Tag: Golden Spike

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Outdoor Public Art Retells Utah’s Golden Spike Story

Golden Spike Visiting Logan, Douwe Blumberg, Artist Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers, Photographer
Golden Spike Visiting Logan,
Douwe Blumberg, Artist
Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers, Photographer

Locomotive Advancing within Buffalo Eye Douwe Blumberg, Artist Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers, Photographer Locomotive Advancing In Buffalo Eye
Douwe Blumberg, Artist
Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers, Photographer

“Distant Thunder,”
Michael Coleman, Artist
at Golden Spike National Monument
Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers, Photographer

Monument to their Memory, Ilan Averbuch, Artist, Golden Spike State Park at Reeder Ranch, Brigham City, UT, Photo Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers, Photographer Monument to their Memory
Ilan Averbuch, Artist
Golden Spike State Park at Reeder Ranch, Brigham City, UT
Photo Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers, Photographer

Early this spring, a semi-truck with a long flat bed pulled into the USU parking lot next to the cemetery and parked. Lashed down firmly on the flat bed was a giant railroad spike, covered in gold leaf and very impressive to see from a distance. But walking up to it, I could see it was covered in sculptured forms. There was an Indian astride a horse; the shaggy head of a buffalo. But what really caught my attention was the close up of the buffalo eye staring right at me. Reflected in the pupil was a steam engine, coming down the tracks, right at me. I felt the chill of the inevitable crash.

The train brought hunters with guns, hide hunters who killed and took only the hides, shipping them by the bale to industries back east. When there were no more buffalo to be shot, they collected the bones and shipped them to St Louis to be crushed into fertilizer. You could see the crash coming, and knew it would be devastating – to the buffalo and the Indians whose livelihood depended on them.

Walking around to the other side of the spike, I found a very different story. Here were the laborers who had laid down the Transcontinental tracks – the Chinese, the Irish, the Civil War veterans, the Mormon graders- Each standing proudly on the other’s shoulders, all the way to the top. I breathed in the nobility of these men for a difficult job well done.

This giant golden spike’s final home will be standing upright in a 23 acre public park in Brigham City, close enough to the Forest Street exit to be visible from I-15. Until then, we are going to have to wait to see the final two sides of the spike.

But in the meantime, there is another new art piece to go see outside the Golden Spike National Park at Promontory Point.

As I pulled into this parking lot, I was astonished to see a massive chunk of railroad track, rising up from the ground and curving slightly to a vanishing point in the sky.

I was reminded of a conversation I’d has few years ago, when I was collecting train stories, with a man who had once had a summer job hammering spikes on a railroad crew. He was fifteen- half the age and half the size of the other men. But he caught the rhythm.

Tap the spike into place. Swing in the spike maul. One, two, three. Pick up the next spike.

This story helped me understand the restless energy I felt looking at the track sculpture – one more tie, one more rail, one more spike. Repeat. These tracks were going where no tracks had gone before.

Outdoor public art can be storytelling at its very best.

And now a footnote for the engineers listening in: The giant golden spike is actually 43.2319 feet tall. That’s because 43.2319 is the square root of 1869.

This is Mary Heers and I’m Wild About Utah

Credits:

Images Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers, Photographer
Featured Audio: Courtesy & Copyright © Friend Weller, Utah Public Radio upr.org & Cook Laboratories https://folklife.si.edu/archives-and-resources/cook-labs-records
Text: Mary Heers, https://cca.usu.edu/files/awards/art-and-mary-heers-citation.pdf
Additional Reading: Lyle Bingham, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading

Wild About Utah, Mary Heers’ Postings

Swanson, Kirsten, Heers, Mary, Ride the rails: A storytelling exploration of Utah’s early railroad, Utah Public Radio, May 18, 2022 at 9:12 AM MDT, https://www.upr.org/arts-and-culture/2019-05-10/ride-the-rails-a-storytelling-exploration-of-utahs-early-railroad

Golden Spike Monument by Douwe Blumberg, Golden Spike State Monument, The Golden Spike Foundation (GSF), https://spike150.org/park/

Driving of the Spike Tour, News, Douwe Studios, October 24, 2023, https://www.douwestudios.com/news

Hislop, Craig, Golden Spike monument coming to USU Tuesday, Cache Valley Daily, Apr 26, 2024, https://www.cachevalleydaily.com/news/golden-spike-monument-coming-to-usu-tuesday/article_ee1eb334-0376-11ef-b19c-c725f46266d9.html

Williams, Carter, Utah gets $1.5M donation as it unveils more plans for new golden spike monument, KSL.com, April 11, 2024 at 7:47 p.m. https://www.cachevalleydaily.com/news/golden-spike-monument-coming-to-usu-tuesday/article_ee1eb334-0376-11ef-b19c-c725f46266d9.html

Don’t Confuse these two places. The Golden Spike National State Park is 30 miles West of the “Gateway” Golden Spike State Monument at Reeder Ranch in Brigham City
Golden Spike National Historic Park, US National Park Service, US Department of the Interior, https://www.nps.gov/gosp/index.htm

S.C.R. 6 Concurrent Resolution Creating the Golden Spike State Monument, Utah State Legislature, Signed March 13, 2024, https://le.utah.gov/~2024/bills/static/SCR006.html

“Distant Thunder” Sculpture at Golden Spike National Historical Park Honors Bison’s Past, https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/golden-spike-national-historical-park-distant-thunder.htm

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Golden Spike Locomotive Refurb.

