May 9, 1869

On this date, the golden spike was driven, which connected the the entire width of the country by rail.  It took place just 23 miles west of where I grew up.  I was in the sixth grade when we celebrated the centennial of the transcontinental railroad.  I wrote an award winning poem about it, and the narration for our school program about it.  We had a replica of the golden spike sitting on our bookshelf all the years I lived in Brigham City.  I dusted it every week.  But, I had never been out to see the place.

My dad is a big fan of side trips.  He never wants to go straight home, so Nan and I and Dad added an hour or so onto our trip to Boise so that we could visit the Golden Spike State Park and Museum.  Our timing was perfect!  We arrived five minutes before the second steam engine pulled around the corner and met the Jupiter head to head.  Then we found good seats in a standing room only auditorium for a reenactment of the day.  It was very well done.  I learned a lot.  For example, I always thought the two railroads just met at Promentory, a random spot in the middle of nowhere, but the two companies actually laid track side by side for over two hundred miles before the unlikely spot of Promentory was chosen as the meeting point.

I want to learn more.  My great, great grandpa, James Livingston, worked quarrying rock and blowing dynamite, and helped blast some of the rock out of Weber Canyon for the railroad.  He lost an arm doing it.  I'm connected to this place.  I'd highly recommend this detour on your next trip to Utah.