I have always had a fascination with the Milwaukee Road and its extension to the Pacific Northwest. Although this westward extension across Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Washington never became the robust source of traffic that headquarters had hoped, to me, the extension westward was a fulfilled prophecy of reaching the Pacific.
Many railroads in that day had expansive names of cities and regions of America that they never quite reached. Very successful railroads such as the St. Louis and San Francisco did not venture past the lower Midwest. Even the Missouri Pacific and the Chicago Rock Island and Pacific only made it as far as west as Denver.
Thus, I admire the Milwaukee Road for its extension to the Pacific. In the words of William Clark, "Ocean in view, O the Joy."
