Spokane International Railway - Signed by Daniel Chase Corbin - 1906 dated Autograph Railroad Stock Certificate - D. C. Corbin Signed Stock

Stock printed by International Banknote Co., N.Y. Daniel Chase Corbin (1832-1918) signed as president. Available in Green or Brown. Please specify color. Mining and railroad magnate, Daniel Chase Corbin ranks as a major shaper of the growth and prosperity of Spokane, the economic and geographic center of the Inland Northwest. He settled in Spokane in 1889, already an experienced Western entrepreneur and well positioned to survive the Panic of 1893, which depleted the fortunes of Spokane’s earliest tycoons. The bulk of Corbin’s wealth was based on his railroads that “stitched the [Idaho Panhandle and British Columbia Kootenay] mines to Spokane,” enriching and forever changing his adopted city. Over the years, he was substantially involved in other enterprises as diverse as banking, real estate, irrigation, beet sugar production, and coal mining.

Corbin often was pointed out as Spokane’s richest man as he passed in his buggy, its superb team driven at top speed by a coachman. But unlike many of his wealthy predecessors and contemporaries, Corbin was not a civic leader or benefactor, at least in any obvious way, and, upon his death, his wealth remained with his descendants. His personal and family life was full of enigmas, and his aloof demeanor did not make him popular in the community. Furthermore, his secretiveness about earnings and assets would not be allowed under today’s business regulations. Yet Corbin’s contribution to his adopted city was massive, his railroads and other ventures enabling such wealth to pour into Spokane that, during his time, it became the hub of the “Inland Empire.” Read more at https://www.historylink.org/File/7960

The Spokane International Railroad (reporting mark SI) was a short line railroad between Spokane, Washington, and the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) at Kingsgate, British Columbia. The line became an important one for the CP with its connections to the Union Pacific Railroad and Portland, Oregon. The line, originally named the Spokane International Railway, was built by local businessman and railroader Daniel Chase Corbin following an agreement between him and the CP, with CP agreeing to fund much of the line's construction and to secure the loan by holding the new line's bonds. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spokane_International_Railroad

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