[tpaine]

And suprisingly enough, less than 20 years later the Northern Transcontinental was built without one federal government red cent!!

Are you claiming that Hills Northern Pacific didn't get federally granted right of way?

Wasn't the alternate section grant still in effect?

[dcwusmc]

IIRC, he did NOT get any fed help, including ROW. His secret was to build where people actually WERE, not artificially create towns that had never existed before. Sort of like someone's recent post regarding a contractor who had just built an apartment complex and wanted to know where to put the walkways. The owner told him to wait until people had worn paths and build the walkways where they were actually needed. Hill was like that, which is why HIS road worked!