| boilerpressure= | cylindercount=Two | cylindersize= | tractiveeffort= | factorofadhesion = 7.65 | operator=St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway, Great Northern Railway | operatorclass=1 | fleetnumbers=1 | firstrundate=June 1862 | retiredate=September 1897 | currentowner=Minnesota Historical Society, loaned to Lake Superior Railroad Museum | disposition=static display at Lake Superior Railroad Museum }} The William Crooks is a 4-4-0 steam locomotive that was the first locomotive to operate in the State of Minnesota, beginning in 1861. It was named after William Crooks, the Chief Mechanical Engineer for the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. He served as a colonel and commander of the 6th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War. Crooks laid the initial track between Minneapolis and St. Paul, and the William Crooks was the first locomotive to run on the line. History 1861–1900 Constructed in 1861 for the Minnesota and Pacific Railroad as their number 1, The William Crooks first provided service a year later, in 1862, for the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (into which the M&P had been reorganized). After completion, the locomotive traveled by rail to La Crosse, Wisconsin, then the nearest rail point to St. Paul. From there, it was loaded onto a Mississippi River barge bound for St. Paul. Though it arrived in St. Paul on September 9, 1861, it was not until June 28, 1862, that the passenger equipment arrived and of track could be laid. The William Crooks carried its first train load of passengers on the same day. The trip began at 2:30 PM from St. Paul with the train and its passengers returning from their trip to St. Anthony (now Minneapolis) at 6 PM. Though the governor of Minnesota, the founder of the railroad, and other dignitaries were the train's first passengers, the train moved into regular service four days later. The locomotive was originally a wood-burner with a tender that held just two cords of wood. Often the tender's wood was used before the train could reach a wood pile, forcing the crew to make use of the wooden right-of-way fences to keep the train moving. Later the locomotive was converted into a coal-burner. As built, the engine had a straight boiler (not tapered from a larger diameter at the firebox end to a smaller diameter at the smokebox end), had the balloon stack typical of wood burning engines, and three domes—the center