The interior of a Northern Pacific Railroad exhibit car
1 media/immigration_2_img_thumb.jpg 2020-08-03T14:24:36-07:00 the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula 2ed0a4c76b15fe2d208dedaebb1fcaaa8b4d9c38 37644 1 These cars were loaded with the best in Montana products: crops, fruits, and minerals, and then shown in the east, as part of larger efforts to entice settlers to move to Montana. Courtesy of the Montana State University Archives, parc-000822. plain 2020-08-03T14:24:36-07:00 the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula 2ed0a4c76b15fe2d208dedaebb1fcaaa8b4d9c38This page is referenced by:
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Railroad-driven immigration
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Railroads were instrumental in bringing white settlers west. Companies offered deals to Americans looking to move west, and sent agents to Europe to promote immigration. These efforts came after restrictions on immigration from Asia, like the Chinese Exclusion act of 1882 and the Gentleman’s Agreement with Japan in 1907. They also followed the Reclamation Act of 1902, which allowed white settlers to buy land in Native American reservations. These factors combined to create the ethnic makeup of the American west.
Railroads also worked tirelessly to attract tourists and homesteaders from the eastern states. The Northern Pacific was especially aggressive, creating elaborate exhibit cars and promoting tours of Montana and North Dakota to expose curious easterners to life in the west. Richer Americans were encouraged to visit, spending money and bringing back stories, while poorer farmers were offered discounts on land and train fare if they agreed to settle on railroad land.
The railroads had a vested interest in populating the American West. Unlike eastern railroads, the tracks through the west had preceded demand for them, and so railroad companies had to create that demand. Furthermore, railroads were financed in part by the mortgaging of their land grant lands, and sought to entice settlers into their lands in order to further fund the railroad projects
Railroad companies built a series of almost identically-laid out railroad towns dotting the west. These were then filled with hopeful immigrants, eager to start a better life. Some of these towns, such as Livingston or Glendive, took off, building thriving communities that still exist today. Many more, however, never became more than isolated settlements, and eventually turned into ghost towns.
Meanwhile, the farmers flocking to Montana found conditions much more difficult than they anticipated. Dry land farming techniques had been advertised as the future of agriculture. At first, the promises seemed completely true. However, farmers slowly realized that dry land farms could not withstand multi-year droughts. The 1893 drought left many farmers destitute. Their abandoned claim shanties and farmhouses still dot the landscape of eastern Montana.
Despite these difficulties, the efforts of the railroad companies to populate the west paid off. Enough people were able to settle and thrive to build a robust customer base, particularly as the railroad was the only thing anchoring most western towns to the rest of the country.
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