This posting continues my revisit to the 125th Anniversary celebration of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad on May 10,1994, and related events immediately before and after.
See also Flashback No. 1: https://ogrforum.com/...gden-utah-may-9-1994
The U.S. railroad network even, before 1869, was the Internet communications network of its day. The transcontinental railroad tied together the disparate segments of rail into a common network for transportation and communications and so the ceremony in 1869 was an important affirmation of that network. Likewise the recreation of the driving of the Golden Spike at the 150th Anniversary today, and its counterparts in 1969 (100th) and 1994 (125th) as documented here, are modern-day restatements of its continued importance.
Warning: As with Flashback 1 all 'facts' listed below are subject to correction, given my advancing years since the event. Feel free to highlight and suggest corrections to any contentious points.
Second Stop: Golden Spike National Historic Site, Promontory, Utah
Location: National Park Service, Golden Spike National Historic Site (now National Historic Park), 6200 North 22300th Street West, Corinne, UT 84307; about 50 miles NE of Salt Lake City
Middle of ‘Nowhere’ – Promontory was about 50 or 60 miles north of the Salt Lake City hotel we stayed in during our visit, up in the highlands you see behind the patrol car, which was positioned to make sure that we visitors could go no closer on our own. As we drove up the morning of the ceremony the freeway (I-15) gave way to state roads, then county roads, and finally this. Setting aside the long-standing argument about whether the actual site was called ‘Promontory’ or ‘Promontory Summit’, we needed to The high desert Before visiting we didn’t have a good understanding of the area. We drove up from Salt Lake City expecting to
The site is not totally isolated however. Nearby neighbor ATK (Morton Thiokol in 1994) has manufactured solid rocket boosters for the Space Shuttle and various rockets, and tested them, here for decades. Because few people live here they can make all the noise they want.
Expecting a Big Crowd – The Site is open seasonally and visitors can usually drive right up to the parking lot adjacent to it. That wasn’t the case for the 125th. Planners had created a staging area several miles south of the Site expecting a massive crowd. We didn’t disappoint them. School buses carried visitors from this parking location in the staging area to the Site and back.
The Site -- In spite of the crowds we were able to recognize the basics that all of us had learned in school: The track, in place but as-yet for the ceremony ‘unconnected’, the telegraph lines paralleling it, carrying news back East, and two locomotives. You can see that a second track exists, in the foreground, here occupied by large numbers of people. This appeared to have been laid to facilitate access to the site, jockeying of the locomotives for service, maintenance, positioning for photos, etc., but as far as I know does not extend too far down the original grade in either direction. It more than likely does not connect back to the rest of the rail network from which it was separated after the Lucin cutoff across the Great Salt Lake, rendering this stretch of track unnecessary for revenue service.
UP 119 – This is Union Pacific 4-4-0 No. 119, pointing ‘railroad west’, and back in the day coming from the East. According to the NPS Golden Spike website replicas of both original locomotives were built new for the 110th from plans recreated with help from archival material and photographs. Anniversary in 1979. Although true to appearance in form and function, I recall them being described as rather plain in decoration when they were originally built. A toned-down paint scheme adorned them originally, probably because color photography didn’t exist prior to the originals being scrapped, and no one thought to immortalize them or the event in a painting that could be used for reference for the replicas. Between the 110th and the 125th, and after extensive ‘research’, the brightly colored liveries that you see here were applied.
CP Jupiter –Pictured here is Central Pacific 4-4-0 ‘Jupiter’ representing the Central Pacific, coming from the West, and pointing ‘railroad east’ at the ceremony. As I recall the repainting spawned great controversy. Although many called them too bright the new paint schemes have now stood the test of time and remain on them to this day. Question: Both original locomotives were originally wood-burners I believe. Do you see any trees from which to get their fuel? Not in the high desert. On the other hand railroads have always had to haul their own fuel long distances.
Anticipating the Driving of the Spike – For the 125th Anniversary event the NPS had added extra grandstands, a small pavilion for shade for the present-day dignitaries, a stadium style sound system, and of course many portable ‘restrooms’ because the ones in the visitor’s center could obviously not handle the crowd by themselves. The crowd that was present filled these grandstands which were situated around the soon-to-be-filled gap in the tracks. Jupiter is simmering quietly awaiting its call to approach the spike site and 119, from direction 'railroad west'.
