Journal of a Cowboy
A governor drives the Golden Spike
One afternoon, as they were riding on their horses, Aspermont and Ole Paint, Jean-Luc and Jacques fell into a long and idle conversation while heading west of Denver City toward Nevada. Ahead of them, they saw a couple of young riders giddyupping their ponies, hellbent for leather. Apparently, the riders were trying to reach their destination before they lost the evening light. By the look of them, the satchels they carried and the haste in which they rode, Jean-Luc and Jacques guessed they were working for The Pony Express. But the horses used by The Pony Express to transport messages and letters only satisfied a partial need in the Wild West. Something more reliable was necessary to carry animals, humans and necessary packages from the New England states.
Jean-Luc and Jacques were following an incomplete trail of lumber ties that subdivided the desert floor. “I heard that this ladderesque road is to be used by steam-powered locomotives and will be known as ‘The Iron Horse,’” Jean-Luc told Jacques, as they paused at a curve by a butte. “American inventors and manufacturers have come to the aid of a nation that is still trying to recover from the Mexican-American War. Among those creative Americans was Mr. Mathias W. Baldwin, who was born in Philadelphia, Penn. on Dec. 10, 1795. He was aware of how steam-locomotive engines were revolutionizing Europe. In 1825, he established Baldwin Locomotive Works.
“Among the early locomotives, was ‘Old Ironsides,’” Jean-Luc continued. “Now, he wants ‘The Iron Horse’ to unite the American East and West and seal the new transportation system when they finally do come together. They will be sealed with a Golden Spike. This ‘Last Spike,’ as it is getting to be known, will be ceremonial — golden and 17-and-a-half inches long. If we continue along our way, we will eventually come upon Promontory Summit in the Territory of Utah. That is the projected place where ‘the transcontinental railroad,’ will come about.”
“I find it amusing,” Jacques responded, “that our regular horses will one day be displaced by the mechanical horses of the railroads. But yet, the power needed to move everything forward is still called ‘horsepower’ and instead of supplying the train engines with hay and horse fodder, the engineers will stoke them with firewood to create steam to make the wheels turn. I understand that a Republican from California is being considered as the man who will have the honor of driving the Golden