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Title: Jerry Masters and William Bursack
Dates: 1859-2010
Collection Number: MSS 11271
Quantity: 5.5 feet
Abstract: Consists of drafts, notes, photographs and research compiled for the unpublished manuscript by William Bursack and Jerry Masters, entitled "The Northern Pacific Before the Last Spike: Locating the Route"
Provenance: The Jerry Masters and William Bursack papers were donated to the State Historical Society of North Dakota by Masters on September 17, 2015.
Property rights: The State Historical Society of North Dakota owns the property rights to the collection.
Copyrights: Copyrights to materials in this collection remain with the donor, publisher, author, or author's heirs. Researchers should consult the 1976 Copyright Act, Public Law 94-553, Title 17, U.S. Code and an archivist at this repository if clarification of copyright requirements is needed. Permission to use any radio or television broadcast portions of the collection must be sought from the creator.
Access: This collection is open under the rules and regulations of the State Historical Society of North Dakota.
Citation: Researchers are requested to cite the collection title, collection number, and the State Historical Society of North Dakota in all footnote and bibliographic references.
BOX / FOLDER INVENTORY
Box 1:
1 Correspondence 1993-2009
2 Correspondence with University of Oklahoma Press about publishing 2002-2004
3 Surveyor drawing by William W. Bursack 2000
4 Notes ca. 1992-1995
5 Notes ca. 1993
6 Notes, drafts and worksheets 1994-2010
7 Draft: The Northern Pacific Before the Last Spike: Locating the Route 1996
8 Notes 1997-2001
9 Draft 1998-1999
10 Draft ca. 1999
11 Draft 2000
12 Draft February 25, 2001
13 Draft September 2001
14 Draft September 18, 2001
15 Missouri Slope 2002-2006
16 Draft 2003
17 Worksheets for branch line text preparation 2004-2006
18 Branch line worksheets 2005-2007
19 Rewrites and worksheets ca. 2005-2010
20 Photographs and worksheets 1998-2000
21 "Northern Pacific Revisits the Missouri Slope" 2003
22 Notes - Locomotive dismantling lists March 20, 2009
23 Worksheets - branch line earnings 2006-2009
24 Miscellaneous worksheets ca. 2010
25 Chapter 2 notes and edits ca. 2010
Box 2:
1 Branch line text 2006-2007
2 Draft 2010
3 Chapter 1 Early railroads 2010
4 Chapters on branches ca. 2010
5 "Misunderstanding at Wibaux" for Mainstreeter 1995
6 Articles, notes, drafts for Mainstreeter 1992-1997
7 "Musings Around the Northern Pacific" by William Bursack 1994
8 "Routes Across the Rockies" by Jerry Masters ca. 2001
9 "Fulfilling the Contract" by William Bursack 2002
10 Northern Pacific - Memorial for the Board of Directors 1867
11 Northern Pacific – track laying 1868-1969
12 Northern Pacific – correspondence 1891-1951
13 Northern Pacific - early surveys 1871-1959
14 Northern Pacific - Across the Great Plain of the Columbia 1871
15 Northern Pacific - Journal of Northern Pacific Railroad surveying expedition 1872
16 Northern Pacific - Board of Directors 1872-1884
17 Northern Pacific - secretary letters 1873
18 Northern Pacific – reorganization 1875
19 Northern Pacific - locomotive roster 1876-1958
20 Northern Pacific-Manitoba agreements 1877-1884
21 Northern Pacific – officers 1877-1890
22 Northern Pacific - routes across Cascades 1878-1884
23 Northern Pacific - Board of Directors branch line 1878-1886
24 Northern Pacific - from Minnesota Historical Society 1879-1882
25 Northern Pacific - Cascade Mountain surveys to close of year 1880
26 Northern Pacific - branch lines descriptions 1880-1882
27 Northern Pacific - James River Valley 1880-1887
28 Northern Pacific - Board of Directors reports to stockholders 1880-1893
29 Northern Pacific - Fargo and Southwest 1880-1902
30 Northern Pacific - Casselton branch information 1880-1961
31 Northern Pacific - Jamestown and Northern 1880-ca. 1976
32 Northern Pacific - Locomotive information 1880-2008
33 Northern Pacific - Proposed branch to Black hills 1881
34 Northern Pacific - Duluth and Manitoba 1881-1891
35 Northern Pacific - contracts 1881-1882
36 Northern Pacific - Board of Directors 1881-2006
37 Northern Pacific - Duluth and Manitoba 1881-2006
