Congress chartered the Northern Pacific Railway Company on July 2, 1864 with the goals of connecting the Great Lakes with Puget Sound on the Pacific, opening vast new lands for farming, ranching, lumbering and mining, and linking Washington and Oregon to the rest of the country.

Congress granted the railroad a potential 60 million acres (243,000 km²) of land in exchange for building rail transportation to an undeveloped territory.
Josiah Perham was elected its first president on December 7, 1864.
It could not use all the land and in the end took just under 40 million acres.
Congress chartered the Northern Pacific Railway Company on July 2, 1864 with the goals of connecting the Great Lakes with Puget Sound on the Pacific, opening vast new lands for farming, ranching, lumbering and mining, and linking Washington and Oregon to the rest of the country.
Congress granted the railroad a potential 60 million acres (243,000 km²) of land in exchange for building rail transportation to an undeveloped territory. Josiah Perham was elected its first president on December 7, 1864. It could not use all the land and in the end took just under 40 million acres.
Northern Pacific Railway