““If [Gatsby] had lived, he’d of been a great man. A man
like James J. Hill. He’d of helped build up the country.”
”
THE EMPIRE BUILDER
This 4-part documentary series captures the story of James J. Hill and how his vision of building a railroad empire fueled the growth of our nation.
He was known as "The Empire Builder" and "The Devil's Curse." Streets, towns and counties were named in his honor along with a persistent and invasive weed. He was mythologized in novels and was the subject of schoolyard rhymes and union battle cries. His name was James J. Hill and he played a defining role in populating the West, stoking the fires of its industries and transforming the Northern tier of the United States.
By the late Nineteenth Century, the railroad had changed everything. A cross-country journey that could take several months was reduced to just four days. The settlement of the West was now possible along with the expansion of commerce from the Pacific to the Atlantic Coast.
““Give me enough Swedes and whiskey and I’ll build a railroad to Hell.””
Born a poor farmer’s son, Hill was the embodiment of the American success story. Over a period of three decades, he took a small-town, bankrupt railroad in St. Paul and built a global transportation network that spanned the Great Lakes, crossed the continent and reached the major ports of the Orient. His story is one of near-prophetic foresight, dogged determination and shrewd business acumen.
At the helm of his empire, he weathered economic panics, staggering recessions and stifling government regulations, guiding the only transcontinental railroad to go unscathed by bankruptcy. He battled labor unions and industry titans, fought back hostile takeovers and tested the limits of how big a corporation could be.
As the nation evolved from the Gilded Age to the Progressive era, Hill and his Great Northern Railway were often at the epicenter of change. Through it all, Hill navigated the political landscape, maintaining personal relationships with seven different US Presidents.
““We consider ourselves and the people along our line as co-partners in the prosperity of the country we both occupy; and the prosperity of the one should mean the prosperity of both.””
To this new frontier, he attracted homesteaders and immigrants by the thousands, who turned barren land into lush orchards and golden fields of wheat. Wherever he pointed his line, dozens of new towns emerged and countless others prospered from the economic boon.
In the winter of his life, he helped farmers secure financing and was instrumental in shaping foreign policy that set the stage for the United States to emerge from The Great War as a financial and political powerhouse. Across the nation, there was hardly a soul that did not know his name.
Today he is nearly unknown, but his legacy is one that changed the lives of millions and the generations that followed.
““Most men who have really lived have had, in some shape, their great adventure. This railway is mine. I feel that a labor and a service so called into being, touching at so many points the lives of so many millions with its ability to serve the country, will be the best evidence of its permanent value and that it no longer depends upon the life or labor of any single individual.””