September 1, 2007

September 1, 2007

From Brigham City, UT we backtracked northwest thirty miles to Promontory Summit, a desolate area north of the Great Salt Lake. Here history was made in May of 1869. The National Park Service commemorates the event with its Golden Spike Historic Site. I was thinking that this was going to be just a plaque in the desert. Instead Aimee and I are both pleasantly surprised how nice it is.

Abraham Lincoln, in 1862, in the middle of the Civil War, signed a bill authorizing a rail line to be built across the US. When the Civil War ended and men and materials became available, a race to construct the line began. The Union Pacific worked east from Sacramento and the Central Pacific raced west from Omaha. They met here and during a ceremony drove a golden rail spike to officially complete the uniting of America. The visitor center here does a good job explaining how the real story was much more complicated and infinitely more fascinating. Besides the interesting exhibits, we listen to a ranger talk and even attend a lengthy reenactment of the completion ceremony. Aimee and I left very pleased we made the trip. As an added bonus we experienced our first earthquake. It happened while we were listening to the ranger talk. The building shook like a train was going by. We later found out it was a 3.7 magnitude centered very near here. I have newfound respect for how damaging a big one would be. A 3.7 is tiny and yet shook the room. A 5.7 would be 100 times bigger! Impossible to imagine!

On the return trip we made a brief stop at Thiokol’s Rocket display. In front of one of their buildings they have examples of many of the rockets they have built. The centerpiece, and their most famous, dominates the display. It is their solid rocket booster that helps lift the Space Shuttle. It is huge. Aimee makes some wise crack about “rocket science” and we retrace our path back to I15, where we drive south to Salt Lake City and stay at a packed KOA campground. Since everything is looking jammed we make plans to stay here two nights. We will both be glad when the holiday is over and we can roam as we please. For those looking for a business that is booming, profitable, and relatively easy to enter, open an RV campground.