360 miles (580 km) of main line and 368 miles (592 km) of branch line were completed, bringing totals to 1,347 miles (2,168 km) and 731 miles (1,176 km), respectively. On October 10, 1882, the line from Wadena, Minnesota, to Fergus Falls, Minnesota, opened for service. The Missouri River was bridged with a million-dollar span on October 21, 1882. The Missouri had been handled by a ferry service most of the year. During winters, when ice was thick enough, the rails were laid across the river itself.

General Herman Haupt, another veteran of the Civil War and the Pennsylvania Railroad, set up the Northern Pacific Beneficial Association in 1881. A forerunner of the modern health maintenance organization, the NPBA ultimately established a series of four hospitals across the system in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Glendive, Montana, Missoula, Montana, and Tacoma, Washington, to care for employees, retirees, and their families.

Events reached their climax in 1883. On January 15 the first train reached Livingston, Montana, at the eastern foot of Bozeman Pass. Livingston, like Brainerd and South Tacoma before it, would grow to encompass a large backshop handling heavy repairs for the railroad. It would also mark the east-west dividing line on the Northern Pacific system.

Villard pushed hard for the completion of the Northern Pacific in 1883. During Villard's presidency, crews were averaging a mile and half (2.4 km) of track laying each day. Finally, in September, the line neared completion. To celebrate, Villard chartered four trains to carry visitors from the East to Gold Creek in central Montana. No expense was spared and the list of dignitaries included Frederick Billings, Ulysses S. Grant, and Villard's in-laws, the family of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. On September 8, the Gold Spike was driven at Gold Creek.

Direct to Puget Sound[link]

However, Villard's fall turned out to be even swifter than his ascendancy. Like Jay Cooke, he was now consumed by the enormous costs of constructing the railroad. Wall Street bears attacked the stock shortly after the Gold Spike, after the realization that the Northern Pacific was a very long road with very little business. Villard himself is said to have suffered a nervous breakdown in the days following the Gold Spike, and he left the presidency of the Northern Pacific and the United States to convalesce in Germany in January 1884.

Again, the presidency of the Northern Pacific was handed to a professional railroader, Robert Harris, former head of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. For the next four years, until the return of the Villard clique, Harris worked at improving the property and breaking away from its tangled relationship with the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company.

Throughout the middle 1880s, the Northern Pacific pushed to reach Puget Sound directly, rather than a roundabout route following the Columbia River. Surveys of the Cascade Mountains, carried out intermittently since the 1870s, now began anew. Virgil Bogue, a veteran civil engineer, was sent to explore the Cascades again. On March 19, 1881, he discovered Stampede Pass. In 1883, John W. Sprague, the head of the new Pacific Division, drove the Golden Spike to mark the beginning of the railroad from what would become Kalama, Washington. However, due to impaired health, he was forced to resign a few months later.

In 1884, after the departure of Villard, the Northern Pacific began building toward Stampede Pass from Wallula in the east and the area of Wilkeson in the west. By the end of the year, rails had reached Yakima, Washington in the east. A 77-mile (124 km) gap remained in 1886.

In January of that year, Nelson Bennett was given a contract to construct a 9,850-foot (3,000 m) tunnel under Stampede Pass. The contract specified a short amount of time for completion, and a large penalty if the deadline were missed. While crews worked on the tunnel, the railroad built a temporary switchback route across the pass. With numerous timber trestles and grades which approached six percent, the temporary line required two M class 2-10-0s — the two largest locomotives in the world (at that time) — to handle a tiny five-car train. On May 3, 1888, crews holed through the tunnel, and on May 27 the first train direct to Puget Sound passed through.

Villard and the Panic of 1893[link]

Despite this success, the Northern Pacific, like many U.S. roads, was living on borrowed time. From 1887 until 1893 Henry Villard returned to the board of directors. Though offered the presidency, he refused. However, an associate of Villard dating back to his time on the Kansas Pacific, Thomas Fletcher Oakes, assumed the presidency on September 20, 1888.

In an effort to garner business, the Villard regime pursued an aggressive policy of branch line expansion. In addition, the Northern Pacific experienced the first competition in the form of James Jerome Hill and his Great Northern Railway. The Great Northern, like the Northern Pacific before it, was pushing west from the Twin Cities towards Puget Sound, and would be completed in 1893.

To combat the Great Northern, in a few instances Villard built branch line mileage simply to occupy a territory, regardless of whether the territory offered the railroad any business. Mismanagement, sparse traffic, and the Panic of 1893 sounded the death knell for the Northern Pacific and Villard's interest in railroading. The company slipped into its second bankruptcy on October 20, 1893. Oakes was named receiver and Brayton C. Ives, a former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange became president.

From Villard to Morganization[link]

For the next three years, the Villard-Oakes interests and the Ives interest feuded for control of the Northern Pacific. Oakes was eventually forced out as receiver, but not before three separate courts were claiming jurisdiction over the Northern Pacific's bankruptcy. Things came to a head in 1896, when first Edward D. Adams was appointed president, then less than two months later, Edwin Winter.

Ultimately, the task of straightening out the muddle of the Northern Pacific was turned over to John Pierpont Morgan. Morganization of the Northern Pacific, a process which befell many U.S. roads in the wake of the Panic of 1893, was handed to Morgan lieutenant Charles Henry Coster. The new president, beginning September 1, 1897, was Charles Sanger Mellen.

Though James J. Hill had purchased an interest in the Northern Pacific during the troubled days of 1896, Coster and Mellen would advocate, and follow, a staunchly independent line for the Northern Pacific for the next four years. Only the early death of Coster from overwork, and the promotion of Mellen to head the Morgan-controlled New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1903, would bring the Northern Pacific closer to the orbit of James J. Hill.

Map of Northern Pacific's route circa 1900.

Hill, Harriman and the Northern Pacific Corner[link]

In the late 1880s, the Villard regime, in another one of its costly missteps, attempted to stretch the Northern Pacific from the Twin Cities to the all-important rail hub of Chicago, Illinois. A costly project was begun in creating a union station and terminal facilities for a Northern Pacific which had yet to arrive.

