Golden Spike & Spiral Jetty

Wednesday, September 12th

This morning, I met up with the Spamalot Wardrobe Department (Wayne, Fran and Roy) for a road-trip adventure. We rented a car and drove 90 miles North and West of Salt Lake City to the Golden Spike National Historic Site in Promontory Summit, Utah. On May 10, 1869 the Intercontinental Railroad was completed at the site. The Union Pacific (coming West from Omaha) and the Central Pacific (coming East from Sacramento) met in the hills above the Great Salt Lake 6 years after the construction of the cross-country railway began. (Fun Fact #1: Until 1872, railroad passengers could not cross the Missouri River at Omaha on a train, they had to disembark, ride a ferry and then get on another train in Omaha for the rest of the journey.)

The site is in the middle of nowhere. The nearest town, Corrine, is 30 miles away. The railroads were racing for the Salt Lake Valley, as there was significant money to be made in controlling the trade in and out of the Salt Lake City region. Union Pacific won the race, but the Central Pacific set the record for most track laid in a single day: 10 1/4 miles of track were laid in 12 hours on April 28th, 1869 - a record that still stands today.

Much of the site has been recreated. The old line was decommissioned and the tracks were actually taken up in 1942 and recycled as part of the war effort. The grade and right-of-way remained, however, and in 1957 the National Historic Site was created. The tracks were relaid and a replica of the California Laurel-wood tie was placed at the site of the original. Two replica steam engines were commissioned and are drawn up nose to nose to recreate the event. The original Jupiter and Union Pacific Number 119 were each scrapped at the end of their useful lives, but are recreated to tolerances of 1/4 of an inch. They are spectacular machines and we got to see them run! When we arrived, they were idling nose to nose across the ceremonial tie, but just before we left, Engineers fired up both engines and took them for short trips. To see, hear, smell and feel these machines in operation was cool.

I used my new found ability to capture video on my cell phone to produce these short clips:

Union Pacific #119 has been stoked with coal and is building up a head of steam.

Backing away from the Jupiter.

Steaming past me on the passing track.

Creeping back into position: nose to nose with the Jupiter. (Fun Fact #2: Steam engines like these do not have brakes. Their tenders have mechanical brakes, but the engine is more than capable of dragging the tender. The force of the steam must be used to stop these engines, just as it drives them.)

We took lots and lots of photos between the four of us - I'll post the highlights as soon as I have them!

From the Golden Spike, we ventured even further into the middle of nowhere to see Spiral Jetty. Spiral Jetty was created in 1970 by the artist Robert Smithson. It is composed 6,550 pounds of earth and basalt rocks arranged in a 1500 foot long by 15 foot wide black stripe spiraling into the Great Salt Lake. The materials and the design are simple, the effect on me was anything but.

To reach the jetty, we drove 19 miles Southwest from the Golden Spike Site across open scrub land. The road began as a two lane, gravel country road and steadily devolved until it was an impassable jumble of stones. We passed over 4 cattle guards and across acres upon acres of grazing lands abutting the Great Salt Lake. The jetty is situated at Rozel Point at the base of a large hill composed of black basalt rock. The rock is obviously volcanic and is unlike anything else we saw on the trip. Big black hunks of rock protrude from the hill like cubes of sugar sprinkled over a child's birthday cake. The lake at Rozel Point is red due to some combination of algae and minerals. Today the lake was quite low, leaving the shoreline encrusted in inches of salt. Much of the jetty was on dry land also encrusted with inches of white and pink salt. Some puddles of pink water remained inside the jetty and just beyond its outer swirls. The whole effect was surreal.

The place didn't look like anywhere else on Earth I've ever been. It looked more like a picture from the Mars Rover. The ground was brilliant white crystals - so white and sparkly I almost couldn't look at it. It was solid, however, not sandy at all. The combination of weird nature and man-made art was provocative. I had no idea what to expect when we went to visit this place, but I was really moved by it. It was definitely worth the trek.

This is a sort of stock art history shot of the spiral jetty. It gives you the idea, but not the effect of the piece in person.

I shot this video standing out on the jetty and looking across the lake and then back toward Rozel Point.

Among the things that struck me about Spiral Jetty was its complete lack of any commercial angel. There was no one collecting admission to see it. There was no gift shop. There wasn't even a box to leave a donation. Just a very long, very bumpy and very dusty road leading to this amazing piece of art. It is unlike anything else I have experienced on the tour. There have been plenty of free things to see and to do, but they were all presented by an institution or commercial enterprise. Spiral Jetty was just there. Not that paying for something takes away from the experience, but it added to the profound nature of this experience that it was just there to be experienced.

We drove back toward civilization singing along to the songs of the 70's on XM channel 7. Every other song was some one's favorite... We had to pass by the plant where they make the rocket boosters for the Space Shuttle, there wasn't enough time to stop! We did pause long enough to enjoy some "home cookin'" at the Golden Spike Cafe in Corrine. We rolled back into Salt Lake City just in time to go to work.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable day. I had a great time with all three of the folks in the car with me. I also really enjoyed both of the sights we visited - on very different levels. A wonderful road-trip.

JV