Tuesday, August 4, 2009

August 4, 2009

City of Rocks, Golden Spike

Yesterday was a travel day that included a couple of National ‘Spots’ and a bit of reminiscing.  We drove southwest to Hagerman, ID.  The visitors center for the Hagerman Fossil Beds is there.  We studied the exhibits a while and chatted with the ranger.  Turns out that center is also the visitor center for Minidoka NHS.  Minidoka was an internment camp during WWII.  Similar to Manzinar in California’s Owens Valley.  We chatted some more about that and then moved on.  We chose to drive on the same road we traveled several years ago.  Very picturesque still.  We made our way to a RV park north of Delco, ID.  Very nice park.  One of the nicest we have seen except for one large distraction.  The park is about 100 yards from an Interstate freeway and probably the noisiest we have been in.  Some day we will find a park that has it all.

Today we left early and went south to City of Rocks.  This area has large rocks and rocky hills that stick out of the surrounding landscape.  Very popular with rock climbers.  The area was a major landmark for pioneers traveling the California Trail. 

Back east and south to Golden Spike National Historic ‘Place’.  Site of completion of Transcontinental Railroad.  Interesting to wander around and read all the info spots.  Ranger at front desk gave us an orientation talk and pointed out the ‘replica’ of the golden spike on display.  He told us the original spike was at Stanford University.  I didn’t tell him that I grew up in the shadow of Stanford University and had seen the original golden spike many times.

This is an exact replica (with a couple safety changes) of the Union Pacific engine at the driving of the last spike.  There is an exact replica of the Central Pacific engine also that is normally on display but was undergoing maintenance today.

This is not a static display. A couple of time a day they drive the engine up and down the track.  We didn’t stay for demo.

Here is replica of telegraph that paralleled tracks.  Every day the telegraph line was extended to keep up with rack construction assuring communication with people in east and west of the country who were closely following the progress.

View west down original Central Pacific track.

Ceremonial last tie.  Note ties on each side.  Ties on left (west) were laid by Central Pacific.  Ties on the right (east) were placed by Union Pacific.  The Central Pacific produced all their ties  in a lumber mill, hence they were all uniform in size with sharp, crisp edges.  The Union Pacific ties were all hand hewn.  Basically logs with two flat sides.

 

Forgot to mention, on our way to turnoff to Golden Spike site we passed a massive complex of buildings and bunkers that covered the hillside for several miles.  It was labeled ATK.  There was a sign that indicated ‘Missile Display’ ahead.  Sure enough we passed an outdoor display of various missiles.  Looks like this is the place that makes the solid propellant rockets for NASA and other things.  As we were leaving Golden Spike road we saw a series of very small rockets launched in series.  Kind of like 4th of July in the daytime.  Pretty neat.



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