Rather than build directly down to Chicago, perhaps following the Mississippi River as the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy had done, Villard chose to lease the Wisconsin Central. Some backers of the Wisconsin Central had long associations with Villard, and an expensive lease was worked out between the two companies which was only undone by the Northern Pacific's second bankruptcy.

The ultimate result was that the Northern Pacific was left without a direct connection to Chicago, the primary interchange point for most of the large U.S. railroads. Fortunately, the Northern Pacific was not alone. James J. Hill, controller of the Great Northern, which was completed between the Twin Cities and Puget Sound in 1893, also lacked a direct connection to Chicago. Hill went looking for a road with an existing route between the Twin Cities and Chicago which could be rolled into his holdings and give him a stable path to that important interchange. At the same time, Edward Henry Harriman, head of the Union Pacific Railroad, was also looking for a road which could connect his company to Chicago.

The road both Harriman and Hill looked at was the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy. To Harriman, the Burlington was a road which paralleled much of his own, and offered tantalizing direct access to Chicago. For Hill as well there was the possibility of a high-speed link directly with Chicago. Though the Burlington did not parallel the Great Northern or the Northern Pacific, it would give them a powerful railroad in the central West. Harriman was the first to approach the Burlington's aging chieftain, the irascible Charles Elliott Perkins. The price for control of the Burlington, as set by Perkins, was $200 a share, more than Harriman was willing to pay. Hill, however, met the price, and control of the Burlington was divided equally at about 48.5 percent each between the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific.

Not to be outdone, Harriman now came up with a crafty plan: Buy a controlling interest in the Northern Pacific and use its power on the Burlington to place friendly directors upon its board. On May 3, 1901, Harriman began his stock raid which would become known as the Northern Pacific Corner. By the end of the day he was short just 40,000 shares of common stock. Harriman placed an order to cover this, but was overridden by his broker, Jacob Schiff, of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. Hill, on the other hand, reached the vacationing Morgan in Italy and managed to place an order for 150,000 shares of common stock. Though Harriman might be able to control the preferred stock, Hill knew the company bylaws allowed for the holders of the common stock to vote to retire the preferred.

In three days, however, the Harriman-Hill imbroglio managed to wreak havoc on the stock market. Northern Pacific stock was quoted at $150 a share on May 6, and is reported to have traded as much as $1,000 a share behind the scenes. Harriman and Hill now worked to settle the issue for brokers to avoid panic. Hill, for his part, attempted to avoid future stock raids by placing his holdings in the Northern Securities Company, a move which would be undone by the Supreme Court in 1904 under the auspices of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Harriman was not immune either; he was forced to break up his holdings in the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific Railroad a few years later.

From Hill to Howard Elliott[link]

In 1903, Hill finally got his way with the House of Morgan. Howard Elliott, another veteran of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, became president of the Northern Pacific on October 23. Elliott was a relative of the Burlington's crusty chieftain Charles Elliott Perkins, and more distantly the Burlington's great backer, John Murray Forbes. He had spent 20 years in the trenches of Midwest railroading, where rebates, pooling, expansion and rate wars had brought ruinous competition. Having seen the effects of having multiple railroads attempt to serve the same destination, he was very much in tune with James J. Hill's philosophy of "community of interest," a loose affiliation or collusion among roads in an attempt to avoid duplicating routes, rate wars, weak finances and ultimately bankruptcies and reorganizations. Elliott would be left to make peace with the Hill-controlled Great Northern; the Harriman-controlled Union Pacific; and, between 1907 and 1909, the last of the northern transcontinentals, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, more commonly known as the Milwaukee Road.

A Northern Pacific train travels over Bozeman Pass, June 1939.

Into the Twentieth Century[link]

After the turn of the century the Northern Pacific had a record of steady improvement. Together with the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific also gained control of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, gaining important access to Chicago, the central Middle West and Texas, as well as the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway, an important route through eastern and southern Washington. Its physical plant was upgraded continuously, with double tracking in key areas, and automatic block signaling along its entire main line. This in turn gave way to centralized traffic control, microwave and radio communications as time progressed.

The Northern Pacific maintained and continuously upgraded its equipment and service. The road helped pioneer the 4-8-4 Northern type steam engine, the 2-8-8-4 Yellowstone, and was among the first railroads in the country to adopt diesel power beginning with General Motors’ FTs in 1944.

The Northern Pacific's premier passenger train, the North Coast Limited was among the safest and finest in the nation, suffering only one passenger fatality in nearly 70 years of operation.

Unification of the Hill Lines[link]

In later years, consolidation in American railroading brought the Northern Pacific together with the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, the Great Northern Railway and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway on March 2, 1970, to form the Burlington Northern Railroad. Ironically, the merger was allowed despite a challenge in the Supreme Court, essentially reversing the outcome of the 1904 Northern Securities ruling.

Divisions[link]

In 1949, the Northern Pacific's headquarters in Saint Paul presided over a system of 6,889 miles (11,087 km), which 2,831 miles (4,556 km) of main line, 4,057 miles (6,529 km) of branch line under seven operating divisions.

Lake Superior[link]

Headquartered in Duluth, Minnesota, the Lake Superior Division's main routes were from Duluth to Ashland, Wisconsin, Duluth to Staples, Minnesota, and Duluth to White Bear Lake, Minnesota. The division encompassed 631 route miles; 356 in main line and 274 in branches.

St. Paul[link]

Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the St. Paul Division's main routes were from Saint Paul to Staples, Saint Paul to White Bear Lake, and Staples to Dilworth, Minnesota. The division encompassed 909 route miles; 310 in main line and 599 in branches.

Fargo[link]

Headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota, the Fargo Division's main routes were from Dilworth to Mandan, North Dakota. The division encompassed 1,167 route miles; 216 in main line and 951 in branches.

Yellowstone[link]

Headquartered in Glendive, Montana, the Yellowstone Division's main routes were from Mandan, North Dakota, to Billings, Montana, and from Billings to Livingston, Montana. The division encompassed 875 route miles; 546 in main line and 328 in branches.