38 Northern Pacific - Milwaukee and Chicago Northwestern 1882
39 Northern Pacific - Annual reports and notes 1882-1893
40 Northern Pacific - Branches 1882-1904
41 Northern Pacific - early correspondence 1883
42 Northern Pacific - Jamestown and Northern #2 1883-1889
43 Northern Pacific - Cooperstown branch 1883-1900
44 Northern Pacific - resolutions regarding other railroads 1884-1893
45 Northern Pacific - Casselton-Marion branch 1886-1900
46 Northern Pacific - coal history 1887
47 Northern Pacific - Board of Directors 1886
Box 3:
1 Northern Pacific - Branch line earnings 1888-1929
2 Northern Pacific - reports: funding and building branch lines 1890-1892
3 Northern Pacific - coal stations 1892-1930
4 Northern Pacific - Farmer's loan and trust vs. Northern Pacific Railroad 1894
5 Northern Pacific - Red River Valley 1895-1896
6 Northern Pacific - Reports to receivers on Northern Pacific branch lines 1896
7 Northern Pacific - locomotive assignments 1876
8 Northern Pacific - Pembina County lines 1896-1899
9 Northern Pacific - "Story of the Northern Pacific," E. V. Smalley 1897
10 Northern Pacific - charter ca. 1897
11 Northern Pacific - Edgeley southwest information 1898-1900
12 Northern Pacific - Milnor Oakes 1898-1900
13 Northern Pacific - McKenzie Linton 1899-1902
14 Northern Pacific - Presidents' files 1900-1904
15 Northern Pacific - Oberon Branch 1900-1910
16 Northern Pacific - time tables 1900-1968
17 Northern Pacific - Turtle Lake branch 1900-2007
18 Northern Pacific - Lind-Ellensburg cut-off 1901
19 Northern Pacific - Mandan South line 1901-1928
20 Northern Pacific - McKenzie -Linton 1902-1903
21 Northern Pacific - Oakes-Linton 1902-1903
22 Northern Pacific - Mandan north line 1902-2001
23 Northern Pacific - Mandan south line 1902-1905
24 Northern Pacific - Great Northern connection 1902
25 Northern Pacific - Pingree-Wilton 1905-2001
26 Northern Pacific - Elliott memoranda on proposed lines 1906-1908
27 Northern Pacific - valuation 1907-1929
28 Northern Pacific - from President's files 1908-1937
29 Northern Pacific - Main Line-Stockwood file 1908-ca. 1990
30 Northern Pacific - post 1900 surveys, Mandan ca. 1910
31 Northern Pacific - Washington state branch 1912-1914
32 Northern Pacific - condensed profiles ca. 1914-1966
33 Northern Pacific - valuation section descriptions and reports ca. 1917-1926
34 Northern Pacific - Howard Elliott memoranda 1920
35 Northern Pacific - track and profile charts 1923-1929
36 Northern Pacific - line shortening 1924
37 Northern Pacific - branch line abandonment 1925-2006
38 Northern Pacific - "The Colonization Work of the Northern Pacific Railroad," James B. Hedges 1926
39 Northern Pacific - Minnesota valuations ca. 1926
40 Northern Pacific - branch line abandonment 1925-2006
41 Northern Pacific - "The Colonization Work for the Northern Pacific Railroad," James B. Hedges 1926
42 Northern Pacific - Minnesota valuations ca. 1926
43 Northern Pacific - Interstate Commerce Commission application for merging Great Northern and Northern Pacific 1927
44 Northern Pacific - Puget Sound and the Northern Pacific Railroad 1932
45 Northern Pacific - information and stats 1933-2003
46 Northern Pacific - water stations 1936
47 Northern Pacific - "The Northern Pacific: First of the Northern Transcontinentals," C. E. Denney 1939
48 Northern Pacific - "Promotional Activities of the Northern Pacific Railroad's Land and Immigration Departments, 1870-1902," Siegfried Mickelson thesis 1940
49 Northern Pacific - Crawford-Livingston 1962-2007
50 Northern Pacific - "The Economic Aspects of the Northern Pacific Railroad in North Dakota," Hiram M. Drache 1967
51 Northern Pacific - "Northern Pacific Officials and the Disposition of the Railroad's Land Grant in North Dakota After 1888," Ross R. Cotroneo 1970
52 Northern Pacific - "Building the Northern Pacific in 1881," Walter A. Cameron 1983
53 Northern Pacific - completion dates 1992-2000
54 Northern Pacific - track charts 1994
55 Northern Pacific - "The Northern Pacific Railroad builds on Edwin F. Johnson's Plan," Jerry Masters 1997
Box 4:
1 Northern Pacific - "Still the 'Main Street of the Northwest': The Continuing Legacy of the Northern Pacific Railway in Montana," Dale Martin 2004
