GOLDEN SPIKES

This weekend DH and I visited family and cemeteries all over Utah. My car had almost seven hundred miles roll under its wheels and about as many bugs die on its windshield. I learned a Coney Dog (hot dog covered with chili and melted cheese) should not be eaten in a car since any food from this sloppy concoction that doesn’t make it to the mouth is worn for the rest of the day.

But this post is about a trip to see history. About sixty miles north of Salt Lake City, Utah and about thirty miles west of Interstate Fifteen---

 (through the car window--and if you look you can see the remains of a few suicidal bugs)

out in a very empty place near The Great Salt Lake is the Golden Spike National Historic Site.

On 10 May 1869, a single telegraphed word, "done," signaled to the nation the completion of the first United States transcontinental railroad. German, and Italian immigrants, of the Union Pacific Railroad had pushed west from Omaha, Nebraska. At Promontory they met crews of the Central Pacific, which had included Chinese laborers, who had built the line east from Sacramento, California.

Two replicas of the steam engines which were in use at that time are at the site for all to behold.

The Jupiter matches the engine that came from the Pacific and uses wood for fuel.

Engine 119 is like the one that came from the east and burns coal since it was available from that part of the country.

There are platforms where visitors can see inside the cabin to view the shiny instruments, levers and switches

used by the engineers to make the locomotives go.

Both engines were powered up to rumble up and down the tracks with all the bells and whistles.

A reenactment of the Golden Spike Ceremony was presented complete with plenty of information. We learned there was not just one golden spike, but two...

one from the east and one from the west--

plus two more spikes: one silver from the Comstock Lode in Nevada and a spike blended of iron, silver, and gold represented Arizona. These spikes were dropped into a pre-bored laurel wood railroad tie during the ceremony.

 

The actual last spike--an ordinary iron spike--was driven into a regular tie.

A special silver hammer was used for that moment in history.

The location is a little off the beaten path but well worth the trip to see history come alive.