![]() ![]() So people can still get a chance to see that historical reenactment take place at the site.Highlights include: Remarks by Dignitaries "On Saturdays and holidays throughout the summer they do the historical reenactments typically at 11:00 o'clock and 1:00 o'clock on those days. “The locomotives will continue to operate throughout the summer so every day visitors would be able to see those locomotives in operation," Blanchard said. The celebration will continue on a smaller scale past the weekend and throughout the summer. There will be historical exhibits out there talking about the history of the place.” There will be STEM activities out there for the kids in partnership with Hill Air Force Base. "The other festivities happening, the historical reenactment, the as one performances, the festival area which is going to include a frontier village. Really the only different between coming on the 10th and coming the other two days is that we're not going to have all the dignitaries out here having special remarks and the keynote speaker," Blanchard explained. “There are still parking passes to be purchased for the 11th and the 12 th. May 10 th, the actual date of the celebration is sold out, but she says there will be plenty of opportunities on the 11 th and 12 th to celebrate. She expects visitation will be high for the rest of the year as well.īlanchard says they’ve been preparing for the celebration for the past two years. There's quite a bit to see and do here in the park.”Īlthough the average yearly visitation numbers are 60,000 people, Blanchard expects over the three days of the celebration visitation could potentially reach tens of thousands. So, it just kind of incorporates a little bit more than just that one site. We really are, you can see a lot of the construction features that took place by both railroad companies that were building grade through this area. Sometimes I think that's what visitors think when they hear this site, but when they hear the park then they think well maybe there's a little bit more to the place then just one thing. You often just breeze right past those things and not very many people stop. "A lot of times when people think of a historic site, they think of something along the roadside. ![]() “It probably will increase visitations out here to the park," Blanchard said. We also have a hike in the park as well that hike takes you out onto the big fill which was an area, a big ravine, that was filled in by the central Pacific to place the railroad grade and track on top of.”īlanchard explains they don’t have any upgrades or expansions planned at the park but the upgrade from a national historic site to a national historic park will bring about change. Other things to see in the park are two driving tours where you can drive on the original grade of the railroad. "Besides checking out some of the exhibits that we have inside the visitor’s center. “Usually the sight everybody wants to come and see," Blanchard continued. The visitor center was completed in 1969 in time for the 100-year anniversary of the completion of the railroad.”īlanchard says the location most popular in the park is the actual site of where the golden spike was driven into the ground located directly behind the visitor center. It officially became part of the National Park Service in 1965. In ‘42 they actually came out here and pulled up all the rails so they could repurpose it in military depots during the war. "Once it was no longer necessary to have the rails out here, they stopped using it. “The railroad came through here for approximately 38 years," Blanchard explained. The park’s Special Events Coordinator Julie Blanchard outlines the timeline of the site. The site where the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 has seen plenty of changes over the past 150 years. Park employees has been plenty busy preparing for three days of celebration at the park. As part of the 150 th anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad a lot of attention has been turned to the Golden Spike National Historical Park. ![]()
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