New sculpture celebrates transcontinental railroad

Brigham City • When two railroads met at northern Utah’s Promontory Summit in 1869, the country was joined from coast to coast for the first time — a connection sealed by a final spike, commonly known as the Golden Spike.

Thousands of workers — those formerly enslaved, immigrants, war veterans — had come together in one of the most ambitious projects of the 19th century. Now, more than 150 years later, a new monument and state park in northern Utah will tell that story.

Plans for the Golden Spike State Monument were unveiled late last month at 2000 W. Forest Street in Brigham city, where a 43-foot, gold-leafed, spike-shaped monument will stand permanently in honor of the thousands of workers who built the railroad.

“Working together, they were able to basically create something that was magnificent and literally changed the world,” said Doug Foxley, chair of the Golden Spike Foundation. “To me, this is a story about uniting. It’s more important now than ever that we talk about things that unify us instead of things that tear us apart.”

Growing up in the small town of Tremonton, Foxley was surrounded by everything Golden Spike, which helped him gain interest in the subject and eventually become involved in trying to memorialize it.

“You’d play the Golden Spike game,” he said, “Golden Spike burgers, this that and the other.”

He believes it’s a story that needs to be told — especially to Utahns, who live where the history was made.

The journey to bring the Golden Spike State Monument to life, he said, began with a vision shared by community leaders and historians who wanted to preserve the railroad’s story for future generations.

Paving the way

In 2024, the Utah Legislature approved a resolution creating the monument and state park. Since then, Box Elder County has partnered with Brigham City to maintain the site.

The existing Golden Spike National Historical Park, located about 70 miles west at Promontory Summit, preserves the original site where the two railroads met. Foxley hopes the new monument, closer to the freeway, will serve as a jumping-off point to encourage more visitors to explore both locations.

The towering spike-shaped monument created by sculptor Douwe Blumberg features 74 faces — from well-known figures like Abraham Lincoln and Brigham Young to the many unnamed workers who built the railroad.

One side of the monument depicts the Central Pacific company, made up primarily of Chinese workers. The opposite side features Union Pacific, representing a mix of Civil War veterans, Irish workers and formerly enslaved people. The third side highlights advancements in technology, while the fourth side portrays the impact the railroad had on Native Americans and the displacement it brought.

Blumberg said he wanted the monument to celebrate and remind viewers of the part of the railroad that doesn’t often get much attention — the vast number of nameless and faceless people who built it, swinging pickaxes in the desert. Between the two railroad companies, he said, there were thousands.

“People back then were just as human as we were, just as sensitive, just as prideful, just as valiant … ,” Blumberg said. “These were people with loves and hates and misgivings and fears and the same big old bundle of things that we struggle with.”

He hopes the sculpture reminds Utahns — especially the young — just how significant this moment in history was.

“This was their version,” he said, “of the moonshot.”

Robyn Kremer, president of the Golden Spike Foundation, said the new monument site — expected to open by fall 2026 — spans eight acres and is designed to immerse visitors in the history of the railroad. The park’s layout guides guests along a pathway that begins at a welcome center and leads to a statue of Abraham Lincoln, who played a role in enabling the railroad’s construction through the Pacific Railway Act of 1862.

Along the path, visitors will also see a picnic pavilion modeled after the snow sheds Chinese workers built in the Sierra Nevada to protect trains from avalanches.

“It’s just a wonderful way to keep the history going,” Kremer said. “It’s an important story. It changed everything from how we do business, how we move goods, how we pleasure travel, how we communicate. It’s a story that needs to live on. And it happened here.”

‘A journey of a lifetime’

Last year, James Van Orman drove the sculpture from Blumberg’s studio in Kentucky, making stops at schools along the way as part of the Driving of the Spike tour, which brought the monument to its permanent home.

“It’s been a journey of a lifetime,” Van Orman said. “It was a lot of joy to see kids that will probably never see this spike in their life ever again, and how it lit their faces up.”

Elizabeth Weight, a retired teacher and former state lawmaker who now leads tours at the Utah Capitol, joined him on the tour. She said it is vital for people — especially children — to understand the humanity behind the railroad’s story. The monument, she said, could serve as an ideal field trip destination for schools throughout the Beehive State.

“This was such a significant part of building this country,” she said, “and working people are still foundational to building this country.”

Weight said she hopes drivers who cruise down Interstate 15 and see the towering spike standing tall in the field will feel a spark of curiosity.

“Then they’ll learn more of the story of the railroad,” she said, “the story of the country, the story of people.”