If all livestock were cattle (which they clearly were not) and there were two steers per ton, the Northern Pacific at a maximum carried 168,588 cattle in 1885-86 and 165,738 the next year. These figures are, however, far too high, since in 1884 the total number of cattle shipped by the Northern Pacific from Wyoming, Montana, and the Dakotas was supposedly only 76,560 head. Reports to the Dakota Railroad Commission of livestock transported within or through Dakota Territory showed a much more marked decline of 25 percent, from 71,433 tons in 1885-86 to 52,899 in 1886-87.
Report of the Industrial Commission on Transportation including Review of Evidence . . . So Far as Taken, May 1, 1900, (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1900), 4:41.
Report of the Industrial Commission on Transportation including Review of Evidence . . . So Far as Taken, May 1, 1900, (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1900), 4:41.
Map of Federal Land-Grant and Bond-Aided Railroads, in Public Aids to Transportation, Volume II, Aids to Railroads and Related subjects, (Washington, GPO, 1938), 43.