“There are tons of events happening,” says Cindy Gubler, spokeswoman for Utah’s Transcontinental Railroad 150th Celebration Commission, also known as “Spike 150.”
Gubler says the Spike 150 website already lists about 100 events across Utah this spring to celebrate the sesquicentennial. They hope to top 150 events before May 10.
Some events are already underway. The Brigham Young University library in Provo has a exhibit titled “Golden Spike: 150 Years of Utah Railroad History” running from now until June. “The Race to Promontory” at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts features images of the first transcontinental railroad by Andrew Joseph Russell and Alfred A. Hart drawn from the Union Pacific Railroad Museum collection. The exhibit runs through May. “Chinese Helped Build the Railroad – The Railroad Helped Build America” is a special exhibit from Stanford University that is currently on display at Salt Lake City Viridian Library in West Jordan. And at Weber State University in Ogden, “Spike 50: The 1919 Parade in Ogden” looks at how the 50th anniversary of the golden spike was celebrated a century ago.
Although details are still being worked out about what the first week of May will look like, Gubler says it’s sure to be an exciting series of events centered around Ogden and Promontory. There are also plans for a fireworks show at dozens of railroad depots across the state on May 10.
For more information, go to spike150.org.
And some folks might want to lay in a healthy supply of this beer BEFORE the brewery and its many retailers are completely cleaned out; it used to be more widely available but now is reportedly only available in Utah:
http://www.uintabrewing.com/products/golden-spike
A similarly-named golden ale is brewed by Burton Bridge Brewery in Burton-on-Trent, England, but is not available commercially in North America.
The Metz Brewery in Omaha, Nebraska, and its later brand makers, also used to make a Golden Spike Beer, back in the 1930s. Also, the defunct Riverside Brewing of Riverside, Ca. made a Golden Spike Lager in the 1990s.