2 Northern Pacific - "The Northern Pacific in Minnesota," John C. Luecke 2005
3 Northern Pacific - "Twenty-Six Feet and No Bottom': Surveying and Constructing the Northern Pacific Railroad" 2006
4 Northern Pacific - coal docks 2006
5 Northern Pacific - technology 2008-2009
6 Northern Pacific - locomotives, Ron Nixon 2009
7 Northern Pacific - "Giants in the Collision: The Northern Pacific Panic of 1901," Howard Schultz 2008
8 Northern Pacific - Index of proposed lines n.d.
9 Aberdeen, Fergus Falls and Pierre Railroad Company 1885-1887
10 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ca. 2010
11 Burlington Northern locomotives in Wyoming ca. 2008
12 "A History of Burlington Lines," Richard C. Overton 1965
13 Canadian Pacific 1936-1989
14 Canadian Pacific 1963-2009
15 Central Vermont Railway 2009
16 Interstate Commerce Commission investigation of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway Company 1917-1925
17 "The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway and James J. Hill in Dakota Territory, 1879-1885," F. Stewart Mitchell n.d.
18 Chicago & Northwestern 1910-1990
19 Dakota Midland Railway 1906
20 Duluth and Manitoba 1883-1887
21 "The Montana Eastern Railway Company 1912-1935: Great Northern's Second Main Line," Richard E. Johnson 1993
22 "Significance of the Rocky Mountains to Transcontinental Railways," Ralph Budd 1929
23 "The Pacific Short Line," Kenneth R. Middleton 1989
24 Great Northern York-Dunseith line 2005
25 Great Northern and Montana Eastern Railway Companies resolutions 1892-1929
26 Great Northern northtown junction to St. Cloud ca. 1906-1929
27 Great Northern Railway 1897-1898
28 History of the Great Northern manuscript (Hidy & Hidy) ca. 1960
29 "The Great Northern Railway: A History," Ralph W. Hidy, Muriel E. Hidy, and Roy V. Scott with Don L. Hofsommer 1988
