Golden Spike Cultural Landscape Report

Scope of Work and Methodology

Preparation of this CLR follows the completion of Levels I and II of the Cultural Landscape Inventory (CLI). The scope of work included both archival and field research. Initially, project team members conducted a background study and literature search. The background study and literature search consisted of reviewing existing National Park Service files, documents, and research reports for the Golden Spike National Historic Site as well as conducting a brief background study of the settlement history of the Promontory Summit and other Utah areas. The background study involved examining regional and local histories, personal journals and accounts of early expeditions and settlement in the study area.

Archival Research/Document Collection

Ann Emmons, HRA Associate Historian, was assigned the task of conducting research and collecting documents for this study. Emmons collected documents from Golden Spike NHS headquarters where she reviewed cultural resource reports, historical photograph files, Central Files [including D-series (construction and maintenance), H-series (History), K-series (Interpretation) L-series (Land) and N-Series (Natural Resources)], and Research Files (including diaries, memoirs, and oral-history interviews collected at other repositories, archival indices, and, interpretive brochures.

Emmons also reviewed documents from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Archives and Library, in Salt Lake City. Specific collections included Brigham Young's ingoing and outgoing correspondence, 1864-1870, Ward and Stake records for Brigham City, Box Elder, and Promontory, 1884-; and miscellaneous journals and memoirs of Mormons employed under Young's grading contracts. Because the Brigham Young correspondence files are restricted, Emmons generated a list of potential research materials by searching the annotated index for the key words: employment; railroad; railway; Union; Central; grading; Durant. Copies of these materials were made available to Emmons to review at the archival facility, where she was allowed to take notes on the information contained in the documents.

In addition, this project benefited from research completed by Michael Polk, Principal Archaeologist/Owner of Sagebrush Consultants, L.L.C. Polk provided HRA with material gathered at the California State Archives, Sacramento; Oakland Museum of California, Oakland; the California State Railroad Museum, Sacramento, and Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) Valuation Reports ordered from the National Archives, Washington, D. C. and from the Bureau of Land Management, Salt Lake District Office.

While in Salt Lake City, Emmons also conducted research at the University of Utah Archives and the Utah State Historical Society. At the former, she focused on the Golden Spike Oral History Collection (MS 95), a series of 27 interviews conducted in 1974 and 1975 with former Promontory residents and railroad employees. These interviews provide information on land use and development in the immediate vicinity of the NHS from ca. 1910 ca. 1945. At the latter, she reviewed the extensive photographic collection including copies of images archived at the Huntington, Stanford, Utah State University (Logan), the Union Pacific archives and other repositories, and images donated by area residents. She also reviewed journals, memoirs, and autobiographies by railroad laborers Arthur Ferguson, Jesse W. Fox, Hyrum Belnap, Goudy E. Hogan, and Milando Pratt.

Emmons also researched and collected documents from the Union Pacific Collection at the Durham Western Heritage Museum, Omaha, Nebraska; from the J. D. and Francis Casement, and Leonard Eicholtz collections at the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming; the Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, Nebraska; and the Council Bluffs Public Library, Council Bluffs, Iowa. Finally, limited materials were collected from the National Park Service's Technical Information Center.

Project personnel made several trips to Golden Spike NHS in order to document the existing conditions of the landscape and evaluate its integrity with reference to its historical appearance. Peggy Nelson of Landscape Systems made a total of four research trips, Janene Caywood of HRA, made one trip to the site. Field research entailed the use of historic maps, aerial photographs, and period photographs (where available) to locate landscape features including the railroad grades, spoil and borrow areas, sidings, camp sites, and native and ornamental vegetation patterns. A pedestrian level reconnaissance survey was conducted over much of the study area and features were documented with black and white print film as well as some color slide film.

The majority of the historic and existing conditions site maps were prepared by NIPS staff in the Intermountain Region Geographic Information Systems office. Mr. Dave Hammond and others located the numerous landscape features using a global positioning system (GPS) and incorporated the data into geographic imaging systems (GIS). The authors worked closely with NHS Superintendent, Bruce Powell, National Park Service archeologist, Adrienne Anderson and Dave Hammond to identify the list of chronology maps that would be prepared for the cultural landscape report and the various features that would be included for each of the different time periods. The NPS staff provided the site and chronology maps to the authors for use in conducting the site analysis and evaluation.

Data used to produce the maps in this report were generated by various technologies and reside at various scales. The following data were developed using GPS technology and can be assumed to have accuracy within 10 meters: railroad grades, railroad track, railroad grade features, archeological site datum points, historic spoil piles and borrow pits, and the roads within the authorized boundary of Golden Spike National Historic Site. Data for the Authorized National Historic Site (NHS) boundary were digitized from the NPS Land survey. The current NHS boundary and the roads that lie outside of the NHS authorized boundary are 1:24,000 Digital Line Graph (DLG) data produced by the U.S. Geological Survey. Finally, the data representing streams, lakes, and ponds are 1:100,000 DLG data produced by the U.S. Geological Survey. Data reside within the Universal Transverse Mercatur gird coordinate system, zone 12, Nad83 datum.