Driving the golden spike ceremony at Promontory Summit, Utah on May 10, 1869, Courtesy of the US National Park Service
Driving the golden spike ceremony at Promontory Summit, Utah on May 10, 1869
Courtesy of the US National Park Service
 
Reinactment of the golden spike ceremony at Promontory Summit, Utah on May 10, 2014, Utah. Photo Courtesy US NPSReinactment of the golden spike ceremony at Promontory Summit, Utah on May 10, 2014
Courtesy of the US National Park Service
 
Box Elder County, Utah. Photo Courtesy US NPSSteve Sawyer
National Park Service Locomotive Engineer
Photo Courtesy and Copyright Pat Cone
 
Fireman Michael Ostereich. Photo Courtesy and Copyright Pat ConeFireman Michael Ostereich
Photo Courtesy and Copyright Pat Cone
 
 

This sage-covered valley is not on the way to anywhere, unless you’re a railroad and history fan. For it was here, on that May 10th, 146 years ago, that a grand undertaking came to its celebratory conclusion: the meeting of the rails and two grand locomotives.

With the driving of the Golden Spike the Central Pacific, that had clawed its way across the High Sierra and vastness of the Nevada Desert, and the Union Pacific, which rolled across the plains and Rocky Mountains completed a steel artery of commerce and transportation.

Union Pacific Number 119 and the Central Pacific Number 60 (better known at Jupiter) faced each other amidst a crowd of dignitaries, engineers, and railroad workers as the final rails were laid, and spikes were driven. President Abraham Lincoln’s dream of a transcontinental railroad was complete.

Today, the Golden Spike National Historic Site at Promontory, Utah commemorates this event, staging daily reenactments of this meeting with two, grand replica engines. And this May 10th, they’ll look and run better than ever after having undergone a thorough refurbishing.
The original engines were scrapped for their metal in the early 1900s. These two massive replicas were built in 1979 at a cost of nearly $750,000 a piece, in Costa Mesa, California, by Chad O’Connor. He had a passion for steam.

Every 15 years these locomotives are disassembled, boilers cleaned and tested, and over 166 fire tubes replaced. The boiler is pressure tested, the gauges and brass bells and whistles are brightly shined, and the funneled smokestack is repainted, ready for their big day. There’s over 500 feet of tubing in each engine, they weigh 62 tons apiece, and make steam from treated water the old fashioned way: 119 burns coal, and the Jupiter is wood-fired.

Steve Sawyer has been a National Park Service locomotive engineer for 8 years and loves driving these down the track, wearing period costume. He’s one of two engineers, and a fireman who fires them up and takes them out. “These engines run 8 hours a day for 5 months from May 1st through October 15th,” he says, so they need a thorough rebuilding.

Fireman Michael Ostereich takes his time as he puts a rust-proof sealant around the new welds on the boiler, in preparation for a layer of insulation, and the final jacket. But the three railroadmen aren’t alone. There are over 60 volunteers that help in this grand task, reminding us of what it meant to be able to travel from coast to coast in style and comfort.

Jupiter is red and blue, while Number 119 is mostly red with black. Jupiter has a bright blue cowcatcher and a large funnel, while Number 119’s cowcatcher is red with a straight smokestack. The drive wheels are as tall as most men and the pistons are shined to a mirror finish, and there are hand-painted scenes adorning them from Disney animator Ward Kimball.

They are huge, noisy, and magnificent works of art. And, they’ll both be ready for their debut during the anniversary of the meeting of the rails on May 10th. There will be kids of all ages there, so catch them in action if you can.

For Wild About Utah, this is Patrick Cone with National Parks Traveler

Credits:
Image: Courtesy US National Parks Service, www.nps.gov
Image: Courtesy and Copyright Patrick Cone, www.nationalparkstraveler.com
Text:     Patrick Cone, NationalParksTraveler.com.
Additional Reading:

Golden Spike National Historic Site, Brigham City, Utah, Golden Spike National Monument, US NPS, https://www.nps.gov/nr/Travel/cultural_diversity/Golden_Spike_National_Historic_Site.html

Golden Spike National Monument, US NPS, https://www.nps.gov/gosp/index.htm

Golden Spike Locomotives Being Refurbished, Patrick Cone, National Parks Traveler, https://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2015/03/golden-spike-locomotives-being-refurbished26421

Blowing Off Steam…, National Parks Traveler, https://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/potw/blowing-steam22551