from Montreal, essentially becoming Canada's winter port because of efforts by investors like John A. Poor and John Neal. The Portland Company built early railway locomotives and the Portland Terminal Company handled joint switching operations for the Maine Central Railroad and Boston and Maine Railroad. A railroad pushed through to Bangor in the 1850s, and as far as Aroostook County in the early 20th century, farming potato growing as a cash crop. Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad was chartered in 1867 and opened in 1870. Despite the aspirational name its 33 miles of standard gauge tracks connected the port of Belfast to Burnham Junction where they joined with the newly created Maine Central Railroad Company. Maine Central promptly took a 50 year lease on the B&MLR to haul passengers and freight in and out of Waldo County. In 1925 Maine Central declined to renew their lease, citing losses, and the City of Belfast began operating the B&MLR as the only publicly owned freight and passenger rail line in the US. The Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad, Bridgton and Saco River Railroad, Monson Railroad, Kennebec Central Railroad and Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway were built with the unusually narrow gauge of 2 feet (60 cm). "Ohio Fever", the California Gold Rush, and westward migration from Maine Even before the tide of settlement crested in most of Maine, some began to leave for The West. The first large-scale exodus was probably in 1816-17, spurred by the privations of the War of 1812, an unusually cold summer, and the expansion of settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains in Ohio. "Ohio Fever" as the lure of the West was initially called, depopulated a number of fledgling Maine communities and stunted the growth of others, even if the overall momentum of settlement had been largely restored by the 1820s, when Maine achieved statehood. As the American frontier continued to expand westward, Mainers were particularly attracted to the forested states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and large numbers brought their lumbering skills and knowledge there. Migrants from Maine were particularly prominent in Minnesota; for example, three 19th century Mayors of Minneapolis were Mainers. The California Gold Rush of 1849 and afterwards was a major boost to the lumber and coastal shipbuilding economies, as building lumber needed to be "shipped around the Horn" from Maine until the establishment of a West Coast sawmilling industry. Maine ships