The Minnesota & Northwestern Railroad Co. began to run trains out of a station in suburban Forest Park in 1887; it soon became the Chicago, St. Paul & Kansas City. By the early 1890s, when its name changed to the Chicago Great Western Railway Co. and it ran over about 1,000 miles of track, this road had annual revenues of about $4 million. After the panic of 1907 helped push the road into bankruptcy, it was purchased by a group of investors that included New York banker J. P. Morgan. In 1920, the road had about 9,000 employees around the Midwest. The Chicago Great Western did not grow much over the next few decades. In 1967, federal regulators approved a merger with a longtime competitor, the Chicago & North Western.

This entry is part of the Encyclopedia's Dictionary of Leading Chicago Businesses (1820-2000) that was prepared by Mark R. Wilson, with additional contributions from Stephen R. Porter and Janice L. Reiff.