I have often heard that the driving of the golden spike occurred at
Promontory Point, Utah. This is not correct. Promontory Point is a
location near the Lucin Cutoff that was built to bypass the original path
through the summit. The photo to the right is a picture (looking east)
of the "tie" where the golden spike was placed. Obviously, this tie is
only a replica of that original tie.
Google map views:
Most people thingk that there was one single golden spike that was drivin
into the last tie when the trans-continental railroad was completed. This
is not the case. There were actually five spikes used in the
original ceremony:
After the original ceremony, one of the two golden spikes from California traveled back to California in the laurelwood tie aboard Stanford's coach. Enroute, a group of Army Officers riding with Stanford attempted to "drive" the spike into the tie with the pommels of their swords, which accounts for several small round indentations on the spike's head.
Following a brief time on display, this golden spike was returned to David Hewes. Hewes kept it until 1892, when he donated his extensive rare art collection, including the golden spike, to the museum of the newly built Leland Stanford Junior University in Palo Alto, CA.
Nevada's silver spike was temporarily returned to Virginia City jewelers: Nye & Co., where it was brightly polished and engraved on one side: To Leland Stanford President of the Central Pacific Railroad. To the iron of the East and the gold of the West Nevada adds her link of silver to span the continent and wed the oceans. The spike was then delivered to Stanford and eventually placed along with the first golden spike in the Stanford University Museum.
It is unknown what happened to Arizona Territory's spike immediately following the Ceremony. Decades later, it became part of the Smithsonian's Transportation Museum display.
The whereabouts of the second gold spike is unknown. It has been speculated that the spike was given to one of the Union Pacific dignitaries, but there is no mention of the spike in any of their memoirs. It is also possible that the spike was returned to the News Letter. If so, its fate may well have been the same as the newspaper company, when, in 1906, the San Francisco earthquake and fire destroyed the News Letter Building.
The silver plated spike maul was also given to Leland Stanford and became part of the collection at Stanford University museum. The famous laurelwood tie remained on display in Sacramento until 1890. By then, Central Pacific had been reorganized into Southern Pacific, and the tie was taken to the railroad's San Francisco offices in the Flood Building. Unfortunately, the building and tie also fell victim to the great earthquake and fire of 1906.
The large sprue attached to the golden spike was removed shortly before the
Ceremony. David Hewes took the sprue and had it made into four small rings and
seven, one inch long watchfobs. The rings were presented to Leland Stanford,
Oakes Ames (Union Pacific President), President U. S. Grant, and Secretary of
State William H. Seward. Several dignitaries and Hewes relatives were presented
watchfobs, including nephew Tilden G. Abbott, whose fob is on display at Golden
Spike National Historic Site.
This photo shows a portion of the CP grade as it winds through the mountains.
Both the CP and the UP prepared grades some twenty miles past each other
prior to the selection of Promontory Summit as the meeting point. The reason
they did this was simple because the workers were being paid by the mile
and until a meeting point was selected, they want to keep making money.
Both of these grades can easily be seen winding between Promontory Summit
and Ogden. Cars can even drive on portions of the original grade (as seen
in the photo). The tracks leading to and through Promontory Summit were
removed during World War II. Today tracks have been relaid in the Summit
area so that the replica locomotives can be run.
This is a replica of CP's #60 "Jupiter" in its original paint scheme.
With 10,000 people attending, it was extremely difficult to get a photograph
without all sorts of people in my view of the locomotive. I stood at this
spot, waiting a very long time for a split-second moment when no one (except
for one person) was in my view. I was able to get this split second shot.
The original "Jupiter" was scrapped long ago. Both replica locomotive at Promontory Point (Jupiter and the 119) were constructed in 1980 for the National Park Service by Chadwell O'Connor Engineering Laboratories of Costa Mesa, CA. Built with $1.5 million in federal funds, these were the first steam engines constructed in the United States in twenty-five years. They were painted and lettered by Disney employees and are incredibly accurate replicas of the originals. They both were built as gas burners were the wood in the tender served only to hide the natural gas tank. In 1991 both the CP Jupiter and UP 119 were converted to burn their original fuels, wood for the Jupiter and Coal for the 119.
This shot was used on the CD cover of The Celestial Railroad by Artemus Trine. Go to his web site and then select "Albums" to see the amazing work that was done to this photo.
This is UP's #119 in its original paint scheme as it approached the "Golden
Spike Ceremony" from its storage shed.
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