Willard Bay State Park, Utah 9/25 - 9/27

From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com 

Tim and Linda Bunyan

We have arrived at Willard Bay State Park which is a huge freshwater reservoir that offers boating, camping, and animal-watching.  This freshwater serves cities stretched along the Wasatch Range from Nephi to Brigham City.  Yet we are here to see the Train! 

We fuel up to drive to the Golden Spike National Historical Park

Site of the First Transcontinental Railroad

This historic site is the place the completion of the first transcontinental railroad crossed the United States.  We are here for the 150th anniversary in commemoration of the completion of the railroad.

The  Last Spike Site, 1869.  Ten miles of track was laid in one day!  April 18, 1869

The final spike was driven by Leland Stanford to join the rails.

The Golden Spike is now displayed in the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University.

A journey across the plains, a formidable undertaking that required great patience and endurance.  It took six months to cross the country; the railway reduced the time to less than a week! 
The Central Pacific Railroad from Sacramento and the Union Pacific Railroad from Omaha were laid, here at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory.

The final joining of the rails spanning the continent was signified by the driving of the ceremonial Golden Spike. 
 The leaders: Leland Stanford, Central Pacific, and Dr. Thomas Durant, Union Pacific Railroad. 

 California, designed and built working replicas of the locomotives that were present at the original ceremony.  

Tim and I witnessed the Union Pacific locomotive traveling from the East to come face-to-face with the Central Pacific from the West.

1869 Jupiter (CP#60) 

1869 UP# 119

On May 10, 2019, the United States Postal Service issued a set of three new commemorative postage stamps to make this 150th anniversary of the driving of the golden spike.  One stamp for the Jupiter locomotive, one stamp for locomotive #119, and one stamp for the golden spike.

Promontory Point

We depart to return to Willard Bay and Ogden, Utah 

We return to our RV at Willard Bay.  

The next day we drive into town to find the Train Depot - 1869.

The Union Station is a train station in Ogden Utah formerly the junction of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads.

 Land deal with Brigham Young as he donated several hundred acres of land to the two railroads on the condition that they build the yards and station here in west Ogden,.

This area of vast flatland continues as a railway hub

I need to go find the postage stamps!

Onward to Salt Lake City.....there is a train coming!