As everyone does, or should, know, the great Transcontinental Railway was completed May 10, 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah. It was the great opening of the West, and thus began the ending of the wilderness the Indians knew so well. 

The past history of this great railroad has been told many times, but little has been told of what it is today. 

In 1965, by congressional authorization, the Golden Spike National Historic Site was set aside, containing 15 miles of the old right-of-way and consisting of 2,203 acres. A U.S. Parks Department building, housing a small exhibit and audio-visual room where movies are shown, has been built. Also, live operating replica locomotives of the style originally used (the "Jupiter" and "No. 119") are exhibited and are run, symbolically "touching" for the benefit of visitors. Every May 10 there is a Golden Spike re-enactment at their annual commemoration. 

In their quest for authenticity, the telegraph line that was reconstructed has original CPRR Brooks ramshorns. 1.7 miles of track, have been built, but the ramshorns are only in front of the visitors center. The rest of the line is decked out in what I would assume are insulators that are designed to appear like what the average non-collector thinks all insulators look like. Consequently, you'll find these "replicas" make a CD 143 look complex; that is, they look like gumdrops with a wire attached! They appear to be wood. However, only a true insulator buff would notice, as everything is very authentic. 

Across the tracks from the visitors center is even a "Hell on Wheels" town (Promontory) just like in the old pictures. There are tents and shacks exactly like the old restaurant, saloon, U.P. ticket/ telegraph office, etc. Everything is very nicely set up and realistic. Comparing original photographs with the set up, you will see how well they did. 

Getting away from the "new", there is a pamphlet showing you routes you can take in your vehicle to investigate the remains of the old railroad. You can see how they made "cuts" through the rocky hills, old construction camps, areas where they dug out the earth for fill, and old trestles, etc., etc. This makes the trip worthwhile. 

You drive on the old roadbed (which practically any auto can do), and the guide points out, say, a large depression in the earth where fill was taken and has laid undisturbed for 110 years, showing how fragile the desert environment really is. 

There is one place where you park in a small gravel parking lot and walk on a mile long foot tour (to preserve some last relics). You can see up on a hillside area, scooped out of the hills, with rock walls to protect them, the original workers' "homes" still preserved! The canvas is long gone from the roofs, but there is an occasional hand-chopped post here and there. Everywhere jackrabbits run from practically beneath your feet as you walk along the old bed. 

There are no artifacts to be found near the homes of the workers. In fact, it should be discouraged for people to even attempt to dig around these old sites, as one slight move could destroy forever what the desert has preserved. However, on the old bed there is really nothing to be damaged, inasmuch as there are no traces whatsoever of poles, crossarms, ties or spikes. Just a bed. However, there are artifacts to be found along the bed -- and we all know what that is! 

Down on my hands and knees searching through the sagebrush, I came across two old tie wires and an occasional sliver of oxidized glass. Less than one mile from the visitor center, along the bed, I found 1/3 of a 731 threadless and a tie wire! These I treasure, as I realize I have a piece of glass that insulated the telegraph signal -- DOT, DOT, DOT -- DONE, as the spike was driven. 

By the way, there were two lines along the right-of-way -- the CPRR, which used CPRR ramshorns; and the UP, which, at least at Promontory, used 731's. The sledge hammer that hit the final blows was wired to the UP telegraph, so I can sit and hold the piece of wire, and realize that the very wire I hold once had three electrical impulses sent through it that touched off wild celebrations throughout the States. 

I also found a piece of an early crude threaded piece (a Later "replacement") and a base rim of an SCA piece of glass. By the way, it is a piece of SCA insulator rim. What could it be? I don't know. I do know, however, the whole section of railroad that went north of Salt Lake was abandoned in 1904 when the Lucin Cutoff (which went through the northern part of the lake) was built. Finally, the rarely used rails through Promontory were torn up in '42 for the war effort. 

So that is Promontory Point today. I strongly suggest if you are ever in the area to see it. It is well worth the trip. If you have a keen eye, you can still find chips of threadless all along the bed. I wouldn't doubt there are several whole insulators nearby. Finding them is mostly by chance, because they lie right on top of the rocky soil -- no digging is needed!