THE MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. LOUIS RAILROAD

This line ran east-west through present-day St. Louis Park to Lake Minnetonka. Now the Chicago Northwestern, the line has its eastern terminal in Minneapolis and extends south to Albert Lea and west to Aberdeen, South Dakota. The line runs parallel to and south of Highway 7. Parallel and north of this track was the Milwaukee Road.

The line was organized in 1870 by local millers to transport wheat from southern Minnesota farms and the west to the Minneapolis flour mills and beat the monopoly of the existing railroad lines. The first leg went to Sioux City Junction, Minnesota, south of Shakopee.  A grand opening was held on November 25, 1871.  St. Louis Park resident Col. Joel Barbour Clough was the chief engineer until 1872.

Soon after it opened, railroad magnate Jay Cooke bought the line as a branch of the Northern Pacific, which went bankrupt during the depression of 1873. It made it to Albert Lea in 1877. Eventually it merged with the Iowa Central and got as far south as Peoria. See How St. Louis Park Got its Name. The line was bankrupt between 1888 and 1894. In 1902 the route was St. Paul to St. Louis via M&StL tracks from St. Paul to Albert Lea then over the Iowa Central to Albia, Iowa and the Wabash from Albia to St. Louis. The Chicago and Northwestern Railroad bought the Minneapolis and St. Louis in 1960.

St. Louis Park's depot was built sometime prior to 1886, located at 36th and Brunswick, on the median between the Milwaukee tracks and Minneapolis and St. Louis tracks. Willie Dixon was an early stationmaster and Ed Lindahl was his assistant. In 1939, Lee Conley was the agent. There was a small railroad guard shack near the depot for the guard who watched over traffic as well as school children on their way to and from Lincoln School. The tracks made north-south travel difficult, and one could cross only at Grant Street [Brunswick] and one block east at Pleasant Avenue [Wooddale]. Passenger service to Minneapolis cost 10 cents. The depot was heavily damaged by fire on February 11, 1963 [an April 1964 article reported that the fire was two and a half years prior.].  The depot was demolished in early April, 1964. When the station closed, record keeping and administrative functions for St. Louis Park businesses that used the line were transferred to the Hopkins depot near Excelsior Blvd. An April 9, 1964 Dispatch article quoted J.F. McHugo, general yardmaster of the Cedar Lake Station thus:  "We still give full service to St. Louis Park.  We have two men in St. Louis Park daily working with bills of lading, switching and other functions." 

At least part of the line's right-of-way is now a bike path.

An interesting website is http://eldora.net/lyndon/tidbits.html.

Check ticket, Minneapolis to St. Louis Park, Minneapolis and St. Louis Ry.Co.


Mpls and St. Louis:  "one of the new jeeps" - no date



 

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This information comes from a variety of sources: newspapers, books, yearbooks, phone directories, interviews, etc. Given the varied sources, we cannot guarantee that all of this information is correct, and welcome any additions and corrections. Please contact us with your contributions and comments.