Rocky Mountain[link]

Headquartered in Missoula, Montana, the Rocky Mountain Division's main routes were from Livingston to Paradise, Montana via Helena, Montana and Mullan Pass, and from Logan, Montana, to Garrison, Montana, via Butte, Montana, and Homestake Pass. The division encompassed 892 route miles; 563 in main line and 330 in branches. It was home to the principal central district repair facility at Livingston, Montana.

Idaho[link]

Headquartered in Spokane, Washington, the Idaho Division's main routes were from Paradise, Mont., to Yakima, Washington, via Pasco, Washington. The division encompassed 1,123 route miles; 466 in main line and 657 in branches.

Tacoma[link]

Headquartered in Tacoma, Washington, the Tacoma Division's main routes were from Yakima to Stuck Junction, near future Auburn, Washington, Seattle, Washington to Sumas, Washington, on the border with British Columbia, Canada, and from Seattle to Portland, Oregon. The division encompassed 1,034 route miles; 373 in main line and 661 in branches. It was home to the principal west end repair facility at South Tacoma, Washington.^[2]

Passenger Service[link]

The line encouraged people to make their homes in the Pacific Northwest by having an "immigration agent" and offering special excursion trains for prospective buyers during the winter months.

Actress Lillian Russell was a passenger on the line in 1915 and was impressed enough by the food and the service to write a letter to the railroad's president.

The North Coast Limited was a famous passenger train operated by the Northern Pacific Railway between Chicago and Seattle via Butte, Montana and Homestake Pass. It commenced service on April 29, 1900, served briefly as a Burlington Northern train after the merger on March 2, 1970, and ceased operation the day before Amtrak began service (April 30, 1971). The Chicago Union Station to Saint Paul leg of the train's route was operated by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad along its Mississippi River mainline through Wisconsin. The North Coast Limited was the Northern Pacific's flagship train and the Northern Pacific itself was built along the trail first blazed by Lewis and Clark.

The Northern Pacific’s secondary transcontinental passenger train was the Alaskan, until it was replaced by the Mainstreeter on November 16, 1952.^[3] The Mainstreeter, which operated via Helena, Montana and Mullan Pass, continued in service through the Burlington Northern merger until Amtrak Day (May 1, 1971). However, it had been reduced to a Saint Paul to Seattle train after the last run of the former Burlington Route Black Hawk on April 12–13, 1970.

The Northern Pacific also participated in the Coast Pool Train service between Portland and Seattle with the Great Northern Railway and the Union Pacific Railroad. NP and GN Coast Pool Trains lasted until Amtrak.

There several other passenger trains which were discontinued before the Burlington Northern merger. These included:

• Saint Paul to International Falls, Minnesota;
• Saint Paul to Duluth, Minnesota (which at one time was also a pool operation, with Great Northern Railway and the Soo Line);
• Duluth to Staples, Minnesota;
• Saint Paul to Jamestown, North Dakota;
• Fargo, North Dakota to Winnipeg, Manitoba;

Presidents[link]

Presidents of Northern Pacific Railway were:

Henry Villard, 6th president of Northern Pacific

• Josiah Perham, 1864–1866.
• John Gregory Smith, 1866–1872.
• George Washington Cass, 1872–1875.
• Charles Barstow Wright, 1875–1879.
• Frederick Billings, 1879–1881.
• Henry Villard, 1881–1884.
• Robert Harris, 1884–1888.
• Thomas Fletcher Oakes, 1888–1893.
• Brayton C. Ives, 1893–1896.
• Edward Dean Adams, 1896.
• Edwin Winter, 1896.
• Charles Sanger Mellen, 1897–1903.
• Howard Elliott, 1903–1913.
• Jule Murat Hannaford, 1913–1920.
• Charles Donnelly, 1920–1939.
• Charles Eugene Denney, 1939–1950.
• Robert Stetson Macfarlane, 1951–1966.
• Louis W. Menk, 1966–1970.

Chief engineers[link]

• Edwin Ferry Johnson (1803–1872), Engineer-in-Chief, 1867. Wrote The Railroad To the Pacific, Northern Route, Its General Characteristics, Relative Merits, Etc. in 1854.^[4]

• William Milnor Roberts (1810–1881), Engineer-in-Chief, 1869 to 1879. Proposed the general route of the Northern Pacific from Bismarck to Portland. Also, Vice President, American Society of Civil Engineers, 1873 to 1878, and then President, 1878.^[4]

• General Adna Anderson (1827–1889), Engineer-in-Chief, February 18, 1880, to January 1888. In October 1886, he was also named second vice-president of the Northern Pacific. He completed the line between Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Wallula (where it connected with the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company’s line to Portland), witnessing the driving of the last spike on September 8, 1883.^[5] Thereafter, he evaluated possible routes for the Cascade Division, intended to connect the NP at some point near the mouth of the Snake River with Tacoma, Washington on Puget Sound. Preliminary reconnaissance and surveys began in March 1880, and in autumn, 1883, Anderson concluded that the line should be built through Stampede Pass.

• John William Kendrick (1853–1924), Chief Engineer, January 1888, to July 1893. From July 1893, to February 1, 1899, he was general manager of the reorganized Northern Pacific Railway.^[6]

• Edwin Harrison McHenry (1859 – August 21, 1931), Chief Engineer, July 1893, to September 1, 1901. Subsequently he was chief engineer for the Canadian Pacific Railway and then fourth vice-president of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.^[7]

• William Lafayette Darling (1856–1938), Chief Engineer, September 1, 1901, to September 1903, and January 1906, to 1916. Between 1905–1906, he was chief engineer for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, returning to the NP in 1906 as chief engineer and also vice-president and engineer in charge of construction of the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway.^[8]

• Edward J. Pearson (1863–1928), Chief Engineer, September 1903, to December 1905.

• Howard Eveleth Stevens, Chief Engineer, 1916 to 1928.

