As settlers moved farther into Dakota, the legislature set up a commission to find a central capital. The law said the group must meet first in the current capital—Yankton. When Yankton interests threatened to stop them, the commissioners sneaked into town by rail, organized on the train, and sneaked out. For two months they toured Dakota by rail, with potential capitals wining and dining them on the way. Alexander McKenzie, lobbying for Bismarck and the Northern Pacific Railroad, won. The capital moved north in 1884.