Description of Study Boundaries

The boundary of the study area corresponds, in general, to the 2735.28 acres included within the authorized boundary of the historic site. Of the 2735.28 acres within the authorized boundary, 2203.20 acres are held by the National Park Service in fee simple title. The remaining 532.08 acres remain in private ownership divided among 16 separate parcels. Although the documentation of cultural features was limited to the area within the authorized boundary, lands outside of this boundary were considered when they contribute to the historical setting of the site — especially in the vicinity of the Last Spike Site.

Golden Spike National Historic Site is located within the Great Basin Physiographic Province — that portion of land lying between the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the west and the Rocky Mountains to the east. Although the amount of annual precipitation varies by locality, the Great Basin is generally characterized as an arid region, with hot dry summers and cold winters. The area receives between 8 and 12 inches of precipitation annually, most of which falls in the form of winter snow.

The Last Spike Site, the focus of interpretation, is located at Promontory Summit, the highest point within a wide, basin-like pass through the Promontory and North Promontory Mountains, which border a northern arm of the Great Salt Lake. There is little surface water in the vicinity of the NHS. Blue Creek, located at the eastern edge of the site represents the nearest perennial drainage. Springs emanating from travertine formations exist in the region; one of the more notable is located at Rozel Point, 15 miles southwest of Promontory Summit. The notable absence of both surface water and the difficulty in locating productive groundwater wells has affected the pattern of cultural development within and adjacent to the site.

Current vegetation within and adjacent to the site includes a variety of grasses, both native and introduced, several types of sagebrush, snakeweed, and rabbitbrush. Junipers are located in areas of higher moisture accumulation, such as the higher elevation drainages in the mountains that surround the Last Spike Site. Wildlife within the park includes jack rabbits, kangaroo rats, coyotes, badgers, marmots, and mule deer. In addition, ring-necked pheasant, Hungarian partridge, and chucker, were introduced to the area during the historic period. A variety of raptors and owls also frequent the area, and it is possible that less frequently sighted animals such as cougar, bobcat, fox, porcupine, and antelope may be found in the more remote sections of the park.

Cultural resources specifically related to the construction of the transcontinental railroad and the driving of the last spike include a 15.5 mile section of the 250 mile "parallel line" constructed by two rival railroad companies — the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad. The parallel grades incorporate many engineered structures including a variety of culverts, trestles, rock cuts and earthen fill. The by-products of grade construction, such as soil and rock borrow areas and spoil piles, are located adjacent to the grade. In addition, this segment includes two merger points — locations where the CP constructed grade and the UP constructed grade met or merged into one alignment. The archaeological remains of approximately 31 worker campsites and supply camps, including the site of the "Hell on Wheels" town of Dead Fall, also are located in areas adjacent to the grade.

Within the 15.5-mile section of parallel grades the Last Spike Site is of particular importance, since it represents the formal joining of the CP and UP tracks. In this area the park service has reconstructed the grades and track of the UP and CP railroads, the UP Wye and a section of both the UP and CP telegraph lines. Evidence of later periods of development — principally associated with the commercial and residential development of Promontory Station (the settlement that grew around the short-lived transfer point and the later section station), can also be found in the area, although these resources are principally archaeological in character. Exceptions include a limited amount of ornamental vegetation remaining from the settlement period. The National Park Service has also constructed a visitor center! administrative office on the site.

Summary of Findings

As a result of the work conducted to complete this CLR, the periods of significance for Golden Spike NHS have been revised from those listed in the 1988 National Register registration form. Three periods of significance have been identified. The first corresponds to the period between February of 1869 and the first months of 1870. This represents the period of intensive construction activity through the Promontories, initiated with the CP's beginning work on the Big Fill and ending with the formal changing of the transfer point from Promontory to Ogden. Within this period, May 10, 1869, the day that the last spike was driven in the transcontinental line, is considered a date of primary significance for the historical site. The second period of significance extends from May 10, 1869 through September 18, 1904, when this segment of the transcontinental railroad was part of the main transcontinental line. The third period of significance encompasses the period between 1904 and 1942. After completion of the Lucin Cutoff in 1904, the line became known as the Promontory Branch or the Promontory Line, and was used for local traffic only. Although no longer a component of the transcontinental railroad, the branch line continued to be important to local residents, who depended upon it for both passenger and freight service.

The cultural landscape of Golden Spike NHS consists primarily of the structural components of the railroad grades constructed by the CP and UP railroad companies. The landscape characteristics most applicable to this inventory unit include natural features and systems, circulation, topography, buildings and structures and archaeological sites. Although clustering was an important landscape characteristic at various times during the historical period, this characteristic is no longer evident within the landscape corridor. Rather, the former clusters of buildings and structures are now manifest as archaeological sites. Similarly, the historic land uses directly associated with the railroad have become obsolete; the current land use, as an interpretive unit of the National Park Service, is compatible with the preservation of the cultural landscape.

The overall historical integrity of the cultural resources within Golden Spike NHS varies from area to area. The east and west slopes retain evidence of the structures and other features that contribute to one's understanding of the historically significant events that led to the completion and subsequent operation of the transcontinental railroad. However, the summit area and specifically the Last Spike Site no longer contain any above-ground historic resources. The thrust of the NHS interpretation efforts at the summit is to recreate the feelings associated with the May 10th, 1869 driving of the last spike, principally by protecting the surrounding viewshed from additional development. Preservation of extant historic resources (including structures and archaeological sites), as well as partial reconstruction of the historic scene at the Last Spike Site, are the primary treatment strategies for Golden Spike NHS.