• Bernard Blum, Chief Engineer, 1928 to March 1953.

• Harold Robert Peterson (1896–1963), Chief Engineer, March 1953, to May 1962.

• Douglas Harlow Shoemaker, Chief Engineer, May 1962, to March 2, 1970.

Locomotives[link]

Notable and Preserved Equipment[link]

The Northern Pacific was known for many firsts in locomotive history and was a leader in the development of modern steam locomotives. The NP was one of the first railroads to use Mikado 2-8-2 locomotives in the United States.

The NP's desire to burn low grade semi-bituminous coal from company-owned mines at Rosebud, Montana, played a part in the development of the 4-8-4 wheel arrangement for steam locomotives. With a BTU fifty percent lower than anthracite coal, the NP's locomotive design called for a much larger firebox, and thus an additional axle on the trailing truck. This led locomotive designers from the 4-8-2 Mountain to the 4-8-4 Northern, first produced by Alco for the NP in 1926 and designated the Class A by the railway.

The 2-8-8-4, called the Yellowstone, was first built for the NP by Alco in 1928 and numbered 5000, Class Z-5, with more built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1930. The large locomotives were designed to handle higher tonnage on freight trains while simultaneously eliminating the need to use more 2-8-2 Mikados and crews. They originally served in the western North Dakota/eastern Montana territory.

The Northern Pacific purchased Timken 1111 called the Four Aces, the first locomotive built with roller bearings, in 1933. The Northern Pacific renumbered it 2626 and classified it as the sole member of locomotive Class A-1. It was used in passenger service in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana until 1957 when it was retired from active service and scrapped at South Tacoma, despite attempts to preserve the locomotive. After Timken 1111, the NP bought only roller bearing equipped steam locomotives, with the exception of four 4-6-6-4 Class Z-6 locomotives that were later changed to roller bearings.

Steam Locomotives[link]

Twenty-one Northern Pacific steam locomotives have been preserved:

• Two 0-4-0 engines (the Minnetonka and 8). The Minnetonka was built by Porter and Smith in 1870, and is currently owned by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum and is on display in Duluth, Minnesota. It has the distinction of being shipped in parts around Cape Horn and reassembled at Kalama, Washington circa 1871.
• Five 0-6-0 engines, representing classes L-4 (927), L-5 (924), L-7 (1031) and L-9 (1068 and 1070).
• One 2-6-2 engine, Class T (2435). The locomotive was built by the Brooks Locomotive Works in 1907 and is currently owned by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, Minnesota.
• One 2-8-0 engine, Class Y-1 (25).
• One 2-8-2 engine, Class W-3 (1762).
• Two 4-4-0 engines, classes C-1 (684), and 25½-C (21). NP 684 was built by the New York Locomotive Works in 1883. Sold off and later abandoned in a field in Idaho, it was rescued and rebuilt by the Northern Pacific at the instigation of company photographer Ronald V. Nixon. It is currently on display at Bonanzaville, USA in Fargo, North Dakota. NP 21 was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1872 and was later sold to the Canadian Pacific Railway and became the CP 1, the Countess of Dufferin. The engine is currently owned by the City of Winnipeg and on permanent display in the Winnipeg Railway Museum.
• Five 4-6-0 engines, representing classes S-4 (1354, 1356, 1364 and 1382) and Class S-10 (328). The 1364 is currently being restored by the Northern Pacific Railway Museum in Toppenish, Washington. The 328 was built by Rogers Locomotive Works in 1907 and is owned by the Minnesota Transportation Museum and is being restored in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
• Four 4-6-2 engines, representing Class Q-3 (2152, 2153, 2156 and 2164). The 2153 and 2156 were built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1909 are owned by the Minnesota Transportation Museum. The 2156 is being restored in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

SP&S 700 under steam at Portland Union Station in 1991.

In addition, preserved Spokane, Portland and Seattle 700, a 4-8-4, was derived from Northern Pacific designs.

Diesel Locomotives[link]

• Burlington Northern Railroad 1 and 2, formerly Northern Pacific 6700A and 7002C, EMD F9s, were built in 1954 and later rebuilt by BN for special train service. They are currently owned by the Illinois Railway Museum and are on display in Union, Illinois.
• Northern Pacific 3617, an EMD SD45 built circa 1966 is currently in the process of being restored by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, Minnesota.

Passenger Equipment[link]

Northern Pacific 325 at Illinois Railway Museum in 2007

• Northern Pacific 230, a 73-foot (22 m) lightweight baggage car built by Pullman Company in 1963, is currently owned by the Illinois Railway Museum and is on display in Union, Illinois. The streamlined car was formerly in service on the Northern Pacific’s Mainstreeter.
• Northern Pacific 325, a Slumbercoach named Loch Sloy built by the Budd Company in 1959, is currently owned by the Illinois Railway Museum and is on display in Union, Illinois. The car was formerly in service on the Northern Pacific’s North Coast Limited.
• Northern Pacific 390, a lightweight 4-double bedroom, 1-compartment sleeper-buffet-lounge-observation car named Rainier Club and built by Pullman Company in 1947, is currently owned by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum and is on display in Duluth, Minnesota. The car was formerly in service on the Northern Pacific’s North Coast Limited.
• Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 481, a lightweight 8-duplex roomette, 6-roomette, 3-double bedroom, 1-compartment sleeper car named Savannah built by the Pullman Company in 1948 to Northern Pacific specifications is currently owned by the Illinois Railway Museum and is on display in Union, Illinois. The car was formerly in service on the Northern Pacific’s North Coast Limited.
• Northern Pacific 1102, a heavyweight Railway Post Office car built by the Pullman Company in 1914 as a parlor car named Reba. It was later rebuilt by the NP into NP 631, an 86-seat heavyweight coach, and in 1947 as a triple combine car with a fifteen-foot RPO section. In 1965 it was refitted by the NP's Signal Department for use as a training car. The car has been rebuilt to its triple combine configuration and gives demonstrations of how the U.S. Mail used to move by rail at the Minnesota Transportation Museum in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
• Northern Pacific 1370, a heavyweight coach built by the Pullman Company in 1915 for service on the North Coast Limited. The car is on display at the Minnesota Transportation Museum in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
• Northern Pacific 1447, a Railway Post Office car built in 1914, is currently owned by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum and is on display in Duluth, Minnesota.
• Eight cars originally built for Northern Pacific by the Pullman Company in the early 1900s are now used in daily service on the Napa Valley Wine Train (NVRR). These cars were sold by NP to Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad in 1960 and were used for the Ski Train between Denver and Winter Park, Colorado, before the NVRR purchased them in 1987.

