Nostalgia & History > Promontory Summit or Promontory Point.

In 1969 I had the good fortune in attending the 100th anniversary of the driving of the gold spike and was aboard a special SP train from Oakland to Ogden.  Various history books have referred to the official place where the spike was driven as Promontory Summit.  The other day I received in the mail from the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento their quarterly publication ON TRACK and the front cover features the famous photo of the locomotives facing one another with a reference "The Meeting at Promontory Point".  This is obviously in error.  I am puzzled how this could have happened.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/19 10:51 by goldcoast.

It's a shame the CSRM would make such a a mistake-  but, then again, shame has no bounds!

This is the display at the NPS Golden Spike Museum at Promontory Summit.  This FAMOUS photo of the trestle at Secret Town is printed backwards!  And it's captioned as 1868.  It's not.  It's a photo of the trestle being buried in the 1870's.  And this display has gone uncorrected for years!
SR

---

For a great text and photo story of the special trains to Promontory Point in May 1969, folks need to read the current issue of the
SP Historical Soceity  "Trainline"., now in the mail.

Its sad. Summit. You would think someone would care at CSRM

There are NO tracks at Promontory Point. and never have been.

This is almost as bad as the media calling the great former New York Central train station in NYC "Grand Central Station".

 

seaboardc30-7 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There are NO tracks at Promontory Point. and never
> have been.
>
> This is almost as bad as the media calling the
> great former New York Central train station in NYC
> "Grand Central Station".
>
>
????????????????????????//

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,4755684,4755800#msg-4755800

I think  reply in this thread was accurate.

However, if you google PP ,  point and summit seem regularily mixed up.

Google mapsI think  correctly shows Promontory Point if this link works and there are tracks.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Promontory+Point,+UT+84307/@41.2257501,-112.4226848,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x875338164bc48bdf:0x6e8274bf6be7b727!8m2!3d41.2257516!4d-112.4139279

Bob



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/19 15:12 by robj.

Promentory Mountains:  A north-south range on a peninsula on the north shore of the Great Salt Lake
Promentory Summit:  The summit of the railroad grade over a low pass in these mountains; it was the site of the Golden Spike.
Promentory Point: The southernmost point of these mountains, the tip of the peninsula.  Rails came here in 1903-04 as a part of the Lucin Cut-off, which became the main line of the Southern Pacific and now the Union Pacific.
At times, both P. Point and P. Summit have been timetable stations.