Northland / Mesaba Transportation Company

In 1914, miners often walked two miles from their homes in Alice, Minnesota, to their jobs in the iron mines of Hibbing, even during dangerous winters. Former driller and failing car salesman C. Eric Wickman changed that when he decided to use a Hupmobile to transport miners for a small fee: 15 cents for a one-way trip and 25 cents for a round trip. Wickman’s service became one of the earliest examples of intercity busing in the US and, fifteen years later, led to the establishment of the multimillion-dollar Greyhound Bus Corporation.

The demand for a car service around Hibbing in 1914 was too much for one person to manage alone. Soon, Wickman brought in Andrew G. Anderson and Arvid Heed; shortly afterwards, they conscripted competing taxi driver Ralph Bogan. The four partners formed the Hibbing Transportation Company and, by the end of 1915, renamed it the Mesaba Transportation Company.

During these years, the company expanded its service to new towns, including Duluth, and acquired eighteen buses by 1918 to do so. The early vehicles were spartan, offering little in terms of comfort and barely providing shelter from the harsh Minnesota winters. Often, their frames were extended to accommodate more passengers.

Mesaba Transportation Company grew rapidly during World War I; its revenues went from $8000 in 1915 to $16,000 in 1916 and $40,000 by 1918. With the increasing income, Mesaba was able to invest in better vehicles, such as the Fageol Safety Coach, a twenty-passenger bus. Wickman, Anderson, and Edwin Eckstrom established an auxiliary company, the Mesaba Motor Company, in 1919 for the maintenance, repair, and manufacture of buses, including the installation of efficient heating systems.

Passage of the Federal Highway Act of 1921 increased the popularity of bus travel. This legislation funded the paving of thousands of miles of roads, which made bus routes a viable alternative to railways.

In 1922, Wickman and Heed sold their portion of Mesaba Transportation to the other partners. They maintained sole interest in Mesaba Motor, which they moved to Duluth. At this point, Wickman and his associates began acquiring other bus lines, creating a more consistent and streamlined service across the region. They began with the acquisition of a Duluth concern called White Bus Lines, which reached Grand Marais. Wickman also bought a Wisconsin company called Superior White, making the venture an interstate company. By 1925, Wickman’s business was incorporated as Northland Transportation Company.

The rapid acquisition of smaller lines was bolstered by state regulations and licensing. Larger companies like Northland had the financial resources and organizational sophistication to meet standards. Smaller bus ventures that struggled to make the grade found it profitable to sell their concerns to companies like Northland.

Northland spent the late 1920s merging bus line after bus line, including most of Mesaba Transportation Company’s lines. The enormous investment of the Great Northern Railway under Ralph Budd aided this process. Budd saw an opportunity in partnering with bus transportation instead of viewing it as competition. Great Northern thus acquired 80 percent interest in Northland, pumping $240,000 into the company. Wickman retained 20 percent interest. With the railroad’s backing, Northland orchestrated a $2.5 million merger of several bus lines, comprising 150 buses and the better part of 3,000 miles of routes. Ultimately Northland controlled most of Minnesota’s bus lines (apart from the southeastern portion of the state), and provided routes into Wisconsin, the Dakotas, and even Canada.

At the same time that Northland was absorbing much of the state’s bus business, Wickman, Eckstrom, and Wickman’s partner at Northland, Orville Caesar, founded a holding company for Midwestern bus transportation called the Motor Transit Corporation. With the help of Minneapolis investment banker Glenn Traer, this new venture was valued at $10,000,000. It sought to do across the region (and eventually the country) what Northland had done in Minnesota: merge numerous independent bus lines into a single organization. Then, in 1929, Motor Transit bought Northland and all of its interests. It moved its headquarters to Chicago and became the Greyhound Corporation.