Panic of 1873

Annotation

The Great Northern Railway connected a vital economic sector of the United States. Still, much of the land between Minneapolis and Seattle was then, and remains today, undeveloped and largely unconnected to the marketplace. This map compares the historic route to the modern route and shows the territory clearly, which can lead students to a discussion about the value of selling these lands at inflated prices (exactly what Jay Cooke hoped to do). How likely was it that depots along the line would suddenly spring to life and become major cities? This was the gamble that land speculators took throughout the boom and bust periods of the Gilded Age A larger and zoomable image of the map is available through the Washington University Archives.