Some people just don't know their history

[SchemerBob]

I was watching "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" repeats on GSN a few nights ago and a woman got to an $8000 question that was, "What was the last spike driven on the Trancontinential Railroad made out of?" And you know what, THIS PERSON DIDN'T KNOW! She called her dad and HE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW!! Then she asked the audience and like 80% said that the spike was made out of gold. DUH!!

I know that not everyone knows everything about trains, but that is, or, at least SHOULD be in every history book! That question was so easy it just made you sick that she didn't know it!

[CopCarSS]

Actually, it was only gold plated. Do you know what would have happened to a spike made out of gold? It wouldn't be very useful as a spike, that's for sure.

[DrummingTrainfan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by CopCarSS

Actually, it was only gold plated. Do you know what would have happened to a spike made out of gold? It wouldn't be very useful as a spike, that's for sure.

As true as that is it's still saddening. What's next? People not knowing the first transcontinental railroad...the first RR in America? Even though it is trains it is also American history that everyone should know.

[adrianspeeder]

Doesn't suprise me, but aren't you a little wound up over a trivia fact?

I figure if we know it, thats all that matters.

Adrianspeeder

[Anonymous]

And who was the man that did it?

Don't use google, now...

[espeefoamer]

It was an unknown track worker. Several of the officials tried to drive in the spike,but they all missed. So someone was pulled off the track gang to do the job.

[bobwilcox]

QUOTE: Originally posted by CopCarSS

Do you know what would have happened to a spike made out of gold? ..

It is on display at Stanford University.

[Modelcar]

.....The word that is posted above of a track worker driving the spike is the story I've read somewhere in history....The officals probably were too drunk to even see the spike....But all seriousness, in thinking of the younger generations not knowing of the golden spike, etc....I'd say many of what ever generations don't even know what railroads ARE.....Probably if asked about railroads purpose now, there would just be a puzzled look on their faces....

[Train Guy 3]

Wait a minute. [:O] We built a railroad across the country? Was this recently?[%-)]

[Anonymous]

Waaddda ya mean "They don't know who it was..."

Wait... are we speaking about the same RR?

[Junctionfan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by CopCarSS

Actually, it was only gold plated. Do you know what would have happened to a spike made out of gold? It wouldn't be very useful as a spike, that's for sure.

Some would have stole it, go to Vegas for the booze, women and Black Jack.[:D]

[Anonymous]

This is what happens when revisionist histories are all that are available in the public schools. Some go so far as to minimize the contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King under the theory that impersonal forces determine outcomes, not people. (You can imagine the embarrassment caused by the like of James J. Hill.)

The children of the future will never have heard of land grants, homesteading, land-grant universities or the Credit Mobilier, but they will have Marilyn Monroe's filmography down cold.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan

QUOTE: Originally posted by CopCarSS

Actually, it was only gold plated. Do you know what would have happened to a spike made out of gold? It wouldn't be very useful as a spike, that's for sure.

Some would have stole it, go to Vegas for the booze, women and Black Jack.[:D]

Awww, forget the booze and the black jack. [;)] [:D] [8D]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by CopCarSS

Actually, it was only gold plated. Do you know what would have happened to a spike made out of gold? It wouldn't be very useful as a spike, that's for sure.

I believe it was gold, and not just gold plated. There was a hole prepared in the tie for the spike and the spike was just gently tapped into it. There were also a couple other spikes used in the ceremony, and one of these was plated, but the one engraved "Last Spike" was gold. After these spikes were driven the spikes and tie were removed and replaced by a regular tie and spikes. The last of these iron spikes was the one wired up to the telegraph line to announce the completion.

[Clutch Cargo]

At the Ceremony, Senator Leeland Stanford of California representing the Central Pacific drove the Gold Spike,and missed at his first swing, to the delight of the workers present, and the Nation.(The spike was wired directly to the telegraph.)..:-)
Two spikes, one solid gold one solid silver in a pre-drilled Laurel tie
Niether one was plated.

the silver one is at stanford.(He had HUGE inteests in the Central Pacific and the Comstock Lode). I can`t remember where the Gold one is.

Of course they were all drunk......Thomas Durrant had just been released from being kidnaped by Get`em Youngs thugs on the way to the ceremony. :-)

once the UP paid the wages due to the Mormon boys they let him go.
the final spike was scheduled to be driven on May 8th 1869.
However due to the kidnaping it was postponed to May 10th. :-)

The workers were all out of a job the next day....

Drunk.............I sure hope they all were. It was an impossible job.
......Well Done Boys!!


Kurt

[Anonymous]

I would not worry about it too much, there is alot of history that lives in the books.

Occasionally I get strange looks from the younger generation when they hear of things that were in history long before they were concieved. For example.. "Full and Bye" meaning a tall ship under all sail square into the wind on her best course. First would have to explain what a tall ship is and move from there...you can fill a text book with sailing alone.

I have suspected schools of cranking out generic textbooks that does not offend anyone and does little to represent what actually was like "In the good old days" but I better leave it at that.. that is probably worth a whole thread on it's down.

