The Golden Spike National Historic Site is located near Promontory in Northern Utah, just off Highway 83.  It signifies the location that the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met to connect the east to the west on May 10th, 1869.

The Union Pacific Railroad out of Omaha, Nebraska sent No. 119, a coal fired 4-4-0 American steam engine, towards the point that the tracks would eventually meet.  This replica of No. 119 was dedicated in 1979, and was originally fueled by oil.  It was converted to a more historically accurate coal burning engine in the early 1990's.

The Central Pacific Railroad out of Sacramento, California sent the Jupiter, a wood-burning 4-4-0 American steam engine. Coal was not readily available in the California area, but wood was plentiful.  Both engines were custom built in the late 1970's based on  documentation from the late 1800's, and both used oil for fuel.  When the park's source of oil dried up in the early 1990's, the engines were converted to their historical fuel source so to further the authenticity of the park.

No complete plan for these engines existed when they were built, so over 700 technical documents had to be created to painstakingly duplicate how the engines might have looked in 1869.  No one knows what color the original engines were.  The Jupiter replica was originally painted the same color as the 119, but the scheme was changed when a newspaper article reporting the Jupiter's March 1869 dedication was found, and it depicted the train as being "blue and crimson, with gold trim".

The final railroad tie was made of polished California laurel, with a silver plate in the center bearing the names of the officers of the Central Pacific Railroad.  Four spikes, two of gold, one of silver, and one of a gold/iron/silver mixture were driven to complete the railroad.  The final iron spike was wired to the telegraph in such a way that each blow of the hammer was heard from coast to coast.

It wasn't until 1979 that the National Park Service had functioning steam engines to re-enact the Golden Spike ceremony, and at the 100th Anniversary ceremony, two non-working 4-4-0 American engines were brought it for the re-enactment.

Today both the Jupiter and the 119 are completely functional and run off their historical fuel sources.  Most people take for granted the extreme impact the meeting of these two trains had on shaping the way our country is today.

The completion of an east to west railway signaled the beginning of a westward migration of settlers, and brought about the eventual elimination of the great buffalo herds of the western plains, as well as the Native American tribes that relied of them for their livelihood.

A look inside at the controls of the 119.  The people who built these engines have taken great pains to reproduce the look of a late 1800's steam engine.

The Jupiter's fate as a historical train was quite literally accidental.  Originally a train called the Antelope was scheduled to attend the Golden Spike ceremony, but it was badly damaged when it hit a large tree railroad workers were attempting to roll across the tracks.  The Jupiter was pressed into service as a substitute.  The original Jupiter was scrapped in 1909.

The 119's attendance was also unintentional.  At a stop in Piedmont, Wyoming, the VP of Union Pacific found his train surrounded by tie cutters who hadn't been paid in 3 months demanding their money.  They chained his engine to the tracks to keep him from leaving.  It took two days for money to arrive.  In the meantime, rains washed out some supports of a bridge crossing the Weber River, so the heavier engine they were traveling in could not cross it.  They telegraphed to Ogden to send another train, and since the 119 was available it was sent.  The original 119 was scrapped in 1903.

The flag that flies at the Golden Spike Site has only 20 stars, although there were 37 states at the time the spike was driven.  The problem was that the only 37-star flags they had were the small flags that decorated the Jupiter, and they were too small to be driven up the telegraph pole.  The only flag they could find on short notice was a 20-star flag from the civil war that was owned by a bystander to the event.

The National Park Service has rebuilt a short section of track to the same specifications as the original 1869 track.  The land for the National Historic Site was commissioned in 1957.

A replica of the original Golden Spike rests in a display case in the visitor center.  The original Golden Spike is currently on display at Sanford University in California.

Every May 10th, thousands of visitors gather at this site to re-enact the Golden Spike ceremony.  The site was originally marked only by a large white obelisk, and the ceremony was conducted at what had been Promontory Station... which wasn't much more than a field of dust and cinders.

The 119 steams away, off into the history books.  I hope that these glistening remnants of the past will be around to teach future generations about how the joining of the railroad vastly changed the face of our nation.

For more infomation about Golden Spike National Historic Site, go to their web page at: http://www.nps.gov/gosp/