The year following (1871) was abundant in railroad extension. The main line of the Great Northern was extended to Breckenridge on the Red River of the North; the River division of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, prolonged to Winona, shortened the journey to Chicago by many hours; and the Northern Pacific had reached the Red River at Moorhead. Meantime the Southern Minnesota had been pushed out to the Blue Earth, and the Winona and St. Peter to the Minnesota. The 350 miles built in 1872, though reaching no important terminals, brought the total mileage at the close of the year up to an even 1900.
In those years of plentiful money and multiplying fortunes, railroad building was rapid and easy in Minnesota. Investors were keen for bonds secured by land grants of enormous extent, and bearing a liberal interest, especially when offered at a seductive discount. The controlling spirits of the companies found some profit in financing construction companies, but more in town lot and land speculations. Railroad building out on the open prairie far in advance of settlement was a novelty then. The gentlemen whose privilege it was to determine the lines and locate the stations were in position to make profitable selections of lots and lands, and to let their friends “in on the ground floor” for a consideration. Around the selected stations considerable villages would arise in a single season. In some cases the town would be built before the track had reached it. There were instances in which settlements were made on mistaken calculations of actual location, and then the houses and shops were literally put on wheels and hauled over to the chosen spots.
The lands adjacent to the railroad lines, especially within a few miles of the stations, were, of course, in great demand and rose rapidly in price. Cultivation was no longer confined to the river counties, but spread rapidly inland. It did not take a generation of the hardest labor to make a farm on the Minnesota prairie. In the first season the newcomer could win his subsistence, and in the second begin to build. The cultivated area of the state, which was 630,000 acres in the closing year of the Civil War, rose to 1,863,300 in 1870, and five years later fell not much short of 3,000,000.