Golden Spike National Historical Park

The first monument erected at the site was a concrete obelisk built by the Southern Pacific Railroad (successor to the Central Pacific) c. 1916.[11] It has since been moved several times, but can presently be seen near the 1969 Visitor's Center.

Bernice Gibbs Anderson founded and led the movement to have the site preserved as a memorial to the First Transcontinental Railroad, starting with articles about local history that began in 1926.[13][14]^: GS-5:14 Anderson was president of the Golden Spike Association of Box Elder County, which held its first re-enactment of the joining of the rails on May 10, 1952,[15] using local volunteers organized by Judge B.C. Call from a script written by Marie Thorne Jepson.[14]^{: GS-5:15, 19} Anderson tirelessly wrote to state and federal officials urging them to build a monument at Promontory Summit, and it was authorized as a National Historic Site on April 2, 1957, under non-federal ownership; at that time, the Golden Spike Association maintained the site under a cooperative agreement between the Southern Pacific Railroad and the state and federal governments.[7]

It was authorized for federal ownership and administration by an act of Congress on July 30, 1965, as Golden Spike National Historic Site.[16][17] The John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, signed into law March 12, 2019, redesignated it as a national historical park.[3][18] Historic sites are typically a single building, while historical parks include multiple landmarks in a larger district.

28,000 visitors attended the centennial anniversary of the completion ceremony on May 10, 1969, including Bernice Gibbs Anderson. The 3,000-square-foot (280 m²) Visitor's Center had just been completed.[16] On that day, the Virginia and Truckee locomotives nos. 11, Reno, and 12, Genoa Inyo were loaned from their respective owners, the Pacific Coast Chapter of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, and MGM Studios, redecorated to represent the Union Pacific No. 119 and Central Pacific Jupiter, respectively, and placed on a section of restored trackage to recreate the completion ceremony.[9] That year, the railroad grade was named a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.[10] The "119" (the V&T Reno) was sold to Old Tucson Studios in Tucson, Arizona, and the "Jupter" (the Genoa), was sold to the state of California, and the two engines were sent to their respective new owners the following year, the latter engine joining the rest of the former Pacific Coast Chapter RLHS-owned equipment in what ultimately became the California State Railroad Museum. Replacing the engines at Promontory were the Virginia and Truckee locomotives nos. 22, Inyo, and 18, Dayton redecorated as the Jupiter and No. 119, respectively. These engines remained at the site until 1978, when they were sent to the state of Nevada, which had purchased them in 1974, to be a part of what ultimately became the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City.

In 1978, a general master plan for the site was adopted with the goal of maintaining the site's scenic attributes as closely as possible to its appearance and characteristics in 1869. The functioning replicas of the Jupiter and No. 119 locomotives were brought to the site in time to celebrate the 110th anniversary of the joining of the rails in 1979.[16]

In 2006, a petition to the Board on Geographic Names resulted in a name change for Chinaman's Arch, a 20-foot (6.1 m) limestone arch at Golden Spike National Historical Park. Named Chinaman's Arch in honor of the 19th century Chinese railroad workers, the arch was officially renamed in the same year as the Chinese Arch to mollify sensitivities about the original name.[19]

On May 10, 2019, a 150th anniversary celebration was held in commemoration of the completion of the railroad. This event was attended by several notable local leaders, including Utah governor Gary Herbert and the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Russell M. Nelson.[20]

Transcontinental Railroad Memorial - memorializes workers who lost their lives building the nations first transcontinental railroad