History of Bonanza Farms
In the late 1860’s a group of entrepreneurs from the East Coast decided to build a railroad from Wisconsin to the Pacific Ocean. The government gave them the largest land grant in the American History. They engaged a wealthy financier, Jay Cooke, to help support the project and by 1872 the Northern Pacific Railroad crossed into North Dakota. Unfortunately, Jay Cooke’s financial institutions went bankrupt along with the NP Railroad project. The entrepreneurs decided to sell some of the land given to them by the government. One man who purchased the land was J.F. Downing from Erie, PA. He purchased 5,000 in the Richland County of ND. Bonanza farms were a common place in Richland County. The town of Mooreton, North Dakota was named for Hugh Moore, who owned the Antelope farm containing 13, 200 acres in the Mooreton area. One of the largest bonanzas in the area was the Dwight farm. One of its major stockholders was John Miller, North Dakota’s first governor. This company consisted of 27,000 acres. Hiram Drache, bonanza farm researcher and author, defines a bonanza farm as one having 3,000 acres or more. He writes the heyday of the bonanza farms was between 1870’s and early 1900s.
Aerial view of bonanza farm in the late 1800’s to early 1900s.
