James J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest (The Oklahoma Western Biographies Book 12)

Having retired as CEO of the Great Northern in 1907 and assumed the title of chairman of the board of directors, Jim Hill forfeited the latter title as well in 1912 and formally retired.

Thus the NP developers, motivated by a federal land-grant policy that encouraged reckless building, isolated the Twin Cities.

It would always be a point of special pride to James J. Hill, and deservedly so, that the well-built and tightly capitalized GN, unlike its federally subsidized competitors, did not fail during the 1893 Panic.

Blood poisoning caused his death.

The SP&S proved to be the superb line that Jim Hill had promised; in fact, it was the best road he had ever built.

The problem with the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy lay in the fact that it was so alluring that it naturally attracted other well-heeled suitors. Indeed, at this very moment it attracted the man who was about to become Jim Hill’s archrival, Edward H. Harriman, of whom it was once said that he feared neither God nor J. P. Morgan.

Consigning and expediting freight, he naturally learned quickly who was doing what and how things worked. He learned, for instance, how the steamship companies could price-gouge local consumers because of the lack of winter service.

As always, attention to and investment in infrastructure formed one of the two core elements in mapping strategy for the GN. The other core element lay, as always, in meeting and besting the regional competition.

JAMES J. Hill ranks among the great organizers and managers of the American West. Born in Canada in 1838, Hill moved nearly two decades later to the Twin Cities, where he quickly exhibited the tireless energy and foresight that characterized his entire career. By his early forties he had helped organize major new transportation systems in Canada an