Many NP passenger cars remain in private collections.

Cabooses[link]

• Northern Pacific 1238, a wood cupola caboose Was purchased by Nally's Fine Foods, Tacoma, Washington from the BN in 1975 and was used for the Project NP1364 restoration but was remodeled as a clubhouse for Nally's and parked by the Seattle KING DOME until the dome was torn down then donated to the NP Museum in Toppenish, Washington where it was restored to its pre-1950's look without the large herald and MAIN STREET OF THE NORTHWEST logos and is on display in Toppenish, Washington
• Northern Pacific 1264, originally NP 1144, a wood cupola caboose built in 1901 by the South Baltimore Car Works in Baltimore, Maryland. The car served for many years on Idaho Division freight trains and is now on display at the Minnesota Transportation Museum in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
• Northern Pacific 1311, a wood cupola caboose built in 1913, is currently owned by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum and is on display in Duluth, Minnesota.
• Northern Pacific 1631, a wood cupola caboose, is now on display at the Minnesota Transportation Museum in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
• Northern Pacific 1730, now Minnesota Transfer Railway X-12, is a former cupola caboose built for the Northern Pacific in 1921 by Pacific Car and Foundry. It was sold in 1966 to the Minnesota Transfer Railway and converted into a bay window caboose. It is currently owned by the Mid-Continent Railway Museum and is on display in North Freedom, Wisconsin.
• Northern Pacific 1781, a wood cupola caboose built in 1923, is currently owned by the Mid-Continent Railway Museum and is on display in North Freedom, Wisconsin.

Numerous NP cabooses remain in private collections.

Maintenance Equipment[link]

• Northern Pacific 30, a Russell snowplow, is now on display at the Minnesota Transportation Museum in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
• Northern Pacific 38, a steam wrecking derrick built by Industrial Works in Bay City, Michigan in 1913, is currently owned by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum and is on display in Duluth, Minnesota.
• Northern Pacific 19, a wedge snowplow built by the Russell Car Company, is currently owned by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum and is on display in Duluth, Minnesota.
• Northern Pacific 2 a rotary steam snowplow built by the Cooke Locomotive Works in 1887, is currently owned by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum and is on display in Duluth, Minnesota.
• Northern Pacific 10, a rotary steam snowplow built in November 1907, is currently owned by the Northwest Railway Museum and is on display in Snoqualmie, Washington.
• Northern Pacific 642, a Mann-McCann spreader built by the St. Paul Foundry in 1921 is currently owned by the Northern Pacific Railway Museum in Toppenish, Washington. The spreader was operated for many years on Stampede Pass by Burlington Northern as No. 972602.

Trademark Design and Origin[link]

The design of Northern Pacific's trademark was discovered and adapted to its present use in 1893. Edwin Harrison McHenry Mr. Charles S. Fee, then, as now, the Chief Engineer and General Passenger and Ticket Agent of the Company, respectively, are principally to be credited with its discovery and adoption. The Northern Pacific was in search of a trademark. Many designs had been considered and rejected. Mr. McHenry, while visiting the Korean exhibit at the Chicago World's Fair, was struck with a geometric design, a Taijitu, that appeared on the Korean flag. It was simple, yet effective — plain, yet striking. At once the idea came to him that it was just the symbol for the long-sought-for trademark. With but 'slight' modification it lent itself readily to the purpose. When rendered in red and black the symbol becomes a monad, similar to the monad symbol used by the Technocracy Movement. Though, this appears to be a coincidence.

After Mr. McHenry returned to St. Paul, Mr. Fee sent to him several designs bearing on the trademark idea, for elaboration in his drafting-room. Mr. McHenry added to them the Korean figure. Mr. Fee was at once impressed with this, added the words, "Yellowstone Park Line," and sent the trademark forth into the world emblazoned upon the company's folders. The symbol impressed every one favorably, and has, from the first, attracted universal attention. Upon the organization of the Northern Pacific Railway— the old company having previously been under a receivership — the design was formally adopted as a trademark. Mr. Edward D. Adams, chairman of the Board of Directors, adopted it for the corporate seal of the new company, and had it engraved upon the company's securities.^[9]

References[link]

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2009)

Further reading[link]

• Armbruster, Kurt E. Orphan Road: The Railroad Comes to Seattle, 1853–1911. Pullman [Wash.]: Washington State University Press, 1999.
• Asay, Jeff. Union Pacific Northwest; The Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company. Edmonds [Wash.]: Pacific Fast Mail, 1991.
• Bryant, Keith L., Jr., Editor. Encyclopedia of American Business History and Biography, Railroads in the Twentieth Century. New York: Facts on File, 1990.
• Budd, Ralph, and Howard Elliott. Great Northern and Northern Pacific Review of Operations from 1916 to 1923. New York: Wood, Struthers and Company, 1927.
• Campbell, Edward G. Reorganization of the American Railroad System, 1893–1900. New York: Columbia University Press, 1938.
• Campbell, Marius Robinson. Guidebook of the Western United States; Part A. The Northern Pacific Route, with a side trip to Yellowstone Park. Washington (D.C.): Government Printing Office, 1915.

• Cleland, Alexander M. (1913). Land of Geysers, Yellowstone National Park. St. Paul [Minn.]: General Passenger Department, Northern Pacific Railway. http://www.archive.org/details/landofgeysersyel00nort. 

