Nostalgia & History > Promontory: Silly to Serious

The other night my wife and I watched the 1939 black and white epic movie Union Pacific directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Joel McCrea, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Preston and Brian Donlevy.  I had forgotten how corny and silly it is, especially Stanwyck’s phony Irish accent as McCrea’s love interest.  The movie tells the story of building the first transcontinental Railroad with plenty of gun play, Indian raids and of course, train wrecks.  

The movie works hard at recreating a Hollywood version of the last spike ceremony at Promontory, exaggerating the supposed incident where officials kept missing the spike until it was finally driven in with one mighty blow.  DeMille supposedly borrowed the actual gold spike for the scene but I can imagine the former director of the UP Museum, the late Don Snoddy, cringing at the idea of hitting such a precious artifact with a spike maul.  It was Don,  by the way, who gathered the three ceremonial spikes for display at the 125th annivesary celebration of the last spike ceremony at Promontory in 1994.

I am also very familiar with Promontory as the regional director of public relations and advertising in Salt Lake City.  I attended the re-enactment ceremonies there in 1980, 81 and 82 as UP’s representative.   My wife and I sat on the dais each year so I could join the Southern Pacific Representative from Ogden in laying a wreath commemorating the workers who lost their lives building the railroad.  In 1982 I was also invited to make some remarks.

All of this prompted me to pull my copy of EMPIRE EXPRESS by David Hayward Bain from the shelf and thumb through it again.        I consider this book the best history written on building the railroad as it covers both Central Pacific and Union Pacific in fascinating, but very readable detail.  

I started to catch up on behind the scenes struggles in California and Washington, D,C. when I came to page 343 which contained this paragraph:  “When  Dodge arrived home in Council Bluffs on April 19 (1867), the Missouri River was still out its banks and Reed was frantically supervising the rescue of their tracks from the swollen Platte and it’s tributaries.  Within a week, though trains were leaving Omaha on a regular schedule and Reed thought his men would be ready to turn to new work in a few days.  Everything westward still looked like a disaster though...”

That eerily sounded like the front page of this morning’s newspaper!  Wow

John Bromley - Omaha



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/19 15:02 by Copy19.

I would like to heartily agree with John's opinion about Bain's book, EMPIRE EXPRESS.  I'ver read it twice and it is absolutely fascinating.  What many people don't know is the extent of the political maneuverings and chicanery that went on behind the scenes in Washington, D.C. and in the foreign and domestic investment markets.  It's a wonder that it got completed.  I urge everyone to borrow or buy a copy -- you won't be sorry.

-John

At least one of the incidents in the film is based on a work train being wrecked west of present day lexington, ne that was known as plum creek. Indians led by Black Kettle damaged a small trestle resulting in a derailed engine. There is an historical monument off of hiway 30 at the location. The local history museum in Lexington has a small section detailing the wreck.

The railroad and Calvary wasted no time going after Black Kettle. IIRC this was the last major Indian incident on this part of UPRR.

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My favorite railroad scene in any railroad movie is the track building scene in Union Pacific. It is about 30 minutes into the film.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

Be aware that the U.S.Postal Service  will issue a stunning three stamp set on May 10 honoring the sesquicentennial of the achievement. 

displacedneb Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> At least one of the incidents in the film is based
> on a work train being wrecked west of present day
> lexington, ne that was known as plum creek.
> Indians led by Black Kettle damaged a small
> trestle resulting in a derailed engine. There is
> an historical monument off of hiway 30 at the
> location. The local history museum in Lexington
> has a small section detailing the wreck.
>
> The railroad and Calvary wasted no time going
> after Black Kettle. IIRC this was the last major
> Indian incident on this part of UPRR.
>
>

While there were probably many missionaries attempting to christianize Black Kettle and his tribe, I'm betting that it was the  cavalry (not Calvary) that joined the Union Pacific RR in attempting to bring this Indian chief to justice.

I visited the site day before yesterday for the first time. The trains weren't running, but got a one man engine house tour which I really enjoyed. Took plenty of photos, but they all want to post sideways.

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