Golden Spike

On our way to Antelope Island north of Salt Lake City, we detoured to visit Promontory Summit where the railroads from the east and west met to join all of our country together.

Central Pacific left Sacramento, CA in January 1863 and started building their line westward through the Sierra Nevada Mountains and across the Great Basin of Nevada while Union Pacific started that December from Omaha in the Nebraska Territory, across the plains and the Rocky Mountains. Central Pacific had to use Chinese immigrants to build their line as most of the able men were mining for gold but the Union Pacific was able to hire former soldiers from the Civil War. Central Pacific battled the mountains while Union Pacific battled the Plains Indians. It wasn’t until mid- 1868 that the track laying built into a race to grab the most land. On May 10, 1869 the two locomotives - Central Pacific’s Jupiter and Union Pacific’s No. 119 - met head to head at Promontory Summit where a golden spike was symbolically driven to connect the railroads and the country.

The two steam engines we saw today are exact replicas of the two from 1869. They were built by a Walt Disney engineer in 1970’s and refurbished again in the 1990’s.

We continued on to Antelope Island in the midst of The Great Salt Lake. It is connected to the mainland by a 7-mile long causeway. The Island contains a herd of over 700 bison, as well as mule deer, pronghorn antelope, California bighorn sheep, Jack rabbits, coyotes, bobcats, badgers, porcupines and lots of birds like quail, magpies, eagles, and owls. A big bull bison grazed his way past our campsite late this evening!

We also met a delightful family from France and New Zealand this evening. Their 7-year old daughter captivated us with her observations of the bison, jackrabbits and quail. This led to us visiting with her parents and her brother and sister. They freighted their motorhome from France to Canada so they can travel through the US all the way to Argentina! Brave and exciting people!