By: Bears Butt

What a wonderful day and event that was held out at the Golden Spike National Monument.  Temps were hovering in the low to mid 70’s with a light breeze, a very nice day for the re-enactors in their hot looking black suits and the ladies in their long and multi layered dresses.

Before I get too far into this story, I promised some kids they would become famous on Bears Butt Dot Com…I’m not sure they will remember to check on this site, but here is the picture I took of them.  One of them called me “sick” and another said I had an awesome name…Bears Butt.  Thanks guys!  You looked to be having a very good time!

And so the story goes.  144 years ago today they actually did drive the last spike into the last tie to complete the railway.  To think about that and in that day and age it was a monumental feat.  One which caused hundreds (and they said possibly thousands) of men died getting that rail laid.  From the West going East were a few thousand people from China and surrounding countries using tools available like shovels, wheel barrows, oxen pulled sleds etc.  Can you imagine how hard that work was to do?  Filling in voids, digging out the high points, following a grade laid out by the engineers that would allow the steam locomotive to be able to pull a string of transport cars up and down the mountains of the west.  Blasting out rock mountains to make cuts and tunnels.  The enormity of the food and water that had to be prepared and served several times each day.  The traveling tent city that had to accompany all those men.  The policing of difficulties that would develop among men doing that sort of work (In my opinion, construction type men have a lot of testosterone).  The medical issues that would have had to be handled daily.

Was there a clean up crew?  I doubt it and today one can still find a relic of those days if they hike alongside the old rail grade out in the West Desert of Box Elder County and further West across Nevada and California.

From the East building the tracks toward the West, you had a mix of European men from several different countries.  Ireland, England, Scotland, Germany, France etc.  The same enormous task awaited them as well, with the same problems and needs.  Did they have a clean up crew?  I doubt it.

So, with literally thousands of hard working laborers working from opposite sides of the country toward one another, each railroad company expecting to make money based on the number of miles of track they laid, you can imagine the pressure that the “line bosses” were putting on the backs of the laborers…”WORK HARDER AND FASTER”!!!!  “DON’T GIVE ME NONE OF THAT ‘I’M SICK’ CRAP!  GET TO WORK”!!!!  You have someone in your face yelling constantly and pretty soon (shorter for some, longer for others) someone is going to lose their temper and strike out…BLAM!  And with that probably came a “blam” of a different “caliber” and someone was going to be dead.

Now don’t take what I just said as fact because I just made that up, but I’m convinced there is some truth in what I just said.  No matter how they died, hundreds if not thousands of men died pulling off this great feat and so today they had a memorial wreath that they set out and we had a prayer and moment of silence for.

Now this is a family site and I get to call all the shots, at least until the blog police make up rules for what can and can’t be posted on a site like this one.  So, here goes.  I’m not a big on politics guy so I’ll just say there were some dignitaries out there today and one of them gave a pretty good speech, I’ll let the news media say who they were.  They were schmoozing each other and congratulating  themselves etc. in typical political form, but I managed to get up on that stage (thanks to my son Mitch) to take a picture of a Famous Man, Mr. Les Dunn.

Les was there to lead the entire audience in the Pledge of Allegiance and he did a wonderful job!  Thanks Les!  For some of you reading this you might remember Les as the football coach for Box Elder High School in Brigham City, Utah.  A great guy!

Once I was done taking these two pictures I ducked off the stage to join the common folk and watch the show.

This will probably come as a surprise, but I have already told you I’m 63 years old, have lived in the same town my entire life and this is the first time I have gone out and watched a re-enactment of the driving of the golden spike.  What I found out by being me…I like to talk to people whom I don’t know…is that I was not alone!  I met another Willardite who is a bit older than me and he too had never been out to watch one of the shows.  I’ll just post a picture of him and his wife and you can figure out who they are.

I also talked with one guy, who actually ends up to be a friend of my neighbors and the two of them work together at the Snowbasin Ski Resort and he is my age, lives in North Ogden and he too had never been out to the party either.  Were there others in the crowd as well?  I’ll just bet there were!  The crowd was, in my estimation about 200 strong…maybe more…

You can count them…Oh and there were a few behind me when I took these pictures.

