The Lost Spike

Here is a picture of the Lost Spike that is on display at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, California.

Although there is much confusion about the exact time and happenings of the Ceremony of the Last Spike it is known that when the transcontinental railroad was completed in May of 1869 the ceremony included the joining of the two rails with special spikes made of gold and silver.

The gold spike that was driven by Leland Stanford in the ceremony was one of two commissioned by a family who retained the second spike until recently when they transferred ownership to the California State Railroad Museum. One of the spikes was engraved with a date of May 8th, 1869 and the other with a date of May 10, 1869. The ceremony was originally set to take place on May 8th, so the spike with that date was taken to Promotory, Utah. However, the ceremony was delayed two days until May 10th because of a delay on the Union Pacific side and spike engraved with May 8th was used. The Lost Spike shown above has the correct date of May 10th, 1869 engaved on it.

Except for a couple of special events in which the spike was shown with an armed guard present, the spike has been on display to the public since the Labor Day Weekend of 2006. It is kept in a special display case that regulates humidity and temperature and every evening when the Museum closes, it is lowered into it's vault. It has same type of security system as the Declaration of Independence and cost the museum over $50,000. This was a requirement to show it to the public because it is a priceless artifact.

The final picture shows the display case after the museum has closed to the public.




Al Mollo
Connie Mollo
Cecilia, Tim & Julia Shinn
David Shinn on his 5th birthday

Mike Garcia
Jeff Brown
Robert "RC" Craven
John Nicholson

Pat Boyle
The empty case

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