Salt Lake Herald-Republican | 1918-07-07 | Page 22 | The Golden Spike

I The Golden Spike f 1 Promontory Point Utah is feet teet above sea level Here In 1869 was driven the golden Jolden spike which connected connected con con- rails extending 1084 miles from Omaha westward and 30 miles mUes from San Francisco eastward thus uniting the Atlantic and Pacific coasts for tor the I first time with iron bands From the discovery pf pr gold in n California in 1849 I up to this time continuous overland communication between the Missouri and the Pacific ocean had been possible possible pos pos- sible only through the medium of or stage stagecoacheS stagecoaches stagecoaches coaches prairIe schooners freighters and the pony pon express Thousands of the carl early adventurers had found their wa way to the gold diggings s by going across the Isthmus of ot Panama or around Cape Horn Some had dreamed dream cd before the thc Civil war of a railway across the great grent plains and the Rocky mountains mountains moun moun- but these men as a rule were not given serious attention One exception exception ex ex- however ml might ht be pointed out Thomas H. H Benton was United States senator from Missouri for five fire terms and one of the great r at figures of ot othis I his time John C C. Fremont married I I Hentons Henton's s daughter First I as ns Jessie e I Benton and later as Jessie Fremont this lad lady was long a na national belle bene Fremont b by reason of his successful I e. e explorations In the and SI Sierras Sir Sier rI r- r ras ms awas was a national hero The nation natio n I was Interested in everything e which h fin rny member of or this trio might say Bay a- a or r do 10 When hen therefore Senator Benton Bents and his son in In 1832 1852 proposed 1 that n n. railway should b 1 be cor constructed d I across the Rock Rocky mountains the project project project for 01 a n time arrested attention Fre re Fremont's monts mont's last two expeditions were nere un undertaken undertaken un- un at his own and Senator Bentons Benton's Benton's Bentons Bentons Benton's Ben Ben- tons ton's s expense o Q for the purpose mainly of ot settling the question 0 of whether wh ther I It t would woul b bp be practicable to run cars over the Rocky nock mountains In th the winter Fremont was an explorer rather than an cn engineer railroad building was wa still In It its Ii Infancy In the United States In the early fifties and the thc en enterprise en- en which Benton and hl his In Fon law had at heart failed fallen cV for want o of ot f popular and anal governmental support Not until the American union was wa a s I riven by 11 civil cyll strife was serious attention atten atten- attention tion lion aln a-aln tuned t ned toward the tho great r t un un- un Those who believed a railway rail rall- railway wa way across the plains J and J mountains feasible pf were still in the minority When the came cam before con con- gress in speaker ker after sneaker con I r I denounced the project as both fantastic tenths fantas tic and impossible Nevertheless Ne th tho first contract for tor the construction of the th h road rond was ns made in Au t 1863 I Then When construction was b begun lm and oven when It hail had JHo proceeded for some fome distance westward from Om Omaha there ther were n-er rp still UIl many roam who predict wl failure for th the enterprise General Sherman who hA had d seen service k on the plains and other military officers smiled incredulously In Incredulously In- In credulously when told thAt the ro road would br h completed by 1870 I should he bo unwilling to l uv a n ticket over r it for my M rt remarked Sherman n Within five years Mr he himself him him- I self elf made a R o op oer e ethe the roal road from Omaha to S Son S n Francisco and frankly I acknowledged aC hi his hi mistake c The ceremonies at nt Point assumed a pat raL poet Assembled to witness th the joining of the rails were pre prea a a. considerable number of or the most prominent nt mi men n of the country Elaborate orate telegraphic telegraph arrangements had been made ronde and an as n the golden solden spike I I I I. I was driven the tho word Done flashed nashed to all important centers on t continent The enthusiasm ran hl hi everywhere in the tho United States was especially marked In Omaha San Francisco In which cities b bringing ringing pyrotechnics and were features of or the celebration I months afterward a picture the locomotive Jupiter of ot tho the Cent Pacific line the western division sh eh ehIng shing sha Ing hands with locomotive No the Union Pacific lino or the thc east caste division was everywhere e ly displayed The completion of this marked the end and beginning 1 epochs It closed forever the era the wild Indian and nd the buffalo a a opened a new empire to settlement a enterprise Perhaps nothing m dramatic or romantic In human t has vcr ver been reco record than the transformation within t tw score years of a n vast and j hopeless desert waste into ono one of t tI tj most fertile and prosperous regions earth Christian Christian Science Monitor i r i