[8] Nonetheless, it heavily promoted the construction of towns every 8 miles (13 km) along its length, and was the leading railroad helping to "colonize" Minnesota.
[9][11] But the Northern Pacific went bankrupt in the Panic of 1873,[12] and E. Darwin Litchfield (Egbert's brother) bought the SP&P back from the bigger road.
[13] But James J. Hill, who ran steamboats on the Red River, knew that the SP&P owned very valuable land grants and saw the potential of the railroad.
[14] Hill convinced John S. Kennedy (a New York City banker who had represented the Dutch bondholders), Norman Kittson (Hill's friend and a wealthy fur trader), Donald Smith[15] (a Montreal banker and executive with the Hudson's Bay Company), and George Stephen (Smith's cousin[15] and a wealthy railroad executive) to invest $5.5 million in purchasing the railroad.
[16] On March 13, 1878, the Dutch formally signed an agreement transferring their bonds to the investors group and giving them control of the railroad.
[17] To finance construction of the SP&P, the road issued bonds that allowed the bearer to receive up to $10,000 per mile of track completed, but only if the line was finished.
[21] Starting in 2018, Minnesota-based Progressive Rail Corp. runs freight trains in Santa Cruz County, California under the same name St. Paul and Pacific and with the same reporting marks SP&P/SPP.