Golden Spike 2007

Trains Magazine Steam & Preservation
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Spokyone asked for a report of this years Golden Spike celebration.

the day starts at 6:30 am with two of the firemen cleaning out the fireboxes and starting the fires in the engines. While the boilers are coming up to pressure, the rest of the volunteers polish the locomotives from whistle to rail and from pilot to tender coupler. Since Golden Spike offers cap tours on May 10th, we have let the coal and wood supplies in the tender diminish to just a little bit more than the day’s needs. Then we clean the inside of the tender box as we will be receiving guests. After topping off the water in the tenders, about 9 am the engines roll out of the house. Another good look around - making sure no tools or polishing supplies got left and we are ready for the safety briefing and schedule walkthrough. At 9:30 prompt the engines operate to the Last Spike Site.

The first order of business is the Champagne Photo re-enactment. That is the famous photo with the champagne bottle and two beer bottles. [By the way the bottles we use are antiques and are carefully handled. They are packed in cotton waste under the engineers seat box for transport.] The archeologists have figured out the exact spot of this photo by triangulating from hill tops in the picture.

We then do the first re-enactment. Of course, the CP engine is already there (they were there 2 days earlier in 1869.) Se we bring the UP engine in with full bells and whistles to start the show. The program pretty much follows the newspaper reports. Both spike drivers miss. They are really good at missing as they have been missing the spike since 1969. The the track foremen step in and finish the job. The gold spike is not driven but just set in place in predrilled holes as was the original. The telegrapher sends out D-O-N-E and the engineers respond with more bells and whistles.

Following the re-enactment, there is often a special speaker

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DD. Thanks for the great description. Hope the weather was as nice there as it was here.

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G’day, Y’all,
Next year in Promontory.

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let me know ahead of time if you are coming.

dd

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Seems to me I remember seeing a photograph of the original golden spike and the head was dimpled which historians speculated might have been caused by Army officers pushing the spike into the tie with their swords. Any truth to this?

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The original gold spike that was used ( there were actually 4 spikes cast) is on display at the Stanford Library at Stanford University. It does have dents in the head. That spike was dropped into a predrilled hole during the festivities - not driven. The actual last spike was an ordinary steel spike that was driven in with a spike maul.

dd

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G’day, Y’all,
Didance, will do. However, “Next year in Israel” is a Jewish expression of hope. I just changed it to Promontory. But searching the web for Promontory, which I understand is in Elder County, I don’t find much to tell me what Promontory is. Is there any place to stay near the historic site? Is it expensive? How many people go? I really want to see this and, who knows, maybe it will be next year.
I noticed that the historic site sells Dee Brown’s book, “Hear that Lonesome Whistle Blow.” This might be the best book on politics I’ve ever read. It was hilarious. Those 19th century politicians were such crooks. Luckily, political shenanigans don’t happen these days.