'Golden' site lacks a piece of its luster
Lee Benson
One teensy tiny oversight.
One slight 17.6 karat, 18-ounce omission.
The golden spike isn't here.
Neither, for that matter, is the wooden tie it was hammered into, or the town, or the railroad.
If you want to get to Omaha from Promontory Summit these days, you're in for a long wait.
But that's really no big deal. All you have to do is go to Ogden to catch a train or, better yet, drive on the freeway or take a plane.
Nobody rides the railroad anymore. One look at Promontory tells you that. It's literally where the pavement stops about 30 miles beyond Brigham City. It isn't on the way to anywhere, other than the past.
Everything here is newer than it looks. The ties, the rails, even the steam locomotives — all replicas. The whole place is a movie set, a modern tribute to that historic moment that occurred at 12:47 p.m. on May 10, 1869, when the Central Pacific tracks coming from Sacramento and the Union Pacific tracks coming from Omaha met in the territory of Utah and a golden spike, valued at $350, was placed ceremoniously in a specially made railroad tie. The transcontinental railway was complete.
A telegraph was connected to the ceremony, allowing the entire country to get a blow by blow account, as it were.
The people at Promontory were national heroes. They gave speeches, they mugged for the cameras, they threw their hats in the air.
Then everyone went into the saloon next door and thanked heaven they'd never have to drive another spike.
It was only fortunate timing that landed the historic event in Utah. A hundred miles to the east and it would have been in Wyoming, a hundred miles to the west, Nevada. But after six years and four months of furious work, with the CP laying 690 miles of track and the UP 1,086, the last spike out of 6 million happened to stop in the Utah desert.
The states were united! Small wonder the vast majority of Utahns are of the opinion that the golden spike image should be on our new quarter.
But how many of them know the golden spike isn't at the Golden Spike National Historic Site?
It was at Promontory only until 1892, when an art museum opened at a California university and the famous spike was shipped there for display.
The university? Stanford. Named after the very man who swung and missed.
The spike is still there.
It doesn't somehow seem right, does it? It would be like moving the Liberty Bell out of Philadelphia, the Alamo out of Texas, Old Faithful out of Yellowstone, the London Bridge out of London.
The golden spike belongs in Utah. And pretty soon, we'll have the quarters to prove it.
Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.
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