The Walla Walla and Columbia River, the first railroad in the northwest aside from short portage lines on the Columbia, was built along this route by Dr. Dorsey S. Baker beginning in 1871 at Wallula. In 1874, when the track reached this point, known as Whitman Station, Baker told local citizens that his funds were exhausted and that the line would end there unless the public provided the remaining capital needed to complete it into Walla Walla. Citizens then raised the needed funds, and the railroad was completed from Wallula to Walla Walla in 1875. The Baker Railroad was a narrow gauge line, first built with wooden rails topped by strap iron whose ends were bent down to keep the iron from curling up under locomotive friction, though this sometimes failed and loose iron could spring through the floorboards of the passenger car, popularly called the hearse. To avoid these snakeheads or widow-makers, the train moved very slowly and passengers kept watch, though no serious accidents were reported. In 1878, the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, O.S.N, bought a controlling interest in Dr. Baker’s Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad and built a fourteen-mile branch line from Whitman Station south to Blue Mountain Station in Oregon along Dry Creek southwest of present-day Milton-Freewater. After O.S.N was sold in 1880 to Henry Villard, his Oregon Railway and Navigation Company converted the main line to standard gauge in 1881 to connect with the new Northern Pacific line being built east from Portland. The last narrow gauge branch, from Whitman Station to Oregon, was abandoned in 1883. The current track is owned by Union Pacific and leased to Blue Mountain Railroad.