Original Golden Spike Replica Arrives in Utah
Written by Carolina Worrell, Senior Editor
Photo Courtesy of Colorado Community Media
A 43-foot-long replica of the original 5 5/8-inch golden spike, marking the completion of the transcontinental railroad at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869, recently arrived at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City to a crowd of nearly 150, according to a report by The Salt Lake Tribune.
According to the report, the memorial was on display Oct. 24 at the Capitol’s front steps, allowing people to see exhibits, take part in activities and listen to lectures, including from artist Douwe Blumberg, who created the sculpture.
“We’ve been waiting for three years, and finally it is here,” said Chairperson of the Chinese Railroad Workers Descendants Association Margaret Yee, whose great-grandfathers, one each on her mother’s and father’s sides of the family, worked on the railroad, moving from Sacramento, where construction started heading east meeting up with the Union Pacific (UP) heading west, and meeting in Utah, according to The Salt Lake Tribune report.
“It’s a great piece of history and Union Pacific was proud to support the project through its Community Ties Giving Program,” said Kristen South, a spokesperson for UP.
According to the report, the monument—which left Lexington, Ky., where Blumberg works, on Oct. 5 for a “whistle stop” tour on a flatbed truck through Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming—will reside permanently at the new Golden Spike Park, an eight-acre site outside of Brigham City in Box Elder County.
The Golden Spike Foundation, a Utah nonprofit formed in 2018 to mark the railroad’s 50th anniversary in 2019, commissioned the monument from Blumberg in 2021. The foundation partnered with Brigham City to buy the land for the new park, near Interstate 15.
According to The Salt Lake Tribune report, Golden Spike Foundation Chairman Doug Foxley, the foundation’s chairman said “he thought about how to get people to visit the original site where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met at Promontory, at what’s now Golden Spike National Historical Park.” What was needed, he said, was “the ultimate billboard.”
The foundation, as part of its legacy, decided to create three public art pieces in Box Elder County. After sifting through 229 submissions from artists around the world, Foxley said Blumberg’s entry was the “jackpot,” because he “miraculously turned history into an amazing art object,” according to the report.
According to The Salt Lake Tribune, when the park is completed, Blumberg’s spike will be “the most prominent of four sculptures there.” The others are “Distant Thunder” by Michael Coleman, “Monument to Their Memory” by Ilan Averbuch, and Daniel J. Fairbanks’ bust of President Abraham Lincoln (who signed the 1862 Pacific Railway Act that set the transcontinental railroad into motion).
