Northern Pacific Railroad Completion Site, 1883
| Northern Pacific Railroad Completion Site, 1883 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| National Register of Historic Places | |||
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| location | Powell County in Montana (USA) | ||
| Coordinates | 46 ° 33 '3 " N , 112 ° 51' 36" W | ||
| surface | 1 ha | ||
| NRHP number | 83001075 | ||
| The NRHP added | August 19, 1983 | ||
The Northern Pacific Railroad Completion Site is the site of the golden nail driving ceremony to mark the completion of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1883. The site is located near Independence Creek in Powell County , Montana , off Interstate 90 , approximately 60 Miles (approximately 95 km) southeast of Missoula and 40 miles (approximately 65 km) west of Helena .
The Northern Pacific Railway began building a transcontinental rail link to the west coast of the United States from Minnesota in 1870 . Construction crews worked their way from both the east and the west to an initially undetermined meeting point somewhere in between. Finally, on August 22, 1883, the workers met near Independence Creek in Western Montana , not far from Gold Creek, where gold was first discovered in Montana . Here the tracks were connected with each other and so the transcontinental rail link; however, the “golden nail” was not hammered in until a ceremony on September 8, 1883. For this ceremony, 300 guests were driven to the site in four trains from the east, including the President of the Railway Company Henry Villard and notables from the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. A fifth train brought guests from the west coast. The already completed track was torn out again to be ceremoniously laid during the ceremony. The “golden nail” wasn't actually gold, but it was the same nail that had been hammered in thirteen years earlier when construction began at Carlton , Minnesota. The nail was driven in by Villard, former US President Ulysses S. Grant and Henry C. Davis, who drove the nail in at the first ceremony in Minnesota.
The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 19, 1983 . The 2.5 acre (around one hectare ) area includes the place of the last track nail and the place where pavilions were set up for the 1883 celebrations. A wooden sign erected by the Northern Pacific marking the location of the last siding remains in place and can be seen from Interstate 90 near the confluence of Independence Creek and Clark Fork River .
See also
- List of Entries on the National Register of Historic Places in Powell County, Montana
- Golden Spike National Historic Site in Utah
Individual evidence
- ^ Nolan, Waldron , p. 1.
- ↑ a b c d e Nolan, Waldron , p. 3.
- ^ Gold Creek: Historical Context
- ^ A b Northern Pacific Railroad Company , p. 266.
- ↑ Lubetkin 2006 , p. 286.
- ^ Minnesota Historical Society
- ^ National Register Information System
- ↑ a b Nolan, Waldron , p. 2.
supporting documents
- Gold Creek: Historical Context ( English ) Montana Department of Environmental Quality. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
- M. John Lubetkin: Jay Cooke's Gamble: The Northern Pacific Railroad, the Sioux, and the Panic of 1873 . University of Oklahoma Press, 2006, ISBN 9780806137407 .
- Minnesota Historical Society: Northern Pacific Railway Company: An Inventory of Its Records at the Minnesota Historical Society ( English ) Minnesota Historical Society. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
- National Register Information System ( English ) National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service . March 13, 2009. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
- Noan, Ed and Chas. V. Waldron: National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Northern Pacific Railroad Completion Site, 1883 ( English , PDF; 290 kB) National Register of Historic Places. July 5, 1983. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
- Northern Pacific Railroad Company: The Official Northern Pacific Railroad Guide: For the Use of Tourists and Travelers Over the Lines of the Northern Pacific Railroad, Its Branches and Allied Lines . WC Riley, 1893.