Table of Contents
What is it?
150 years ago, on May 10, 1869, the last spike of the transcontinental railway was pounded into the ground in Promontory Summit, Utah.
Now standing as a homage to this huge societal achievement, is the Golden Spike National Historic Site.
This historic site marks the place where the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific rail lines came together to connect the country from Sacramento to Omaha on a continuous railroad track.
In the summer visitors can enjoy a reenactment of the Golden Spike Ceremony. Visitors during the winter months can take a tour of the Engine House. There are 2 options for driving tours, however, due to the wet weather we decided not to do them during this visit.
Where is it?
Golden Spike National Historic Site is located on the north side of the Great Salt Lake about 1 ½ hour drive from Salt Lake City or about a 40 min drive from Brigham City.
The Experience?
We made our way to the Golden Spike National Historic site during the Memorial Day long week-end.
We arrived at Promontory Point at 9:30am which gave us time to sign in with our National Parks pass and request the Junior Rangers book well before the beginning of the reenactment ceremony.
We started our journey in the small museum that has many artifacts outlining the history of the Golden Spike on display. The kids were happy to spend time in the museum working through their junior ranger books giving Troy and I some time to enjoy the various exhibits.
Once we had enjoyed the museum, we headed outside to watch the reenactment of the Golden Spike
ceremony. The boys were having so much fun with the junior ranger program they kept working on the activities in the book while we waited for the arrival of the Jupiter.
The Jupiter train arrived on the Central Pacific train line at 10am. We were about 15 ft away from the track which
gave the kids an up-close look of the train in motion. They could really see, smell, and feel the train coming in. They thought it was so much fun to be so close to the train.
The Jupiter was powered by wood as it was readily available along the journey. The steam produced by the engine had a fresh wood burning smell and was completely different than what I had expected. Once the train was safely stopped it was possible to see the train up close from the ground and a platform behind the train.
While we waited for the arrival of the Union Pacific No 119; we walked around the paths behind the railroad tracks. This trail was helpful in distracting the boys from the wait. The path had various signs describing the history of the rail and Promontory in its heyday. We found it really interesting that Promontory became a gambling town during this time and had developed quite a nefarious reputation.
The reenactment then continued with the Union Pacific No 119 coming up the Union Pacific line right in front of the visitor’s center. It then backed up and joined the Jupiter for the golden spike ceremony. This engine is coal burning so the boys weren’t as keen on the smell. Also, the train whistles were quite loud so they covered their ears as the train came in.
There were platforms behind the trains that allowed us to get an up-close look into the engines themselves. The challenge of being this close to the trains was to keep the boys from trying to touch the engine itself.
As soon as the No 119 joined the Jupiter the reenactment of the golden spike ceremony started. The volunteer actors chose members of the audience to participate in the show making the whole experience even more fun. Our 5 year-old really enjoyed the show and sat on the ground up front watching, however, our 3 year-old son was pretty bored. Rather than watching, he played in the field between the tracks with a couple other kids.
Troy and I really liked the change of learning the history of the Golden Spike through the reenactment. We learned that the rail was completed 2 days later than expected due to labor challenges on the Union Pacific side. The Union Pacific was meant to meet the Central Pacific rail at Promontory Summit on May 8th, however, the railways were finally joined together on May 10th due to these delays. The precious metal railway spikes had been made ahead of the ceremony and were used anyway although they had been stamped with the originally planned date of May 8th.
Since the final spikes were made from precious metals they were not actually pounded into the final tie of the railway since they would have flattened under the force of the strike. After the Golden Spike ceremony was completed the spikes were removed and replaced with an ordinary tie and railway spikes. There were four precious
metal spikes. Only 3 remain today as the 4th hasn’t been seen since the ceremony in 1869.
Completion of the ceremony was marked with a simple message of “Done”.
