It would be true to say that this was probably not Carol's most favorite part of our trip but it was still worth the visit as the youngest van Leeuwen, Samuel loves trains and there was two fully operational steam trains there for him to see.

A "Last Spike" is the last and ceremonial spike driven specifically to mark the completion of a railroad line. The "Golden Spike" was the last spike driven to join the rails of the first transcontinental railroad across the US. It connected the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads on 10 May 1869 at Promontory Summit, Utah.

There is not much around there these days, well not that we could see but it was another small piece of American history for us to check out as we drove by. It is amazing how they capture and remember the multitude of events across there history like this. I don't think anyone could tell you where this occurred in Australia or if in fact it was even celebrated.

Two trains, one from each railroad company was present on the actual day the spike was driven. Both of these trains are long gone but two working replicas have been built and are on display here year round. After the ceremony the golden spike was donated to the Stanford Museum (now Cantor Arts Center). The one pictured below is a replica on display at the visitor center.