The Dakota Rail Regional Trail follows the route of a former railroad line that was once part of the Great Northern Railway, a line built by James J. Hill in the late 1800s that helped connect Minnesota to the world. Born on September 16, 1838 in Ontario, Canada, Hill came to St. Paul, Minnesota, at age seventeen and made his fortune in the shipping business on the Mississippi and Red Rivers. In 1878, after the Panic of 1873, Hill and other investors bought the bankrupt St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, which soon became the St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba Railway and stretched across Minnesota and west toward California to connect with trade routes from the Far East. Hill, known as an involved manager and astute businessman with interests in railroads, coal, freight, and steamboats, said the secret of success was "Work, hard work, intelligent work, and then more work." Over time, the line became known as the Great Northern Railroad, called Hill's "Greatest Adventure." Hill died on May 29, 1916 in St. Paul, Minnesota, and his legacy endures in the trail. In Mayer, settlement followed the arrival of a rail line in 1856, and in 1885 the Great Northern Railroad opened through Coney Island Station, Mayer, and New Germany. In 1888, Christian and Wilhelmine Haueter named the village of Mayer after a roadmaster who worked on the Great Northern Railroad. Among later developments in Mayer, the first public school, District 73, was built in 1887; the first gasoline street lamps appeared in July 1907; a 1908 law barred livestock from running loose on the streets; Mrs. John Rabe became the first woman to hold office in Mayer in 1925 as Justice of the Peace; Elmer Sell started Carver County's first airport there in 1933 after serving in the Air Corps during World War One and buying his first plane in 1931; O.D. Sell founded the Carver County Historical Society in 1940, with its museum in Mayer until the mid-1940s before it moved to Waconia; and Mayer Lutheran High School opened in 1961. The rail corridor later changed hands and uses: in 1970 the Great Northern merged with the Northern Pacific to form Burlington Northern Railroad; in 1984 Burlington Northern stopped operating the line; in 1985 Dakota Rail bought it and resumed service; in 1995 RailAmerica bought the line but continued operating under the Dakota Rail name; in 2001 the Hennepin County Regional Rail Authority acquired the corridor from Wayzata to Hutchinson; in 2002 the Carver County Regional Trail Authority acquired its portion; from fall 2004 to spring 2005 steel and ties were salvaged; in 2008 Three Rivers Park District developed the first 13.5 miles of trail from Wayzata to St. Bonifacius; and in 2010 Carver County developed the 5.5 miles from Mayer to the McLeod County line near Lester Prairie.