This year marked the 150th anniversary of the joining of the Central and Union Pacific railroads to make the transcontinental railroad. In July 1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act into law and the railroad was on its way. It took almost 7 years to complete but on May 10, 1869 the last spike (a ceremonial golden spike) was driven in Promontory Utah!
This is one of the cool things we got to learn about when we learned about state history in 4th grade here in Utah. It is one our claims to fame. I have actually never made it to Promontory Point, but it is on my bucket list. However there was a special exhibit at the State Capital building for the anniversary of this momentous occasion. We took Lizzie to see the spike and much to our disappointment we were not allowed to take pictures in the exhibit. It was to protect the artifacts from flash photography.
I think that the coolest thing we saw in the exhibit was the last page of the Pacific Railway Act which included President Lincoln’s signature. Lincoln is my probably my favorite president in history so it was the highlight of the exhibit for me. My husband agreed with me that it was cooler than actually seeing the Golden Spike.
The Governor’s office had a fun little “gift bag” you could put together for free. It included a fun button that we plan to put on our backpacks. And since we didn’t get to tack pictures of the actual golden spike we took one in the governor’s office and a bunch around the capital building. We are lucky to have such a beautiful building so close by.
Keeping it Classic 