Getting Ready – Similarly 119 is awaiting its call. My understanding is that facilities and amenities at the Site were normally quite sparse up until the point at which the 125th Anniversary celebration was being planned. When we were there in 1994 there was a very nice visitor’s center on-site that was apparently constructed for the 100th in 1969, and facilities for servicing the engines, but little more. Here, behind 119, you can see the temporary pavilion added as well, for the 125th event.
Three Spikes and a Maul –Most of us now know that there were actually three ceremonial spikes driven that day, the gold one we all know about, which apparently came from California, an additional one made of silver from Nevada, appropriate coming from the ‘Silver State’, and a third from Arizona, made of gold, silver and iron. All were removed immediately after they were driven, the last one being replaced with a common spike for the actual completion. A temporary display holding the three reunited spikes was on hand for visitors to view in 1994. I was told there that three had not been together in one place since they were here in 1969 for the 100th. Recently I heard rumors that there was a fourth, which was lost and has now been found. Will it be there for the 150th?
Can’t See; Down in Front Please --One casualty of the day was a good view, due to the size of the crowd. Because we got to the site rather early we had the opportunity to take, and hold, seats in one of the grandstands for a good view of the driving of the actual spike. However trying to keep a 5 year old busy while sitting still in one spot for hours was not going well. Ironically in the end we were able to see everything at the site in great detail, with the exception of the actual spike being driven.
D – O – N – E, or " -.. --- -. . " in Morse code, was transmitted in 1869 to inform the rest of the country in what we now call ‘real time’, thought to be a first for any such major event in history to such a large number of people. Many accounts indicate that this transmission, which was supposed to be preceded by a single dot occurring when the maul hit the Golden Spike, but was instead preceded by a three dot (…) 'heads-up' after the maul had actually missed. I doubt that these transmissions would be the same if the original ceremony were being held today – I heard about fifteen or twenty years ago that Morse code has now officially been retired for official communications.
The Handshake –Common today, and back in 1994, there are re-enactors present at many celebrations recalling historical events. We’re told that as Jupiter and 119 converged on the precise Golden Spike location after it was driven two track workers or trainmen, one aboard each, reached out to seal the deal in a handshake. The re-creation of this handshake was a big part of the events at the 125th, as they probably are every day. I made the assumption that this activity would look the same for any every-day visit to the site, however it was clear that the size of the pool of re-enactors present that day was huge – and if present on a regular day likely to be much larger than the size of the pool of guests visiting.
The ‘Official’ Photo –Although the Site was very busy, and overrun with many, many guests, the organizers succeeded in getting all of us to step back and out of the frame so that the official photo could be taken. Having been present in similar situations during many photo run-by’s held during steam excursions this could have been a difficult task, but it went smoothly that day. And so you can see the re-enactors in this shot but no modern-day enthusiasts. I took this photo with my new-fangled ‘panoramic’ point-and-shoot camera, in panoramic mode. The electronic version (frame scan) you see is unedited from the original negative. It was processed by Kodak into its new-at-the-time ‘Photo CD’digital format when I had the film developed later that month in 1994, and it was converted by me years later to .jpg.
A Little Artistic License –Back in 1994 there wasn’t any easy way to ‘age’ my original photo, other than through optical processing using filters and successive prints. Although photo processing software was emerging on computers of the day it was still quirky and relatively expensive. In contrast just a few days ago I created this aged version in about 30 seconds on my laptop with free software. Notice that those bright colors on 119 and Jupiter didn’t make it through.
The Monument –It’s fortunate that the NPS was given the responsibility of managing the site when it was created in 1965. Each of the major milestones 100th, 110th, 125th and now the 150th have provided opportunities to grow and improve the site to better capture the spirit and importance of that day in 1869, its relevance to us today, and hopefully it continued importance to the future. IMHO the U.S. Park Serviuce has done well in turning these opportunities into real value-added improvements at each step.
At the completion of the ceremony we left the site to head back to our hotel. Although the crowd had filtered in all morning, everyone wanted to leave at the same time. It had been cool when we arrived but by now it was very warm. We had to wait almost 90 minutes for a bus in the heat to take us back to the parking area. (Worth it? Yes.)
Judging from postings on the NPS Golden Spike website this year's 150th Anniversary event is now a three day festival, with many more activities than those we encountered.
I invite those of you who are going this year to report back on the event, and on the changes you notice since my visit in 1994.
Mike
Up Next: Flashback No. 3 -- ‘City of Los Angeles’ Steam-and-Diesel Excursion, Segment from Las Vegas, NV to Los Angeles, CA; May 14, 1994.
