Golden Spike National Historic Site

I didn't so much plan to take a trip to Yellowstone this year, as I bought a cheap plane ticket to Salt Lake City and then asked what I could do with four days in the vicinity. Golden Spike National Historic Site, the place where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific joined their rails on May 10^th 1869, was the one site I absolutely wanted to see. The rest of the trip evolved from there.

From Spiral Jetty, I started on the crude dirt road back toward the Golden Spike Visitor Center. But first, I investigated an auto-tour on the west side of the park. I misinterpreted a sign for a different road and thought the auto-tour was not suitable for for sedans. Having already had enough with unimproved road services, I went straight to visitor center. Though I acted on misinformation, it probably worked out for the best as I later drove the shorter east auto-tour route and expect I got a comparable if shorter experience.

Full Screen Version



After watching the twenty-minute movie in the visitor center and making a few purchases at the gift shop, including for $10 Men to Match My Mountains, a Western history book that I started reading and am aleady impressed with, I went out to the actual spot where they held the joining ceremony nearly 150 years ago. The park has arranged the spot to match the famous picture taken at the event. Replica Jupiter and No. 119steam engines face each other just like they did on that historic day.

Leaving the visitor center, I drove east to a trail that uses pieces of the parallel grades for a two-mile circuit to the Big Fill, an engineering feat the Central Pacific built to carry their tracks over a gully in the side of the Promontory Mountains. There, they dumped as much dirt as needed to carry the tracks over the obstacle. But for the missing tracks (abandoned around 1900 and used for scrap metal during WWII), it looks it could still carry a train. The Union Pacific built a rickety trestle to cross the same gully. It didn't last nearly as long.

One noteworthy tidbit I learned on my visit is that both Railroads operated a station at Promontory Summit for about a year after joining rails. Passengers had to transfer between trains at this station to continue their westward or eastward journeys. In early 1870, the moved the junction to Ogden.

Standing at the site of the Golden Spike Ceremony

Jupiter Replica. The locomotive pulled Leland Stanford to Promontory Summit

Central Pacific Grade looking west from Promontory Summit.

Replica Last Tie. Made of Laurel.
Inset: Detail of the Plaque on Last Tie.

Twin Grades a few miles east of Promontory Summit.
The Central Pacific graded the line to the left; Union Pacific to right.

The Big Fill. The Central Pacific's method to cross this valley.
The Union Pacific built a trestle to left. The abutment and rock cut are still visible.