Twisted Tracks: The Change in Route of the CPR Mainline
Date
1997
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Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
This work focuses on the decision to build the Canadian Pacific
Railway's mainline across the southern prairies, instead of following the
government surveyed route across the northern prairies.
Many interpretations and theories have tried to address this issue.
In the historiography on the Canadian Pacific Railway this question has
been explored in various ways. I have examined the relevant secondary
sources and conducted primary research at the Baker Library, Harvard
Business School, the Minnesota Historical Society and the James
Jerome Hill Reference Library, in St. Paul, Minnesota, and at the
National Archives of Canada in Ottawa .. The resources and holdings of
the University of Saskatchewan Libraries, and specifically the Shortt
Collection, were consulted for material on the topic.
The major contribution of this work is that it brings together, in
one work, all of the available material on this subject. The thesis also
explores and presents information that has been ignored in previous
works, specifically the ironic role of James J. Hill in the decision, and its
later consequences. The conclusion of the thesis is that the southern
route was followed because it placed the CPR mainline in a strategic
position where it could better defend its territory and traffic from rival
American railroads.
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Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
History
Program
History