I am sorry the contestant and the audiance did not know the answer. I thought it was gold plated as well but not sure. The story of the track gangs who built the railroads is a story of human life in all it's good and bad. I think it was the Irish and the Chinese along with everyone else from Tycoon down to the mess boy that played thier parts getting this great land connected.

[Clutch Cargo]

Now my memory kicks in to gear /sigh/.
I remember reading long ago that the gold and silver ones on public display are replicas. (it would be awfully hard to plate something before electricity generation by Westinghouse and Edison).

I hope the original spikes and Tie are in the care of the Smithsonian.

If the thread is alive for 2 or mor days I will call them and email them to find out for sure.

No Googling my brothers...Lets do this the old/sure way.

Kurt

[Anonymous]

Oh, I think we can keep it alive for 2 more days. [;)]

[dehusman]

The sad part where is many history books say the spike was driven was Promontory Point, UT.

Dave H.

[locomutt]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jhhtrainsplanes

Oh, I think we can keep it alive for 2 more days. [;)]

Why Not ! We keep breathing life into ones that
should have been buried before they were born.[%-)]

[mersenne6]

I wouldn't sweat the load on what is or isn't in the history books in school. From what I've seen of the history books my son uses today they don't differ much from what they were when I was in school back in the mid 1950's.

I remember only too well some of the encounters with the "facts" that I had back then. One week in 1958 I read a biography of Thomas Edison. That weekend the TV had run some old movie about Edison (I think the title was Edison the Man but I can't be sure). Our family was the only one in the area without a TV so I missed this marvelous bit of "history". In any event, apparently there is a scene in the movie where young Tom makes nitro glycerine and the conductor discovers this. Apparently they stop the train on a bridge and lower his concoction over the side and then run for it and the bridge is blown just as the train clears the bridge.

The next day in class everyone, including the teacher, was marveling at how Edison, among his many achievements, had invented nitro glycerine as a boy.
I was the only one who had not seen the movie and, as I discovered, I was the only one in the class who had actually read anything about Tom Edison. I became the lone dissenter in a room full of people whose knowledge of Edison had been formed by some old movie from the 1930's or 40's. I had to appeal to my biography since the textbook didn't have much beyond the lightbulb and a brief mention of Tom being grabbed by his ears by a conductor when he was working as a news butcher. The sad part was since I had returned the book to the library I didn't have anything tangible to show them and no one, including the teacher, believed me.

[mhurley87f]

QUOTE: Originally posted by kurtconi

Now my memory kicks in to gear /sigh/.
I remember reading long ago that the gold and silver ones on public display are replicas. (it would be awfully hard to plate something before electricity generation by Westinghouse and Edison).

I hope the original spikes and Tie are in the care of the Smithsonian.

If the thread is alive for 2 or mor days I will call them and email them to find out for sure.

No Googling my brothers...Lets do this the old/sure way.

Kurt

That's true for electro-plating, but given the right fluxing materials, hot-dipping in molten metal has been viable for a long time, as in Tinplating and Galvanising.

[ndbprr]

By the way, the gold spike is in the posession of Stanford University and to the best of my knowledge can be viewed with proper arrangements.

[eolafan]

This is what is called "The dumbing of America". Very sad indeed!

[Anonymous]

Interesting! I probably would have said 'Promontory Point', also, rather than 'Promontory Summit'. There is seemingly still some confusion about the ceremonial spikes and crosstie. Two seemingly authoritative sources (National Parks Service and Stanford University) even differ in their accounts. See these:

http://www.nps.gov/gosp/history/spike.html

http://ccva.stanford.edu/spike.html

Incidentally, for Kurtconi, above, purely mechanical and/or chemical techniques for plating gold on base metals have been around for over a thousand years. Electroplating is obviously only a couple of hundred years old.

Dave Fleming

[CopCarSS]

QUOTE: Originally posted by DNutley
Electroplating is obviously only a couple of hundred years old.

Dave Fleming

Not necessarily true. Ancient "batteries" have been found in Mesopotamia and Egypt. It is believed that they were used to supply electrical current for electroplating purposes. I've got an article at home on it. I'll see if I can dig it up tonight.

Chris
Denver, CO

[Clutch Cargo]

I remember reading about those ancient batteries years ago.
Absouloutely Facinating.

I really tried to do this without Gooling ( I have an email out to the smithsonian) but the story from the National Park Service is the one I want to believe. http://www.nps.gov/gosp/history/spike.html

I was at promotory summer of 97.
What a grand time for a railfan.
Highly recomended.

Kurt

[coborn35]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Modelcar

.....The word that is posted above of a track worker driving the spike is the story I've read somewhere in history....The officals probably were too drunk to even see the spike....But all seriousness, in thinking of the younger generations not knowing of the golden spike, etc....I'd say many of what ever generations don't even know what railroads ARE.....Probably if asked about railroads purpose now, there would just be a puzzled look on their faces....

Hey!!! We arent STUPID!!! We all know what railroads are, and im not just talking about railfans!!!
Maybe if you dont just look at the juvenile deliquents you would see who we really are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[coborn35]

Sorry, I dont really want to take away from this thread but age discrimination is wrong and it gets me p***ed off.
They took the spike out right away after right?

[Clutch Cargo]

Read the whole site at the link I posted coborn.
Lots of history there.

Kurt
from souptown.