This comparison excludes the fertile Red River Valley lands along the Minnesota border of North Dakota because they were anomalous in their fertility, the speed of their settlement in the 1870s, and their access to river as well as railroad transportation along the St. Paul and Pacific, which became part of Hills St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway. Hill claimed his road had carried 20 percent of the spring wheat crop of the entire United States in 1884 and would do better in 1885.
By June 30, 1882, growth in the counties along the Northern Pacific had spilled over the 99th meridian and even edged across the 100th. In Barnes County, which was east of the 99th meridian, population tripled in two years, to 4,500, but in Stutsman, which was bifurcated by the 99th meridian, it increased by a multiple of seven to 7,007. Kidder County, whose western boundary edged over the 100th meridian, went from 87 people in 1880 to 2,087 in 1882, and even Burleigh County on the Missouri showed substantial growth.
Fifth Annual Report of the Railroad Commissioners of the Territory of Dakota for the Year Ending June 30, 1889 (Watertown, South Dakota: Courier-News, 1889), 67-68.
Charles Francis Adams, "The Rainfall on the Plains, Nov. 14, 1887," Nation Nov. 24, 1887, p. 417.
Sidney Dillon, "The West and the Railroads," North American Review 152 (April 1891): 444-45.