• Donnelly, Charles. Facts About the Northern Pacific Land Grant. Saint Paul [Minn.]: Northern Pacific Railway, 1924.
• Fredrickson, James Merlin. Railroad Shutterbug; Jim Fredrickson’s Northern Pacific. Pullman [Wash.]: Washington State University Press, 2000.
• Fredrickson, James Merlin. Washington State History Train. Tacoma [Wash.]: Washington State Historical Society, 1995.
• Frey, Robert L., Editor. Encyclopedia of American Business History and Biography, Railroads in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Facts on File, 1988.
• Hedges, James Blaine. Henry Villard and the Railways of the Northwest. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press, 1930.
• Hidy, Ralph W., et al. The Great Northern Railway, A History. Boston [Mass.]: Harvard Business School Press, 1988.
• Lewty, Peter J. Across the Columbia Plain; Railroad Expansion in the Interior Northwest, 1885–1893. Pullman [Wash.]: Washington State University Press, 1995.
• Lewty, Peter J. To the Columbia Gateway; The Oregon Railway and the Northern Pacific, 1879–1884. Pullman [Wash.]: Washington State University Press, 1987.
• Macfarlane, Robert Stetson. Henry Villard and the Northern Pacific. New York: Newcomen Society in North America, 1954.
• Martin, Albro. James J. Hill and the Opening of the Northwest. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.
• Nolan, Edward W. (1983). Northern Pacific views: The railroad photography of F. Jay Haynes, 1876–1905. Helena, MT: Montana Historical Society Press. ISBN 0-917298-11-X. 
• Northern Pacific Railway Company. (1899). The Official Northern Pacific Railway guide. St. Paul, Minn.: W.C. Riley. http://www.archive.org/details/officialnorthern00nortrich. 
• Northern Pacific Railway Company. (1911). Lewiston-Clarkston and the Clearwater Country, Idaho—Washington. General Passenger Department, Northern Pacific Railway. http://www.archive.org/details/lewistonclarksto00nort. 

• Oberholtzer, Ellis P. Jay Cooke. New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1968.
• Schrenk, Lorenz P., and Frey, Robert L. Northern Pacific Pioneer Steam Era. St. Paul [Minn.]: Monad Publications, 2010.
• Schrenk, Lorenz P., and Frey, Robert L. Northern Pacific Classic Steam Era. Mukilteo [Wash.]: Hundman Publishing, 1997.
• Schrenk, Lorenz P., and Frey, Robert L. Northern Pacific Railway Supersteam Era 1925–1945. San Marino [Cal.]: Golden West Books, 1985.
• Schrenk, Lorenz P., and Frey, Robert L. Northern Pacific Railway Diesel Era 1945–1970. San Marino [Cal.]: Golden West Books, 1988.
• Smalley, Eugene V. History of the Northern Pacific Railroad. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1883.
• Villard, Henry. Memoirs of Henry Villard. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1904.
• Ward, James A. That Man Haupt. Baton Rouge [La.]: Louisiana Sate University Press, 1973.
• [1] Wheeler, Olin D. The History of a Trade-Mark. St. Paul [Minn.]: Northern Pacific Railway, 1901.
• Winks, Robin W. Frederick Billings: A Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Northern Pacific Railway

• Northern Pacific Railway Corporate Records, Minnesota Historical Society.
• Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association (NPRHA) Quarterly magazine The Mainstreeter, calendar, annual convention, research pages.
• Teriffic! It's Northern Pacific! Articles, research and rosters for the Northern Pacific.
• NPTellTale The NPTellTale at finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/NPTellTale, is a Web-based discussion about the history of the Northern Pacific.
• White River Valley Museum (WRVM) Tri-annual presentations on NP history; the Albert E. Farrow photographic collection; the Robert E. Munn photographic collection; the Harold R. Burch locomotive manual collection.
• Northern Pacific Railway: First Northern Transcontinental brief history maintained by BNSF Railway.
• University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Transportation Photographs An ongoing digital collection of photographs depicting various modes of transportation in the Pacific Northwest region and Western United States during the first half of the 20th century. Includes images of the Northern Pacific Railway.
• Guide to the Northern Pacific Railway Company Records at the University of Montana Contains company materials predominantly from the late 1880s through the early 1940s.
• Guide to the Nolan Northern Pacific Railroad Collection, 1872–1947 at The Bancroft Library

The Pacific Ocean

Earth's oceans (World Ocean)
Arctic Ocean Atlantic Ocean Indian Ocean Pacific Ocean Southern Ocean

This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 29 on board the ISS on a pass from the Middle East to the South Pacific Ocean.

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.

At 165.2 million square kilometres (64.1 million square miles) in area, this largest division of the World Ocean – and, in turn, the hydrosphere – covers about 46% of the Earth's water surface and about one-third of its total surface area, making it larger than all of the Earth's land area combined.^[1] The equator subdivides it into the North Pacific Ocean and South Pacific Ocean, with two exceptions: the Galápagos and Gilbert Islands, while straddling the equator, are deemed wholly within the South Pacific.^[2] The Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres (35,797 ft).^[3]

The eastern Pacific Ocean was first sighted by Europeans early in the 16th century. Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and named it Mar del Sur (South Sea). The ocean's current name was given by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish expedition of world circumnavigation in 1521, who encountered favourable winds as he reached the ocean and called it Mar Pacifico in Portuguese, meaning "peaceful sea".^[4]

Overview[link]

Sunset over the Pacific Ocean as seen from the International Space Station. Anvil tops of thunderclouds are also visible.

The Pacific Ocean encompasses approximately one-third of the Earth's surface, having an area of 165.2 million square kilometres (64.1 million square miles) —significantly larger than Earth's entire landmass, with room for another Africa to spare.

