On February 19, 1888, before ever a drill had been started in the
Niagara tunnel, and before the project had attracted much attention, the
New York _Times_ uttered this glowing prophecy for Buffalo:
“Every furrow turned on Dakota’s plains, almost every blow
struck with keen-edged axes in the forests that stand on the
rugged Lake Superior region; the ceaseless hammering of
compressed-air drills in Lake Vermillion iron mines; the work of
thousands of Pennsylvania coal miners--in short, almost every
blow struck in primary productive industry in the region
tributary to the lakes adds to the prosperity of Buffalo....
This region has proved to be the most productive of freight of
all the lake regions, and the commerce of Lake Superior is still
in its infancy.... Buffalo will inevitably become the greatest
milling city on earth.”
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