DN Pembina River Bridge

In 1890, the The Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway Company (StPM&M) constructed a 32 mile branch line extending from an existing line at Grafton, North Dakota to Cavalier, North Dakota.  The line would be extended an additional 16 miles to Walhalla, North Dakota in 1897.  The StPM&M was controlled by James J. Hill, a railroad tycoon who wished to build a railroad network extending from Minnesota to the Pacific Coast.  Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, the StPM&M acquired and constructed numerous new railroad lines throughout North Dakota, including numerous parallel lines to connect wheat crops in northern North Dakota to the mills at Minneapolis, Minnesota.  In 1907, the StPM&M would be sold to another Hill company, the Great Northern Railway (GN).  An additional 5 mile extension to the Canadian Border would be constructed in 1907, and an unaffiliated company would construct a line to Morden, Manitoba the same year. The GN utilized this route as a branch line, serving grain elevators in the small communities it passed through.  The International connection would be removed in 1936, and the line cut back to Walhalla.  In 1970, GN merged with rival Northern Pacific Railway and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad to form Burlington Northern Railroad (BN).   In 1996, the BN merged with Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway in 1996, to form BNSF Railway. BNSF leased the line segment to Dakota Northern Railroad in 2006.  DN continues to operate this route as the Walhalla Subdivision.