Extending approximately 15,500 kilometres (9,600 mi) from the Bering Sea in the Arctic to the northern extent of the circumpolar Southern Ocean at 60°S (older definitions extend it to Antarctica's Ross Sea), the Pacific reaches its greatest east-west width at about 5°N latitude, where it stretches approximately 19,800 kilometres (12,300 mi) from Indonesia to the coast of Colombia – halfway across the world, and more than five times the diameter of the Moon. The lowest known point on Earth—the Mariana Trench—lies 10,911 metres (35,797 ft or 5,966 fathoms) below sea level. Its average depth is 4,028~4,188 metres (14,000 ft or 2,333 fathoms).^[1]

The Pacific Ocean is currently shrinking due to plate tectonics, while the Atlantic Ocean is increasing in size, by roughly an inch per year (2–3 cm/yr) on 3 sides, roughly averaging 0.2 square miles (0.52 km²) a year.

Storm in Pacifica, California

Along the Pacific Ocean's irregular western margins lie many seas, the largest of which are the Celebes Sea, Coral Sea, East China Sea, Philippine Sea, Sea of Japan, South China Sea, Sulu Sea, Tasman Sea, and Yellow Sea. The Strait of Malacca joins the Pacific and the Indian Oceans on the west, and Drake Passage and the Straits of Magellan link the Pacific with the Atlantic Ocean on the east. To the north, the Bering Strait connects the Pacific with the Arctic Ocean.

As the Pacific straddles the 180th meridian, the West Pacific (or western Pacific, near Asia) is in the Eastern Hemisphere, while the East Pacific (or eastern Pacific, near the Americas) is in the Western Hemisphere.

For most of Magellan's voyage from the Strait of Magellan to the Philippines, the explorer indeed found the ocean peaceful. However, the Pacific is not always peaceful. Many tropical storms batter the islands of the Pacific. The lands around the Pacific Rim are full of volcanoes and often affected by earthquakes. Tsunamis, caused by underwater earthquakes, have devastated many islands and in some cases destroyed entire towns.

Extent[link]

Water characteristics[link]

Sunset in Monterey County, California, U.S.

The volume of the Pacific Ocean is approximately 622 million cubic km. Water temperatures in the Pacific vary from freezing in the poleward areas to about 30 °C (86 °F) near the equator. Salinity also varies latitudinally. The water near the equator is less salty than that found in the mid-latitudes because of abundant equatorial precipitation throughout the year. Poleward of the temperate latitudes salinity is also low, because little evaporation of seawater takes place in these frigid areas.

The motion of Pacific waters is generally clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere (the North Pacific gyre) and counter-clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. The North Equatorial Current, driven westward along latitude 15°N by the trade winds, turns north near the Philippines to become the warm Japan or Kuroshio Current.

Turning eastward at about 45°N, the Kuroshio forks and some waters move northward as the Aleutian Current, while the rest turn southward to rejoin the North Equatorial Current. The Aleutian Current branches as it approaches North America and forms the base of a counter-clockwise circulation in the Bering Sea. Its southern arm becomes the chilled slow, south-flowing California Current.

The South Equatorial Current, flowing west along the equator, swings southward east of New Guinea, turns east at about 50°S, and joins the main westerly circulation of the Southern Pacific, which includes the Earth-circling Antarctic Circumpolar Current. As it approaches the Chilean coast, the South Equatorial Current divides; one branch flows around Cape Horn and the other turns north to form the Peru or Humboldt Current.

Geology[link]

The Pacific is ringed by many volcanoes and oceanic trenches

Ulawun stratovolcano situated on the island of New Britain, Papua New Guinea

The ocean was mapped by Abraham Ortelius; he called it Maris Pacifici because of Ferdinand Magellan, who sailed the Pacific during his circumnavigation from 1519 to 1522 and said that it was much more calm than the Atlantic.

The andesite line is the most significant regional distinction in the Pacific. It separates the deeper, mafic igneous rock of the Central Pacific Basin from the partially submerged continental areas of felsic igneous rock on its margins. The andesite line follows the western edge of the islands off California and passes south of the Aleutian arc, along the eastern edge of the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Kuril Islands, Japan, the Mariana Islands, the Solomon Islands, and New Zealand's North Island.

The dissimilarity continues northeastward along the western edge of the Andes Cordillera along South America to Mexico, returning then to the islands off California. Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, New Guinea, and New Zealand lie outside the Andesite Line.

Within the closed loop of the Andesite Line are most of the deep troughs, submerged volcanic mountains, and oceanic volcanic islands that characterize the Pacific basin. Here basaltic lavas gently flow out of rifts to build huge dome-shaped volcanic mountains whose eroded summits form island arcs, chains, and clusters. Outside the Andesite Line, volcanism is of the explosive type, and the Pacific Ring of Fire is the world's foremost belt of explosive volcanism. The Ring of Fire is named after the several hundred active volcanoes that sit above the various subduction zones.

The Pacific Ocean is the only ocean which is almost totally bounded by subduction zones. Only the Antarctic and Australian coasts have no nearby subduction zones.

Geological history[link]

The Pacific Ocean developed from the Panthalassic Ocean following the breakup of Pangaea. There is no firm date for when the changeover occurred, as the replacement of the sea bed is a continuous process, though reconstruction maps often change the name from Panthalassic to Pacific around the time the Atlantic Ocean began to open.^[5][6][7] The Panthalassic Ocean first opened 750 million years ago at the breakup of Rodinia,^[7] but the oldest Pacific Ocean floor is only around 180 Ma old.^[8]

Seamount chains[link]

The Pacific Ocean contains several long seamount chains, formed by hotspot volcanism. These include the Hawaiian – Emperor seamount chain and the Louisville seamount chain.

Landmasses and islands[link]

Tahuna maru islet, French Polynesia.

The largest landmass entirely within the Pacific Ocean is the island of New Guinea— the second largest island in the world. Almost all of the smaller islands of the Pacific lie between 30°N and 30°S, extending from Southeast Asia to Easter Island; the rest of the Pacific Basin is almost entirely submerged. During the last glacial period, New Guinea was part of Australia so the largest landmass would have been Borneo–Palawan.

The great triangle of Polynesia, connecting Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand, encompasses the island arcs and clusters of the Cook Islands, Marquesas Islands, Samoa, Society, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuamotu, Tuvalu and the Wallis and Futuna islands.

