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Show Omaha Turns Back the Clock to 70 Years Ago When North America Was First "Spanned With Steel" The "Wedding of the Rails" at Promontory Point, Utah, May 10, 1869, completing the first transcontinental trans-continental railroad. Central Pacific engine on the left, Union Pacific on the right. By ELMO SCOTT WATSON Western Newspaper Union. FOR four days, April 26 to 29, Omaha, Neb., is turning back the clock 70 years and visitors arriving there during dur-ing that time will probably rub their eyes in amazement. amaze-ment. For they will find that this modern city has been transformed into what resembles a frontier village of three- quarters of a century ago. They will see the Union station sta-tion covered with logs to a height of 10 feet to give it the appearance of an old-time stockade, and, as they cross the Plaza in front of the station, sta-tion, they will be greeted by shrill war-whoops from a band of Brule Sioux Indians whose lodges are pitched there. On the courthouse lawn they will find another Indian In-dian village and as they walk down one of the principal streets in the business section sec-tion they will see a solid block of buildings cohered with "false fronts" similar to those which lined Omaha streets back m 1869. Prairie schooners and stage coaches, instead of automobiles, will be parked along the curbs with here and there a picturesque frontiersman in his fringed buckskin buck-skin suit and fur cap lounging in his saddle as he passes the time, of day with bewhiskered citizens, wearing tall beaver hats, or ogles some pretty girl dressed in crinoline, crino-line, hoopskirt and quaint, old-fashioned old-fashioned bonnet. In fact, some 50,000 of Omaha's 200,000 -people will be wearing the costumes of 1869 during those four days. "Golden Spike Days." "Golden Spike Days," they're called, and they commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the event which really united these United States. It was the driving driv-ing of the final golden spike when the eastward-building Central Pacific and the westward-building Union Pacific met at Promontory Prom-ontory Point, Utah, on May 10, 1809, to form the first transcontinental transcon-tinental railroad. Why, then, should this celebration be held in Omaha rather than out in Utah? There are several good reasons. One is that headquarters of the Union Pacific railroad are in Omaha and the history of the U. P. has been bound up closely with the Nebraska metropolis and its twin-city-across-the-Mis-souri, Council Bluffs, Iowa, from their beginnings. Another is the fact that the world premiere of a new motion picture called "Union Pacific," based upon the building of the first transcontinental transconti-nental railroad, will be held in ' Omaha during the celebration. During the celebration there will be another East-West meeting meet-ing in Omaha which is somewhat reminiscent of the historic meeting meet-ing at Promontory Point 70 years ago. On Thursday morping, April 27, a special train will arrive ar-rive from the East bearing W. A. Harriman, chairman of the board of directors of the Union Pacific, all other members of the board and a large number of eastern industrialists. That afternoon aft-ernoon the old-time train used in the picture "Union Pacific" will pull into the Union station. The engine on it will be the "General McPherson," one of the original U. P. wood-burning loco-moiives loco-moiives of tlie exact type used at Promontory Point. Behind this ancient iron horse will be two coaches of the same period, one of which is a replica of the business car used by Gen. Gren-ville Gren-ville M. Dodge, who was the chief engineer of the railroad during its I'uns'.ruction period. y , Coupled with this train will be the Union Pacific's giant new steam-electric locomotive and the necessary modern baggage and Pullman cars to accommodate the motion picture celebrities from Hollywood and others arriving ar-riving from the West coast. Getting Get-ting off this train will be W. M. Jeffers, president of the U. P., Cecil B. DeMille, producer of "Union Pacific," Joel McCrea, Barbara Stanwyck, other members mem-bers of the cast, and several western governors. That night the Easterners and Westerners will meet at a huge banquet in the Ak-Sar-Ben coliseum and, during . the next two days, they will see and take part in a series of historical parades, pageants, luncheons, banquets and other festivities which have been ar- , ranged as a part of the celebration. celebra-tion. Such will be the highlights in the celebration of the event upon which the eyes of the whole nation na-tion were focused when it took place 70 years ago. For that event special trains, bearing notables from both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, were run to Promontory Point, arriving on May 10. At a signal from Edgar Mills of the firm of Ogden Mills and Company of San Francisco, who was master of ceremonies, the two engines moved up to their assigned positions about 60 feet apart. Drawn up along the north side of the track were four companies com-panies of the Twenty-first infantry infan-try with their regimental band to furnish music for the occasion. The scene which followed is described de-scribed by L. O. Leonard, for many years historian of the Union Pacific, as follows: The preliminaries completed. Edgar Mills stepped forward and asked for attention, while the Rev. J. Tedd of Pittsfield, Mass., offered prayer. Next was the presenting of the spikes for the ceremony. Doctor Harkness of the Sacramento Sacra-mento Press in a brief speech presented Governor Stanford with a spike "forged with gold from the mines of California" and also presented, "from her laurel woods, a hewn tie, polished and with a silver plate properly inscribed." in-scribed." Hon. F. A. Fryth, of Nevada, then stepped forward and presented pre-sented to Dr. T. C. Durant, vice president of the Union Pacific, a silver spike, on behalf of the people peo-ple of Nevada, with the sentiment, senti-ment, "To the iron of the East and the gold of the West, Nevada adds her link of silver to span the continent and wed the oceans." Governor Safford of Arizona next presented a spike made