Golden Spike - Pop Culture

Pop Culture

• The first motion picture depiction of the driving of the Golden Spike occurred in "The Iron Horse", a silent film directed by John Ford in 1924 and produced by Fox Film. In 2011, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

• The "Inyo", a 4-4-0 steam locomotive built for the Virginia & Truckee Railroad (V&T #22) in 1875 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, appeared in both the Golden Spike ceremony scene in "Union Pacific" (1939) and in the 1960s TV series The Wild Wild West. In May, 1969, the "Inyo" participated in the Golden Spike Centennial at Promontory, Utah, and then served as the replica of the Central Pacific's "Jupiter" (CPRR #60) at the Golden Spike National Historical Site until the current replica was built in 1979. Purchased by the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City, NV, in 1974, it was eventually brought back to Nevada and fully restored there in 1983 where it still runs today.

• In the 1999 fictional action adventure comedy film, Wild Wild West, the joining ceremony is the setting of an assassination attempt on then U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant by the film's antagonist Dr. Arliss Loveless. (In reality Grant did not actually attend the Golden Spike ceremony.) The extensive Promontory Summit set for the film's Golden Spike ceremony scenes was built at the 20,000 acre Cook's Ranch near Santa Fe, NM.