 Richard Covington, a surveyor for the Northern Pacific Railroad worked out of Fort Vancouver establishing the line through western Washington to complete the line from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Auburn.According to the NP's construction records at the University of Montana's K. Ross Toole Archives, the primary contractors were banker Horace C. Henry of Seattle, Washington, and long-time railroad contractor Nelson Bennett of Tacoma, Washington, the NP's prime contractor for Stampede Tunnel, which he completed in 1888.The project engineer in Auburn was George Allen Kyle.