The Empire Builder

Journey to a Land of Water Wind and Fire

Part A: Getting There IIIa1

The Empire Builder through

Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota

When Amtrak was formed in 1971 they took over several of the more well-known routes from various private railroads and have attempted to keep these routes going, albeit with some changes in routing and equipment. The Empire Builder has been one of those trains, and through the years it has been considered a success. Between Minneapolis and Seattle it follows the original routing for the Empire Builder, the route of the Great Northern Railway of James J. Hill, the original "Empire Builder." It even has a Portland section, which I believe the original also had. However, between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Chicago, the routing was changed to allow the train to serve Milwaukee WI. This was done by removing the train from the Burlington Railroad tracks that the Empire Builder originally used, and instead routing it over the tracks of the old Milwaukee Road (these tracks are now owned by the Canadian Pacific) that run from Chicago up to Milwaukee, over through central Wisconsin, and the towns of Portage and La Crosse. At La Crosse the tracks cross the Mississippi River and enter Minnesota. After paralleling the river to Hastings MN the tracks re-cross the river and allow the Amtrak's Empire Builder to move onto the original Empire Builder routing for the journey into the Twin Cities area and beyond. The train has been so successful for Amtrak that a few years ago, it received the 1st re-furbished Superliner equipment. On a more personal note I had ridden Amtrak's Empire Builder twice before, once westbound to Portland, and once eastbound from Seattle.


The train left Chicago on time and quickly passed through Milwaukee and then traveled through the Wisconsin countryside. Just at dusk (we were traversing this area in the middle of August) it reached La Crosse WI where it crossed the Mississippi River into Minnesota.

Soon after that passage, we went into darkness and thus couldn't see any more scenery.

The next morning we woke up in North Dakota. And we saw what I had been hoping we would see, tremendous fields of Sunflowers. Sunflowers are a major crop for this part of North Dakota, and the tracks travel through several large fields. This being near the harvest season, the sight was obviously magnificant.

Shortly after Minot ND we crossed the Gassman Coulee on a high trestle and left the farmfields of the Souris River Valley (which flows north into Canada and the Hudson's Bay area) and began our descent through the bluffs along the Missouri River, Lewis and Clark country. At the same time, we also crossed the "magic 100 degree line" where the amount of yearly moisture decreases. Not surprisingly, we saw a change in the land use patterns. No longer did we see large crops like Sunflowers. Instead, we began to see many livestock fields. We also saw many oil wells in this area of North Dakota.

But soon, around noon, we left North Dakota and entered "Big Sky" country, also known as Montana. But I shall save that for another posting.