Golden spike National Historic Site, Utah

Steven Dutch, Professor Emeritus, Natural and Applied Sciences, Universityof Wisconsin - Green Bay

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	I've been to Plymouth Rock, the Alamo, Jamestown and Independence Hall, but I think this is my favorite historic site in the whole United States. There's something about having something so momentous happen in a place hardly anyone visits.
When a causeway was built across Great Salt Lake, the original route fell into disuse. On September 8, 1942, the rails were removed for the war effort, complete with a ceremonial pulling of the spike. The steel could be on the bottom of Ironbottom Sound off Guadalcanal, or in the launch pads at Cape Canaveral. And since the rails played such a big role in creating the society we now have, maybe that's a more fitting fate than gathering dust in a museum.
	There are only 20 stars on the flag. The twentieth state was (rummages through statehood quarter collection) Mississippi, admitted in 1817. By 1869, there were 37 states in the Union. So why does a 20 star flag fly over the site? Because that's what can be seen in photographs of the joining of the rails. When the great day came, someone realized they had forgotten an American flag and there was no time to run back to the nearest town to get one. One worker volunteered an old heirloom flag, so that's what flew in 1869, and that's what flies today.
	A rather unexpected large complex of buildings is visible from near the parallel routes
	There is something powerfully poetic about this. Almost within site of the place where the rails were joined is the plant where engines for the Space Shuttle are built.

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Created 1 April 2007, Last Update 04 June 2020