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The history of Railroads can be very
complicated and confusing; information in brackets provide
alternate dates, etc. Please contact us if you have
an additions or corrections.
DAN PATCH THE RAILROAD
The Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester, and Dubuque Electric
Traction Co., universally known as the Dan Patch Electric Railway,
was incorporated in 1907 by Col. Marion Willis "Will" Savage
of Minneapolis. It was intended to be an electric
line, but the cost was prohibitive, so the cars were
gas-electric. In fact, the line had the first
gas-electric freight locomotive used by an American
railroad.
The train was nicknamed the "Dan
Patch" for Savage's famous racehorse (see below).
Indeed the symbol of the Dan Patch Electric Line was a
lightning bolt on a horseshoe. The line originally
ran from Minneapolis south to Savage's 750 acre farm in...
Savage. The 1,700 acres of land he owned outside of St. Paul
had been called Hamilton, but he renamed it Savage in 1904.
Construction began in 1908, and the line came to St. Louis Park in 1913, when a presentation
to the Village Council was made on September 30.
Representing the railroad were D.S. Smith, General Manager;
Albert Graber, Engineer; and R.T. Boardman, Attorney. The
line was approved by the Council with the provisions that
the fare be reduced, and that steam was prohibited.
The line began at what was called Auto Club Junction, which
was near the clubhouse of the Minneapolis Auto Club on the
Mississippi River Bluffs. It traveled through Edina
and St. Louis Park, and ended at the juncture of Glenwood
Ave. and Highways 100 and 55.
Passenger service started in 1915. The St. Louis Park
section started at Superior Blvd (394), traveling to
Cedar Lake Road, Park Manor (Dakota), Lake Street, Broadway
(Walker), and Goodrich. Stations on the middle
section were set up at Foster’s Place (?), Excelsior Ave.,
Goodrich Ave., Lake Street, and Minnetonka Blvd. The
southern leg crossed Alabama Ave., Excelsior Blvd., 41st
St., 42nd St., Brookside north of the Creek and Brookside
south of the Creek. There were passenger stations at
Interlachen Blvd., Brookside Ave., and Division Street. A
short spur ran north from behind the Brookside station.
It took 15 minutes and 5 cents to get from St. Louis Park to
the passenger depot at Third Ave. No. and Seventh Street No. in
Minneapolis. [In 1914, the company was ordered not to take
dirt from the middle of 41st Street between Brookside and
Zarthan after a request to close that road was denied.]
Although its charter called
for electric lines for passenger traffic only, on June 3,
1915 the line requested permission to use steam. With or
without the Council’s approval, they started to run steam
trains and haul freight [1920]. The trains were noisy and left
behind black, oily smoke that clung to laundry hanging in
back yards.
On July 16, 1916, the line went into receivership and was
reorganized as the Minneapolis, Northfield, and Southern. Passenger service was discontinued in 1942.
In 1984 [1982], the Soo Line bought the line - and the
Milwaukee Road in 1985. The team track at Excelsior Blvd.
was discontinued and leased to Fred G. Anderson in the
1980's. The line was purchased by Canadian Pacific in the
1980s, but even today,
many people still refer to it as the Dan Patch.
Also see the article on the
Dan Patch Railroad
in the Re-echo.
DAN PATCH THE HORSE
Dan Patch the horse ran a mile in one minute 55¼ seconds at
the Minnesota State Fairgrounds on September 8, 1906,
breaking the world’s record for the first of 14 times. This
amazing harness-racing horse had been purchased in December
1902 by Savage, owner of the International Stock Food
Company in Minneapolis. Although Mr. Savage lived in
Minneapolis, Dan Patch lived like a king in Savage, in a
barn called the Taj Mahal. Dan Patch died on July 11, 1916,
and they say Savage died of a broken heart the next day.
Dan Patch may have had another connection to St. Louis Park.
Some remember a racetrack in the vicinity of Webster/Xenwood.
Mrs. Ora Baston remembers Dan Patch being trained at a track
"in the heart of the Park."
A great Dan Patch web site is
http://www.deckernet.com/minn/DanPatch/. Also see
the article on Dan
Patch in the Re-echo.
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