The Northern Pacific puts down one hundred…

The Northern Pacific puts down one hundred and sixty-four miles (two hundred and sixty-four square kilometers) of main line across North Dakota in 1872, with an additional forty-five miles (seventy-two kilometers) in Washington.

On November 1, General George Washington Cass become the third president of the company.

Cass had been a vice-president and director of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and will lead the Northern Pacific through some of its most difficult times.

Attacks on survey parties and construction crews building in Native American homelands in the region of present North Dakota have become so prevalent that the company has appealed for Army protection from President Grant.

In 1872 also, the Northern Pacific has opens colonization offices in Europe, seeking to attract settlers to the sparsely populated and undeveloped region it served.

Survey parties accompanied by federal troops, railroad construction, permanent settlement and development, along with the discovery of gold in nearby South Dakota, will all serve as a backdrop leading up to the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the defeat of General George Armstrong Custer in 1876.