Golden Spike Cultural Landscape Report

The Promontory Branch Line: 1905-1942

The line between Ogden and Lucin that crossed Promontory Summit after the creation of the Lucin Cutoff became known as the Promontory Branch. During this 37-year period, the railroad performed routine maintenance on this branch (Strack 1997:48). The number of times that a train whistle blew at Promontory Station gradually lessened as train traffic decreased from 10 trains daily to a once-weekly mixed train (passenger and freight) that traveled the entire branch and
another mixed train that ran between Corinne and Kelton three times a week, on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Freight traffic was primarily outbound. During serious periods of drought in the late 1920s and again in the mid-i 930s, however, the trains delivered emergency supplies of water along the line. In 1928, trains hauled 435 tons of water to the area; in 1934, the quantity reached 269 tons (Strack 1997:49).

By the late 1930s, the number of trains using the Promontory Branch had diminished even further. From December 1937 to June 1938, a mixed train covered the route between Lucin and Ogden only on Wednesdays, and another, sometimes called the "Alkali Flyer" or the "Sage Brush Special," went as far as Kelton from Ogden twice a week. For a year following June 1938, only the Wednesday train ran. From June 1939 to March 1940, the train no longer went as far west as Lucin, running only once a week between Kelton and Ogden. Finally, from March, 1940 until the line's abandonment in 1942, an on-call, freight-only service operated on Wednesdays (Anderson 1968:10; Strack 1997:49).

Types of freight reflected the predominately agricultural nature of the economy in the Promontory area. Shipments out of the area during this period included wheat and sugar beets, sheep and cattle, as well as asphalt from a company located near Rozel. Promontory Station served as one of the places for loading grain. In addition to emergency deliveries of water, shipments to the area primarily brought hay and grain to supplement the sparse grazing resources characteristic of the arid environment (Strack 1997:48-49).

During the branch's last years in operation, special passenger trains were occasionally run, including groups of rabbit hunters that took excursion trains across the Promontory line. Also, twice in 1938, and once in 1939, the Civilian Conservation Corps took groups of passengers on special trains over the Promontory Branch (Strack 1997:49).

Shortly after the turn of the century, the building that housed the Golden Spike Hotel became the Houghton's store. In addition to being the general store where one could buy everything from tobacco to socks to cured meat to wine, this building continued to serve as the depot and post office, as well as a boarding house (Anderson 1968:8; Finn 1974:24). Sometime between 1905 and 1907 Frederick Houghton bought the business (Ayres 1982:113). One of his daughters, Bernice Houghton Gerristen, later remembered that the train then arrived at noon and that on every Thanksgiving and Christmas her mother always set pies out: one for the engineer and one for the baggage car workers (1974:11).

W. A. Clay, who was born at Promontory Station in 1884, was the son of the night telegraph operator there. The family soon moved to Blue Creek after he was born, but he noted that the area remained sparsely settled: "The closest neighbors were two and a half miles away, and then they averaged up to ten or fifteen miles away. Nearly all of them were Mormons. All up and down the east side of Promontory there were half a dozen ranches, and they were all Mormons" (1974:3).

Della Owens, daughter of Hans Ethelbert Larson, was born at Brigham City in 1909, although her family lived at Promontory at the time. The Larsons had been there for three years by then. Their ranch, where they raised both horses and cattle and had a dry-farming grain operation, was located "just east, down the hill and [was] the first place south on the mountain." She later recalled that all the railroad buildings had been painted yellow over the original red paint. She described the section house as "just a big two story building," while the bunk houses were "low houses made out of ties" with 7-foot ceilings and flat roofs that may have been made out of dirt. She remembered area schools, including one at Promontory Station that was probably located south and west of the tracks (Owens 1974:1, 5-7, 13).

Della's sister, Mrs. Jennings Phillips, remembered riding in the train one time. She described its process up the slope in this way: "Going up the grade, one little old engine puffing away with a lot of smoke trailing it and maybe two or three cars." Although the train only ran three times a week then, its schedule was regular enough so that "we knew the time of day by when that train came" (Phillips 1974:12). Like others with memories of their childhood in the Promontory area, her lasting impression was one of the remoteness of the place. Characterizing the area as "a lot of nothingness," she recalled that the "nearest house we could see was five miles or more to the south" (1974:2).

Growing up near Promontory Station, Della Owens remembered that no one then placed any special emphasis on the history of the joining of the rails of the first transcontinental railroad at the summit. Nor did anyone pay any particular attention to the spot where the golden spike had been driven: "Oh, we knew [about] it," she explained, "but there was no notoriety other than just in our little area there. Nobody ever talked about it at that time" (1974:23). This lack of emphasis perhaps explains why various sources provide different dates as to exactly when the Southern Pacific placed the white obelisk monument on the north side of the tracks to commemorate the hiving of the last spike (Figure 19). Bernice Gibbs Anderson, who spent most of her childhood on a ranch located west of Corinne, dates the erection of this monument during the years 1914-1915 (Anderson 1968:2, 4). This memory conflicts, however, with the original plans, which are dated May, 1916, and are currently archived at Golden Spike National Historic Site. Bernice Houghton Gerristen remembered that the monument was located about "halfway between the section house and the store" that her family ran, and was therefore located close to the junction point (1974:7; NPS 1988:8). On a granite block embedded in the concrete obelisk are inscribed the words:

Last Spike. Completing First Transcontinental Railroad.
Driven at this Point. May 10th 1869.

Figure 19. The obelisk placed by the Southern Pacific in its original location. Source: GOSP Historic Photo Collection, GOSP NHS.