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Show haul the Leader: l lannn mitmw n Desert Desolation Now Surrounds The Spot Where The Gold Spike Was Driven By Bernice Gibbs Anderson It is hard to believe that a golden spike was driven there eighty-onyears ago today, on May 10, 1869. . . or any other kind of a spike. A dead silence lay in the little valley on top of the Promontory range, and the fragrance of the sage filled the air, just as it did on that day when the two special trains of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific met. Huge dry farms surround the site, but other than that it is much the same in appearance. The grades and telegraph lines are still there but though the stage is set, the players are missing. An old car coughed to a stop and a shriveled old man eased his creaking legs to the ground. Yessis! he piped. "That is where the spike was druve back In 69. Quite a celebration it was, too, with nearly two thousand people cornin' here fer it I wasnt very big, but I can remember hearin a lot about it. The Central Pacific paid about a thousand dollars to help out with the big time they bad after the special trains left. There e rain-washe- d was a banquet and a torch parade and a dance and everybody in these parts was there. I guess the Union Pacific helped too. That monument over there was built by the Southern Pacific before they took up the rails about 1942, and it dont get took care of very well. 'Course you cant expect people to be interested in somethin away out here, except when a lot of city hunters come out and use it fer a target. There was a lot of men worked on the road. The Central Pacific used Chinese and the Union Pacific used Irishmen an after the work stopped they camped around here waitin for their pay. It wasnt nothin to see two or three Sons of Erin chasin a Chinaman down the track to catch him and cut off his pigtail. Lot of the Chinese died with the smallpax and was buried all along the line from to Lucin, where this old line runs into the main tracks. "The two companies done a so bang-u- p job of grading good they passed each other and made two races all through Co-rin- ... here. They got practiced up so Pacific good that the Central laid ten miles of track in one day on a bet. "I can remember when there was a whole row of wooden buildins along this side otf the track. There was even a hotel and lor a while this was the junction between the two roads. was built, the After the Cut-of- f trains stopped runnin every few minutes and dropped down to one or two a day, and finally the Sagebrush Special only come through three times a week, until they took the rails out. They took out all the waterin tanks, too, that stood up on stilts to supply the engines runnin through this awful dry country. Some of them stations had the water piped twenty to thirty miles to em. t Where Bast Met West i over Yep! That monument there is where the rails was joined, but I cant see why yuh come clear out here to see that. interest . . . there aint nothin in here now! Gbye, young lady! I gotta get back to the ranch! And he chugged away, I had I wondered, too, why come. I looked at- - the small de serted section house across the the lone cottonStore wood tree, the "General and Post office building, fallen in, defeated with the years, and the lonely monument. Then I read the inscription on the cement shaft, LAST right-of-wa- FIRST COMPETEING SPIKE RAIL-ROATRANSCONTINENTAL DRIVEN AT THIS POINT MAY 10, 1869. and I saw the immensity of the whole thing. ... Be Sure To Visit The Tabernacle And while you are visiting this remarkable building, let us service your car with our reliable Chevron gasoline and Standard Oil products, with quick, courteous and knowing service. Many yisitors to Box Elder county this summer will drii to Promontory summit, to the point where the lines fro The long tight to finance the plan of building a railroad, the East and West met and the Golden - Spike was drive position of the steamship and shortly after the close of the Civil war, in 1869. Th stage companies, the teeming will find this Last Spike monument marking the poii thousands of weary, sweating and commemorating tjie day of historic interest to the ei workmen, battling in a gigantic race to carry each end of tire United States when stagecoach and pony express b track to the limit to win the when of steel bound the Uniti bands came obsolete, rich trade territory of the Salt Lake Valley and the Pacific States, in reality, into one nation. coast. . . . steel rails thrust desert and mountain in record time six years ahead of schedule to unite at Promontory summit, from where the waiting telegraph flashed the message to a jubilant nation. A new era was born, with a trip that had taken weeks now made in a few days and Cali- - fornia, who had threatened to secede, now solidly welded to the Union. It was hard to believe, too, that a government so proud of its heritage could so long neglect this spot. A graveled road led to it and the electric power line was a few short miles away. It is only nineteen years until . ' its centennial year in 1869. the old man was right . one seemed interested. It was too much for me to alone! I too, had to get I; to the ranch, So I left it to lullaby of roving winds a wandering showers carress the great dry farm coun ! . side. Were right across the street west from the' Box Elder stake tabernacle. Serving The West With Dependable Products VACATION The Chevron sign is your symbol of products in gas and oil, and it marks stations where service is quick, courteous and dependable, where things are done right. Let us show you what the Chevron sign means. O BEER top-quali- ty Batteries And Tires fl Cups, Bars, Pints, Quarts Party Pac's DRI VI NG SNACKS MEATS O Featuring Atlas Cans and Disposable Bottles O ICE CREAM O CANDY DIET Bars Cookies o Penny Candy Pop Corn A Complete Line of Lunch Meats for y t SI f that II 1 Roadside Snack. RPM Oils And Greases And The Very Best Lubrication MARK BRIGHTENBURGS SI Bread, butter, cold meats, pickles, olives, fresh fruit, potato chips, potato salad, cheeses . . . everything for your picnic lunch in Box Elder County Bark, in the Willard Peaks, at the Bird or in beautiful Rees Pioneer Park. Add to your vacation fun Refuge with a picnic in one of Brigham City s cool, uncrowded, delightful picnic spots. Member N.R.O.G. AFS WESS SOUTH MAIN MARKET Associated Food Stores 330 South Main Street ' (One Block South of the Tabernacle) $ B |