The pageant was very well done and the information they passed along was pretty good too.  They tried their best to make it as real as the day the event unfolded and I suppose they did it perfectly.  It seemed so anyway.  I don’t want to spoil your visit to the Golden Spike National Monument site, so I’ll just make some stuff up on here.

So here is the stage for the re-enactment and because I was so far away from it my pictures don’t show much if any facial details of the ones doing the acting, so I’ll just put words in their mouths, under each of the pictures.

On the day of the event, they could only find a 20 star flag to fly for this celebration and so, these people did the same.  There were actually 22 states (I think, if you know differently leave me a comment under this story and I’ll fix it…thanks!) in the Union in 1869.  But way out here in the sage covered desert of Utah nobody seemed to have a current flag.  This is the first time I’ve seen a 20 star flag…that alone made the day for me!

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this wonderful time in our lives.  You are about to witness for the first time in American History, the greatest feat known to man, the coming together of the first transcontinental railway, bringing with it the goods and services of the Eastern coast of America to the Gold and Silver of the West Coast…After all folks, It’s all about the money!  Now I will turn the bull horn over to the guys with the money and they can tell you their part in all of this.  In the meantime, I’ll go back in the back and have a drink!  My part is all but over.

Folks!  I give to the guys from the other train company this spike as a token of my appreciation and in celebration of this event.  I think I have done about as good as I can under my present financial situation.  It’s made of the finest gold and plates a solid steel spike.  I think you will like it!

Congratulations!  Thank You!

I give to you all this solid silver spike made from a couple of days mining from the Comstock mine in Nevada, the Silver State.  Enjoy it and the next time you are in Elko, stop in for a fine drink and some gambling!  Take the train, it goes right through town!

Congratulations!  Thank You!

From my train company, so as not to be seen as “cheap”, we have cast a solid gold spike and inscribed our names on it so everyone from here on out will know who we are.  We give this spike to the rail company that has been our rivals in this entire ordeal.  We are so pleased that this job is done, I’m going to join the conductor for a drink in about a minute.  Until then, please try not to damage this soft metal spike.

Congratulations!  Thank You!

And so it went and the spikes were placed into a tie made of Laurel wood, the last tie that was needed to complete the task.  And so, the saying would be coined, “You have run yourself out of work, now go sit on your Laurels”!

It was a pretty cool looking tie I have to say and of course the gold and silver spikes were just placed into holes and the whole pounding of the hammer on them was just made up.  Who would want a solid gold spike hammered on?  Nobody…besides it wouldn’t look good in a show case in Sacramento, or Omaha or even the Smithsonian for that matter.

Gold on the left and Silver on the right!

THE LA-Golden Spike!

The whole re-enactment was very well done and I don’t mean to make a mockery of it on here, I want everyone who is reading this to go out there and see and hear it for yourselves.  You will come away with a very different view of what it all meant when the rails were laid connecting the East side of America with the West side…over 1600 miles all built by hand labor!  No back hoes or drilling rigs.

Did you know?  Of course you didn’t, you haven’t been out there!

The Jupiter has it’s boiler heated with Wood!

While the 119 heats theirs with Coal!

Coal burns a lot longer and hotter than wood, so why not make them both burn coal?  Well, the California side of things didn’t have much coal and to ship it to them would not have been cost effective, besides they have lots of trees and both steam engines have to stop for water about every 30 miles.  No big deal to load up another load of wood when they stop for water.  So, in reality, the guys running the 119 are lazier than the ones on the Jupiter.  When they stop for water, they can go into the saloon and have a drink, while the Jupiter guys have to load wood.  I would hope the Jupiter guys would have gotten paid more too…I don’t know.

So, we acted like the tourists we were today and had a really good time!  Chase even got to hold a golden spike!

And I got to go inside the 119 and take a picture of the Engineer and the fire box.

I’ll bet the engineer liked it when it was cold outside, but when he was running across a 110 degree desert, I’ll bet he hated it!  Metal flooring next to a high heat furnace…no thanks!

It was a fun day and I think I might even go back out again sometime.  Maybe in the winter months and see the steam clouds that come off the engines when they are fired up.

One last thing.  I was strolling past the back of the 119 and noticed a picture drawn on it…it looks vaguely familiar.

Just add an upside down horse shoe and there you have it!

Bears Butt

May 10, 2013