of iron, silver and gold, saying : "Ribbed with iron, clad in silver and crowned with gold, Arizona presents her offering to the enterprise en-terprise that has banded the continent con-tinent and directed the pathway to commerce." To these donors, Governor Stanford, on the part of the Central Cen-tral Pacific, responded, "accepting "accept-ing with pride and satisfaction these gold and silver tokens of appreciation and importance of the great work." Maj. Gen. Grenville M. Dodge, chief engineer of the Union Pa- &JL yf f ' The Old and the New A modern Union Pacific streamliner and the old-time locomotive, built in 1862, which was used in the motion picture "Union Pacific." cific, responded for that company in a most happy manner. Mr. Coe of the Pacific Express company, com-pany, then presented the officials with a silver spike-maul with which to drive the golden spike into the tie. All preliminaries now being completed, Samuel B. Reed, who had had charge of the Union Pacific Pa-cific construction work, stepped forward, as did also J. H. Strow-bridge, Strow-bridge, who held a similar position posi-tion for the Central Pacific. They carried the laurel tie and placed it in its bed beneath the track. Governor Stanford, grasping the silver spike-maul firmly in his hands, then took his position on the south side of the rail and Vice President Durant upon the north side. At a signal, Governor Gover-nor Stanford struck the first blow and then Doctor Durant the second sec-ond blow and the golden spike was driven home. At the same instant the electric signal announced an-nounced to the world the completion comple-tion of the great enterprise. The crowd cheered and the band played the "Star Spangled Banner." Ban-ner." The ceremonies and visiting being be-ing concluded the trains backed off the scene and the crowd gradually grad-ually faded away. By evening the scene was deserted and that night the coyote roamed over the locality, disturbing no one with his lonesome howl. r v $ , i W. M. Jeffers, president of the Union Pacific, wearing the type of beaver hat which will be in vogue in Omaha during "Golden Spike Days." Closely associated with the history his-tory of the first transcontinental railroad is the name of Abraham Lincoln. It came about in this way: In 1858 Lincoln visited Council Bluffs on legal business for a client. cli-ent. General (then Colonel) Grenville M. Dodge had just returned re-turned from making a survey for a railroad west of the Missouri river. General Dodge says: "He heard of my return from the survey sur-vey and on the porch of the Pacific Pa-cific House he sat with me for two hours or more and drew out all the facts I had obtained in my survey and naturally my opinion as to the route for a railroad west. I thought no more of giving giv-ing this at the time than that possibly pos-sibly I might have given away secrets that belonged to my employers em-ployers in this work. In 1863 while in command of the district of Corinth, I received a dispatch from General Grant to proceed to Washington and report to the President. "President Lincoln informed me that I was sent for for a consultation consul-tation in regard to the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific railroad. rail-road. He remembered the conversation con-versation with me on the porch of the Pacific House and under the law he was to determine the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific railroad. Those who remember re-member that time know what pressure was brought to bear on the President to name this point far north and far south of Council Bluffs. After a long conversation with me obtaining my views fully and the reasons for them, the President finally determined to make it on the western border of Iowa." A "Pacific Union." On July 1, 1862, President Lincoln Lin-coln signed the act to build the Pacific railroad. It was not a perfunctory procedure. He had advocated the passage of the act and the building of the road, not only as a military necessity, but as a means of holding the Pacific coast to the Union. There is no doubt but that the idea behind be-hind this enterprise was for a Pacific Union, which name reversed re-versed gives us the title of the railroad. Not only did Lincoln establish the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific railroad opposite Section 10 in the Territory of- Nebraska, but he also fixed the other boundaries on the western end of the line which was being built eastward from the Pacific. By the original railroad act the President Pres-ident was to fix the point where the Sacramento valley ended and the foothills of the Sierra Madre began. The chief engineer had designated desig-nated Barmores, 31 miles from Sacramento as the beginning of the mountains. The Supreme court decided the foot hills commenced com-menced at 30 miles from that city. Several attempts were made to bring this to the attention atten-tion of President Lincoln but the President's occupation with heavier heav-ier duties connected with the war prevented the action. The time came, however, when it could not be longer delayed. It was important to the railroad company that the foot hill should begin as near as possible to Sacramento. Sac-ramento. Senator Sargent claims the credit of moving the mountain moun-tain from Barmores to Arcade creek, a distance of 24 miles. He relates the affair as follows: Lincoln was engaged with a map when the senator substituted another and demonstrated by it and the statement of some geologist geolo-gist that the black soil of the valley val-ley and the red soil of the hills unite at Arcade. The President relied on the statements given by him and deckled accordingly. "Here you see," said the senator, "my pertinacity and Abraham's faith removed mountains." Apropos of Lincoln's connection with the Union Pacific is the fact that several years ago Historian Leonard found in the records of the department of the interior in Washington many papers which he signed, one of them on a U. P. document only four months before be-fore his assassination. It is interesting in-teresting to note that only upon U. P. papers did he sign his full name "Abraham Lincoln." On almost all others he wrote it "A Lincoln." |