THE BIRTH OF ‘BONANZA FARMS’

A “bonanza” is defined as something valuable, profitable or rewarding. In references to the 19th-century American West the term appears most often in connection to mining. But growing pains experienced by the sprawling Northern Pacific Railroad Co. also spawned “bonanza farms.”

When the Northern Pacific declared bankruptcy in 1875 due to mounting costs, poor bond sales, mismanagement, the failure of its banking house and the transatlantic financial Panic of 1873, its assets included 39 million acres of land, primarily in the Red River Valley along the line separating Minnesota and the part of Dakota Territory that would become North Dakota. Congress had granted