efforts in World War II.ĭriving spikes by hand is a learned skill. Everything useful, including spikes, was scrapped to support U.S. Southern Pacific bypassed the area in 1903 and the track was torn up in 1942 with an “Undriving of the Last Spike” ceremony. This spike is now at the California State Railroad Museum.įollowing the last spike ceremony, the special tie and spikes were removed and replaced with standard equipment. It was secretly kept by the family of David Hewes, the financier who thought up the Golden Spike, until 2005. It is now at the Union Pacific Railroad Museum in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and is on permanent loan from a museum in New York.Ī fifth spike, identical to the famous golden one, was cast at the same time. It also resides at Stanford University.Īrizona supplied an iron, silver, and gold spike. Craftsmen forged it from 25 troy ounces of silver. The state of Nevada supplied a silver spike. The San Francisco News Letter newspaper supplied a second gold spike that has been lost to history. It was cast of 14.03 troy ounces of 17.6-karat (73-percent) copper-alloyed gold and is now displayed at Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. The famous golden Last Spike, as it has come to be known, was cast by the William T.
The famed Golden Spike was actually one of four, driven into a tie of polished California laurel. Let’s take a look at this important hardware. Spikes date back to the first railroads in the 1830s and are still the fastener of choice for most North American railroads.
The Golden Spike of the first transcontinental railroad was but one of millions in the nearly 2,000-mile route between Sacramento, Calif., and Omaha, Neb.
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