I was able to head out on a road trip late this summer to the Golden Spike National Historic Park in Promontory, Utah.
This park centered around the site of the last spike driven in the US transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869.
Promontory is in the middle of nowhere but the museum is awesome!
Complete with two replica, working trains that they pull out and park for viewing daily. The original engines were both scrapped in 1903 before anyone realized their historical significance.
They do a short ceremony at 1pm but we were there around 11:30am and had to keep on truckin', so maybe next time.
The actual ceremonial spike they used in 1869 was immediately donated to Stanford University and is still on display there.
The last tie laid is still in place however.
This place was definitely worth the stop and actually much cooler than I thought it would be, my 17 year old daughter was quite impressed as well.
I told her she should come to the 200 year anniversary celebration in 2069 when she is 64. 😂