30 James River Valley Railroad Company 1881-1897
31 Manitoba Southwest 1881-1885
32 Milwaukee Railroad in Dakota Territory and Gallatin Valley (Mont.) ca. 2005
33 Milwaukee Railroad 1975 & n.d.
34 Milwaukee Railroad - profiles and Snoqualmie Pass 1954-1999
35 Montana Central Railway ca. 2008
36 New York Central Railway ca. 2010
37 Oregon Transcontinental Railway from The Chronicle 1881-1885
38 Pennsylvania Railroad ca. 2010
39 Red River Valley and Western Railroad 2008
40 Red River Valley and Western Railroad branch line abandonments 2009
41 Soo Line 1975
42 "The Wishek-Pollock Branch," John A. Fink (Soo) 1988
43 "Buildings on the Pollock Line," Stuart J. Nelson 1988
44 "Three Generations West: Saga of the Soo," John A. Gjevre 1995
45 "The Soo-Pacific Country," T. I. Hurd 1895
46 "Wild West and the Soo," Jim Welton and Stu Nelson 2004
47 "Union Pacific: Birth of a Railroad, 1862-1893," Maury Klein 1987
48 "Union Pacific: The Rebirth, 1894-1969," Maury Klein 1989
49 Union Pacific charter 1862
50 Union Pacific n.d.
51 Union Pacific 1886-ca. 1990
52 Valley City and Turtle Mountain Railway 1880s
53 Walter Washington DeLacy n.d.
54 James J. Hill ca. 1880-1900
55 Edwin F. Johnson 1854-1855
56 General McLellan 1901-2010
57 Report of the Chief Engineer Thomas B. Morris 1874
58 Raynold's report 1859-1867
59 T. P. Roberts report 1872
60 W. Milnor Roberts Puget Sound Journal reports 1871-1878
61 W. Milnor Roberts ca. 1871
62 Thomas Lafayette Rosser 1958
63 General W. T. Sherman 1880
64 President Smith's reports 1871-1877
65 Charles Barstow Wright 1956
66 Obituaries 1875-1999
67 Officers biographies 1901-1999
Box 5:
1 Steven's Survey 1853
2 Statistics of mines and mining 1870
3 Railway Age and The Chronicle 1881-1889
4 Surveys of Skagit and Skykomish Routes 1882
5 "Tell Tell Extra: Passes, Tunnels and T.F. Oakes" 1884
6 Railway Age clippings 1884-1894
7 Grodinsky ca. 1888
8 A report on Washington Territory 1889
9 Census of Agriculture 1899-1982
10 Heart River Land Company 1902
11 Sources: Missouri Slope Story 1903
12 The Strategy of Great Railroads 1905
13 "Hill Against Harriman," George H. Cushing 1909
14 "'Bub's' Conspiracy: A Story of Two Farms," C. G. Norwood 1915
15 Historical Sketch of Sheyenne Valley 1928
16 Culber-Stockton Quarterly 1931
17 Homestake pass 1931
18 The Northern Overland route to Montana 1932
19 Excerpt from "They Built the West" 1934
20 Timetables 1938
21 Railroad Post Office schemes 1948-1949
22 Field engineering 1949
23 "The Plainsmen of the Yellowstone: A History of the Yellowstone Basin," Mark H. Brown 1961
24 "A Comparative Historical Geography of Two Railnets," D. W. Meining 1962
25 Mandan and Morton County history 1964
26 "The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest," Alvin M. Josephy, Jr. n.d.
27 Exploration and empire 1966
28 The Firewagon Road 1970
29 "Enterprise Denied," Albro Martin 1971
30 "Man in Glacier: The White Man Cometh" 1976
31 "Henry Villard," Dietrich Buss 1977
32 History of Flasher ca. 1977
33 Excerpt from "River of No Return" 1978
34 Puget's Sound 1979
35 "Railroads and the Frontier Garrisons of Dakota Territory," Kenneth M. Hammer 1979
36 "Railroad Townsite Promotion in a Capitalistic Setting: Herbert Sydney Duncombe and the Midland Continental Railroad, 1906-1914," F. Stewart Mitchell 1981
37 "North Dakota's Railway War of 1905," John C. Hudson 1981
38 "Phil Sheridan and His Army," Paul Andrew Hutton 1985
39 History of transcontinental railroads and coal mining 1987
40 To the Columbia Gateway 1987
41 Farm post offices in North Dakota 1988
42 "The Interstate Commerce Commission and the Railroad Industry: A History of Regulatory Policy," Richard D. Stone 1991
43 "Across the Great Columbia Plain," D. W Meinig 1995
44 Excerpts from "Union College's Class of 1868," M. John Lubetkin 1995
45 Montana Rail Link 10th anniversary 1997
46 Diesel production statistics 2000
47 "Clash on the Yellowstone," M. John Lubetkin 2003
48 Electro-motive division (General Motors) 2003
49 "'The Railroad System has Burst through State Limits:' Railroads and Interstate Commerce, 1830-1920," James W. Ely Jr. 2003
50 "Surface Transportation's Regulatory Roller Coaster," D. Michael Hurst Jr. 2008
51 North Dakota Railroad abandonments 2006
52 "Banking on Global Markets: Deutsche Bank and the United States 1870 to Present," Christopher Kobrak 2007
53 McKeen Motor Car Company 2008
54 "Deconstructing the Countryside" 2009
55 Mullan Road and Mullan Pass 2009
56 Lewis and Clark 2009
57 North Dakota and Montana Branch lines 1908-1992
58 "'Fort Desolation:' The Military Establishment, the Railroad, and Settlement on the Northern Plains," Paul Andrew Hutton
59 History of Edgeley n.d.
60 History of Leeds n.d.
61 "Northwestern Express and Transportation Company" n.d.
62 "Profiting from the Plains: The Great Northern Railway and Corporate Development of the American West," Claire Strom n.d.
