If Duluth had but the one interest, that of lumber, its prosperity would be assured.  It lies in the very heart of a vast district abounding in pine-forests, and which have scarcely been explored, and we believe much of it remains unsurveyed by the general government up to the present time.  The St. Louis River, which empties into Duluth and Superior Bays, courses, with its branches, a thousand miles among the dense forests of pine; and yet this is but a fraction of the immense tract of valuable timber to the north and west of this young and nourishing city.

There is no lack of water-power to reduce the raw material to a marketable condition, since the river above named can turn all the wheels of every mill in the country, could they be planted beside it.  The point of contact by the river with the outlying rim of the basin of the great lake is at the village of Thompson, some twenty miles distant from Duluth, on the St. Paul Railroad.[D] Here the waters of the St. Louis River struggle by and over this rim of rocks, downward and onward, roaring and surging in their tumultuous ways, to the level below.  These rapids are known as the “Dalles of the St. Louis,” and extend some four and a half miles in an elbow direction.  If a canal were cut across this elbow, this splendid water-power could be utilized beyond that of any other in the country.

What a field for enterprise is presented to lumbermen!  A vast forest, a river furnishing transportation and unlimited power for manufacturing, and, finally, an open sea, with almost countless markets!

Besides this, there lies among the cliffs and high lands adjoining the rapids of this river inexhaustible quarries of slate, surpassing, we are informed, those of England in quality and quantity, and which must ere long receive that attention they seem to demand at the hands of capital.

The now rude village of Thompson—­named for J. Edgar Thompson, of Philadelphia—­with its half dozen extemporized buildings, in the quiet of the woods, will ere long resound with the hum of many industries, and already has considerable importance as being the point of junction of the two great railways entering Duluth—­the St. Paul and the Puget Sound (Northern Pacific) Roads; the latter traversing a vast territory abounding in everything which contributes to the growth of an agricultural and manufacturing people.

The city of Duluth, seated at the eastern gate way of this new and splendid domain, holds in her golden horn the destinies of many populous and powerful States.

FOOTNOTES: 

[D] Known as the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad.

CHAPTER XII.

THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD.

The Northwest.—­Its great extent and character.—­Jay Cooke, Esq.—­The Northern Pacific Railroad and its advantages.—­The general line of the road.—­The shortest route to Asia.—­The Red River valley.—­Puget Sound.—­The future of our country.