North of the equator and west of the International Date Line are the numerous small islands of Micronesia, including the Caroline Islands, the Marshall Islands and the Mariana Islands.

Big Sur Coast in Central California.

In the southwestern corner of the Pacific lie the islands of Melanesia, dominated by New Guinea. Other important island groups of Melanesia include the Bismarck Archipelago, Fiji, New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

Islands in the Pacific Ocean are of four basic types: continental islands, high islands, coral reefs, and uplifted coral platforms. Continental islands lie outside the andesite line and include New Guinea, the islands of New Zealand, and the Philippines. Some of these islands are structurally associated with nearby continents. High islands are of volcanic origin, and many contain active volcanoes. Among these are Bougainville, Hawaii, and the Solomon Islands.

The third and fourth types of islands are both the result of coralline island building. Coral reefs are low-lying structures that have built up on basaltic lava flows under the ocean's surface. One of the most dramatic is the Great Barrier Reef off northeastern Australia. A second island type formed of coral is the uplifted coral platform, which is usually slightly larger than the low coral islands. Examples include Banaba (formerly Ocean Island) and Makatea in the Tuamotu group of French Polynesia.

History and economy[link]

Maris Pacifici by Ortelius (1589). One of the first printed maps to show the Pacific Ocean; see also Waldseemüller map (1507).^[9]

USS Lexington under air attack on 8 May 1942 during the Battle of the Coral Sea.

Important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times, most notably those of the Polynesians from the Asian edge of the ocean to Tahiti and then to Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island.

The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in the early 16th century. Balboa's expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and reached the Pacific Ocean in 1513. He named it Mar del Sur (South Sea). Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Pacific on a Spanish expedition of world circumnavigation from 1519 to 1522. Magellan called the ocean Pacífico or "Pacific" because he encountered calm seas throughout his journey. Although Magellan himself died in the Philippines in 1521, Spanish navigator Juan Sebastian Elcano led the expedition back to Spain across the Indian Ocean and round the Cape of Good Hope, completing the first world circumnavigation in 1522.

In 1564, Spanish explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi who sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. For the remainder of the 16th century, Spanish influence was paramount, with ships sailing from Mexico and Peru across the Pacific Ocean to the Philippines, via Guam, and establishing the Spanish East Indies. The Manila Galleons operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest trade routes in history. Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Solomon Islands and New Guinea in the South Pacific.

Later, in the quest for Terra Australis, Spanish explorers in the 17th century also discovered the Pitcairn and Vanuatu archipelagos, and sailed the Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea, named after navigator Luis Vaz de Torres. Dutch explorers, sailing around southern Africa, also engaged in discovery and trade; Abel Janszoon Tasman discovered Tasmania and New Zealand in 1642. The 18th century marked the beginning of major exploration by the Russians in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. The Spanish also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and settled Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest. In 1768 Pierre-Antoine Véron, a young astronomer accompanying Louis Antoine de Bougainville on his voyage of exploration, established the width of the Pacific with precision for the first time in history.^[10] The Spanish organized one of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration with the Malaspina Expedition of 1789-1794 that sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific.

The Bathyscaphe Trieste, before her record dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, 23 January 1960.

Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by other European powers, and later, the United States and Japan. Significant contributions to oceanographic knowledge were made by the voyages of HMS Beagle in the 1830s, with Charles Darwin aboard; HMS Challenger during the 1870s; the USS Tuscarora (1873–76); and the German Gazelle (1874–76).

Although the United States gained control of Guam and the Philippines from Spain in 1898, Japan controlled most of the western Pacific by 1914 and occupied many other islands during World War II. However, by the end of that war, Japan was defeated and the U.S. Pacific Fleet was the virtual master of the ocean. Since the end of World War II, many former colonies in the Pacific have become independent states.

The exploitation of the Pacific's mineral wealth is hampered by the ocean's great depths. In shallow waters of the continental shelves off the coasts of Australia and New Zealand, petroleum and natural gas are extracted, and pearls are harvested along the coasts of Australia, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Nicaragua, Panama, and the Philippines, although in sharply declining volume in some cases.

Fish are an important economic asset in the Pacific. The shoreline waters of the continents and the more temperate islands yield herring, salmon, sardines, snapper, swordfish, and tuna, as well as shellfish.

Environmental issues[link]

Marine debris on a Hawaiian coast

The quantity of small plastic fragments floating in the north-east Pacific Ocean has increased a hundred fold over the past 40 years (2012).^[11]

Marine pollution is a generic term for the harmful entry into the ocean of chemicals or particles. The biggest culprits are people who use the rivers for disposing of their waste.^[12] The rivers then empty into the Ocean, and with it the many chemicals used as fertilizers in agriculture. The excess of oxygen depleting chemicals in the water leads to hypoxia and the creation of a dead zone.^[13]

Marine debris, also known as marine litter, is a term used to describe human-created waste that has ended up floating in a lake, sea, ocean or waterway. Oceanic debris tends to accumulate at the centre of gyres and coastlines, frequently washing aground where it is known as beach litter.^[12]

In addition, the Pacific Ocean served as the crash site of satellites, including Mars 96, Fobos-Grunt and Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite.

Bordering countries and territories[link]

Sovereign nations[link]

¹ The status of the PRC vs. the ROC is disputed. For more information, see status of Taiwan.

Territories[link]

Major ports and harbors[link]

See also[link]

	Environment portal
	Ecology portal
	Geography portal
	Weather portal

References[link]

Further reading[link]

Based on public domain text from US Naval Oceanographer

External links[link]

Look up pacific ocean in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pacific Ocean

• EPIC Pacific Ocean Data Collection Viewable on-line collection of observational data
• NOAA In-situ Ocean Data Viewer plot and download ocean observations
• NOAA PMEL Argo profiling floats Realtime Pacific Ocean data
• NOAA TAO El Niño data Realtime Pacific Ocean El Niño buoy data
• NOAA Ocean Surface Current Analyses – Realtime (OSCAR) Near-realtime Pacific Ocean Surface Currents derived from satellite altimeter and scatterometer data