Golden Spike

Mountain Snow
Golden Spike
Tools for building rail bed
Rail bed cut and fill
Jupiter
No. 119
ATK Rocket Garden

We are in Brigham City, Utah staying at the Golden Spike RV Park. The drive here over the mountains was one of the worst we have had with the temperature, which had been 95 the day before, dropping to 35 with near whiteout snow. It was a good thing there was very little traffic and the road was not icy. That night nearby Snowbird Ski Resort got 17" of new snow. While in Brigham City we visited the Golden Spike National Historical Site. This site is where the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific met at Promontory Summit to complete the transcontinental railroad. Golden spikes were used for the ceremony marking this accomplishment. You can see some of the original rail bed, cuts and fills used by both railroads. The rails were moved in the early 1900's so the only things left are the park service buildings and a short section of rails. As a result, the land around the area has not been developed and it looks the same as it did in 1869. They have two fully functioning replicas of the locomotives used for the May 10, 1869 meeting. The UP's 119 and the CP's Jupiter are fired up and moved to the site each day in the summer. Unfortunately, they did not bring them out of the engine house the day we were there because a water main break made the fire suppression system inoperable. We did get to see the locomotives and talk with the engineer who maintains and gets to drive them. The completion of the railroad was a major event of the 1800's and it is amazing to think it was built entirely by men and animals without large machines. The book, Nothing Like it in the World by Stephen Ambrose, documents the building of the railroad. The 2008 Utah state quarter depicts the spike and locomotives. About five miles from the Golden Spike we found a rocket garden at ATK, the company that builds the solid rocket boosters for the space shuttle. What a contrast to see these two areas so close together.