Working on the Railroad

Ceremony for the driving of the golden spike at Promontory Summit on May 10, 1869
Photo by Andrew J. Russell

"What was it the Engines said,
Pilots touching,--head to head
Facing on the single track,
Half a world behind each back?"
~ Bret Harte, from the poem What The Engines Said

Tim and I are making a beeline back to the farm where corn harvest has already begun.  We're supposed to be part of the fall harvest crew, but I’d promised my railroad fan father we’d visit the Golden Spike National Historic Site when we passed through Brigham City, UT on our way home.  

That’s the place (marked in the photo below by the commemorative plank) where the final stake was hammered home to complete the Transcontinental Railroad, a monumental work of labor.  

Of course, the real golden spike resides at the Cantor Arts Center on the campus of Stanford University founded by none other than Leland Stanford, president of the Central Pacific Railroad.  

By mid-1868, Central Pacific Railroad crews had crossed from Sacramento through the Sierra Mountains.  Meanwhile, the Union Pacific had laid over 700 miles of railroad tracks across the plains from its terminus in Omaha, Nebraska.  The two railroad companies were destined to meet at Promontory Summit, Utah.

There at the Golden Spike National Historic Site, I'd hoped we'd see the replica steam locomotives of the Central Pacific's Jupiter and Union Pacific's No. 119 re-enact that historic meeting (a daily event during the summer months), but due to track maintenance, they were only on view in the Engine House.  Still, I found it worth our time to see this place where the two locomotives had inched forward to meet almost nose to nose for that 1869 historic celebration.  Luckily, the park wasn't too far out of our way home.

There was another celebration awaiting us in Denver.  Our friends Mike and Leslie whom we'd known since our days in Tucson, Arizona, were hosting a house warming for their new home.  Seeing where they now live and meeting their friends was a memorable occasion we won't forget.

By the time Tim and I return to the farm on Monday, we will have traveled over 4,000 miles on this summer’s vacation that began July 5^th.  It’s been a memorable trip, punctuated with historic milestones, stunning vistas and opportunities to make new friends as well as visit old.  We’ve played a lot during these past two months so perhaps it’s fitting that we’ll get back to the farm on Labor Day.  I’m sure that with fall harvest in full swing there will be plenty of work awaiting us.

"Last week a premature blast went off, 
And a mile in the sky went big Jim Goff.
Now when next pay day come around,
Jim Goff a dollar short was found.
He asked the reason; came this reply,
You were docked for the time
You were up in the sky."
~ song sung by Irish immigrant workers of the Union Pacific Railroad

I hope our pay's not docked because we're late!