 The NP railroad had left Lake Superior and arrived in Yakima in 1885.At risk of losing millions of acres of land grants for failure to build a "direct line" to the Puget Sound, NP put out bids to drill the Stampede Tunnel in just 28 months.They opened the bids on Jan 21, 1886 and the lowest bidder was Nelson Bennett at $837,250, nearly half the price of most bidders.