63 Miscellaneous maps n.d.
64 Miscellaneous maps n.d.
65 Annual report maps n.d.
66 Miscellaneous online locomotive sources n.d.
67 Note cards (sources) n.d.
68 County histories, Barnes-Emmons n.d.
69 County histories, Foster-McLean n.d.
70 County histories, Mercer-Williams n.d.
Box 6: Photographs
PHOTOGRAPHS INVENTORY
11271-00001 Postage cancellation June 06, 1954
11271-00002 Northern Pacific mail car ca. 1942
11271-00003 Sketch of lock April 1996
11271-00004 Train wreck Detroit (Minn.) August 30, 1909
11271-00005 Train wreck Detroit (Minn.) August 30, 1909
11271-00006 Mail crane Pepin (Wis.) ca. 1996
11271-00007 Mailbag catcher ca. 1996
11271-00008 Mail car interior ca. 1996
11271-00009 Mail car interior ca. 1996
11271-00010 Mail car interior ca. 1996
11271-00011 Northern Pacific train ca. 1950-1980
11271-00012 Railroad tracks Wibaux (Mont.) May 04, 1995
11271-00013 Railroad tracks Wibaux (Mont.) May 04, 1995
11271-00014 Unidentified man ca. 1995
11271-00015 Unidentified man ca. 1995
11271-00016 Railroad tracks Wibaux (Mont.) May 04, 1995
11271-00017 Railroad tracks Wibaux (Mont.) May 04, 1995
11271-00018 Railroad tracks Wibaux (Mont.) May 04, 1995
11271-00019 Train wreck Wibaux (Mont.) September 20, 1954
11271-00020 Train wreck Wibaux (Mont.) September 20, 1954
11271-00021 Train wreck Wibaux (Mont.) September 20, 1954
11271-00022 Train wreck Wibaux (Mont.) September 20, 1954
11271-00023 Train wreck Wibaux (Mont.) September 20, 1954
11271-00024 Train wreck Wibaux (Mont.) September 20, 1954
11271-00025 Train wreck Wibaux (Mont.) September 20, 1954
11271-00026 Northern Pacific locomotive lifted by cranes ca. 1960
11271-00027 Northern Pacific locomotive ca. 1960
11271-00028 Three Northern Pacific locomotives Brainerd (Minn.) 1959
11271-00029 Two children in locomotive cab Brainerd (Minn.) 1959
11271-00030 Two children in front of locomotive Brainerd (Minn.) 1959
11271-00031 Two children in front of locomotive Brainerd (Minn.) 1959
11271-00032 Two children in front of locomotive wheel Brainerd (Minn.) 1959
11271-00033 Two children in front of locomotive wheel Brainerd (Minn.) 1959
11271-00034 William W. Bursack and Richard Fisher standing on front of the Dickinson Depot Dickinson (N.D.) September 8, 1994
11271-00035 Railroad tracks Medora (N.D.) May 20, 1998
11271-00036 Tunnel June 1, 1998
11271-00037 Heart Butte Grant County (N.D.) September 9, 1998
11271-00038 Railroad tracks Logan (Mont.) September 17, 1997
11271-00039 Northern Pacific commencement sign Carlton (Minn.) August 24, 1998
11271-00040 Train wreck Detroit (Minn.) August 30, 1909
11271-00041 Man in mail railcar ca. 1900-1940
11271-00042 Portrait of unidentified man ca. 1940-1970
11271-00043 Group of children in front of school ca. 1900-1940
11271-00044 Elevator Grand Rapids (N.D.) ca. 1900-1940
11271-00045 Grand Rapids (N.D.) ca. 1900-1940
11271-00046 Northern Pacific locomotive Jamestown (N.D.) ca. 1920-1940
11271-00047 Northern Pacific locomotive Jamestown (N.D.) ca. 1931
11271-00048 Northern Pacific locomotive Jamestown (N.D.) ca. 1931
11271-00049 Northern Pacific locomotive Jamestown (N.D.) ca. 1930-1960
11271-00050 Passenger cars Jamestown (N.D.) ca. 1930-1960
11271-00051 Passenger cars Jamestown (N.D.) ca. 1930-1960
11271-00052 Northern Pacific locomotive Jamestown (N.D.) ca. 1930-1960
11271-00053 Northern Pacific locomotive Jamestown (N.D.) ca. 1930-1960
11271-00054 Northern Pacific locomotive Jamestown (N.D.) ca. 1930-1960
11271-00055 Northern Pacific locomotive Jamestown (N.D.) ca. 1930-1960
11271-00056 Northern Pacific locomotive Jamestown (N.D.) ca. 1930-1960
11271-00057 Northern Pacific locomotive Jamestown (N.D.) ca. 1930-1960
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