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Historical Context

The Duluth, Huron abd Denver Railroad company was incorporated in Minnesota in 1886 by E. P. Caldwell, John P. Conkey, Fred T. Day, T. C. Day, Lesley Durley, Charles M. Harrison (who has signed this piece as the company Secretary,) E. G. Hodgson, C. E. Marbie, and Franklin C. Platt.

The road was nicknamed the "Cross Cut Line," and proposed to build a railway from Duluth, Minnesota to Denver, Colorado and connect with Union Pacific Railroad.

Grading work began on 90 miles of the railroad and the railroad cars ordered and tried to gain a route through the Lake Traverse, Sisseton, Wahpeton, Oyate Reservation in Dakota Territory. Trackage was laid between Benson, Minnesota, and a connection with the Northern Pacific Railroad at Sauk Centre, Minnesota, before 1888 and between Sauk Centre and the Dakota border before 1889.

Completion of the line from Sauk Centre to Duluth, Minnesota, was scheduled for 1891, but in late 1890 the line was sold to Duluth & Southwestern Rail Road. Three shareholders and board of director members unsuccessfully sued John P. Conkey, the acting President (who has also signed this piece) and prime contractor retained by the railroad, for illegal actions in conducting affairs of the railroad in Hodgson v. Duluth, Huron & Denver Rail Road, 46 Minn. 454, 49 N.W. 197 (Minn. 1891.)

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