Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Golden Spike National Historic Site

I am a sucker for a National Park/Site. (Probably inherited from my folks.) I've always wanted to visit Golden Spike every time I drove past the sign on my way to Salt Lake, so this weekend on the way home we did it. It was a bit of a drive to get to it, but I am glad we did. It really was quite interesting. (And I got one more souvenir ornament for my Christmas tree.)

The steam engine preparing to go. As soon as it shot off, it scared poor little Eli right out of his diaper!

Halle got to be the volunteer to tell the engine it was safe to go. She raised her arm up high and yelled "high ball". Apparently if the ball (I'm not sure exactly what "the ball" is.) was high that meant it was safe, if the ball was low that meant it wasn't safe. These "balls" were at the stations and told the trains if it was safe or not to approach the station.

All of us (including the Ben's) standing on the actual place of the golden spike. Did you know there were actually 4 comemerative spikes used? A silver, a lower quality gold spike, a blended iron/silver/gold spike, and of course the golden spike.

The story goes that 4 railroad ties had to be replaced before souvenir seekers left it alone.

The last tie laid connecting the East to the West by rail.

11 comments:

Emily said...

Oooooooo, I love a sidetrip. Looks like fun!

Anonymous said...

I like Miss Kate's commanding pose.

Jennifer P. said...

What a cool little excursion! The trains must have been so neat to see!

I had to enlarge your first photo because it looked like Carter was wearing pink shoes. But they were of course very manly red Cars shoes :)!

Miki said...

Cool, just like the quarter. I love collecting the commemorative quarters, and Utah's is all about the golden spike (and maybe something else, but it's less prominent for sure).

btw, today is leftovers day for dinner, so I've found time to do computer stuff in the middle of my day.... ;)

Jennifer P. said...

Since I know Miki will check back here, she offered me an invite to her blog and I'd love one! Private blogs are the best because that's where people REALLY spill all their secrets--ha! ha! It's zbug1@msn.com

Elise said...

Fun! We don't live that far from the Golden Spike (come to think of it, thanks for stopping off here;) ) and we've never been. We'll have to make a little excursion one of these days.

Anonymous said...

Emily- Me too, as long as their fun.

Mom- Always the boss.

Jennifer- Hilarious! You think Jarom would let me put pink shoes on his son?

Miki- See, I didn't even know the UT quarter was the golden spike. Makes sense.

Elise- You were one of those "etc" in the sorry-we-didn't-see-you list. :) Next time FOR sure (since it'll be Logan for Izzie's blessing.) Let's plan dessert!!!

Debbie said...

How in the world did you dig up that last photo??? And this is totally off topic, but that picture of your daughter sleeping in the drawer is just about the cutest thing. Oh my word, I love it!

becky ward said...

oh what fun! love the picture of all of you with the "ben's". (; and that is a very cool historical picture at the end. thanks for the history refresher.

Brandon and Emily said...

Never even heard of the Golden Spike before. Maybe you guys should go watch the duck migration with my parents too. JK. Looks like fun!

Elena said...

Debbie- It's just a picture I took from Wikepedia. (But I like that you think I dug it out of the archives better.)

Emily- Only if I drive my own vehicle. I'm not getting stuck in a dead car. :)