Golden Spike National Historic Site 

Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 

Natural Resource Report NPS/NRPC/GRD/NRR—2006/010 

National Park Service 

U.S. Department of the Interior 

Natural Resource Program Center 

Golden Spike National Historic Site 

Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 

Natural Resource Report NPS/NRPC/GRD/NRR—2006/010 

Geologic Resources Division 

Natural Resource Program Center 

P.O. Box 25287 

Denver, Colorado 80225 

July 2006 

U.S. Department of the Interior 

Washington, D.C.
The Natural Resource Publication series addresses natural resource topics that are of interest 

and applicability to a broad readership in the National Park Service and to others in the 

management of natural resources, including the scientific community, the public, and the NPS 

conservation and environmental constituencies. Manuscripts are peer-reviewed to ensure that 

the information is scientifically credible, technically accurate, appropriately written for the 

intended audience, and is designed and published in a professional manner. 

Natural Resource Reports are the designated medium for disseminating high priority, current 

natural resource management information with managerial application. The series targets a 

general, diverse audience, and may contain NPS policy considerations or address sensitive 

issues of management applicability. Examples of the diverse array of reports published in this 

series include vital signs monitoring plans; "how to" resource management papers; 

proceedings of resource management workshops or conferences; annual reports of resource 

programs or divisions of the Natural Resource Program Center; resource action plans; fact 

sheets; and regularly-published newsletters. 

Views and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect 

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not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use by the National Park Service. 

Printed copies of reports in these series may be produced in a limited quantity and they are 

only available as long as the supply lasts. This report is also available from the Geologic 

Resource Evaluation Program website (http://www2.nature.nps.gov/geology/inventory/

gre_publications) on the internet, or by sending a request to the address on the back cover. 

Please cite this publication as: 

Thornberry-Ehrlich, T. 2006. Golden Spike National Historic Site Geologic Resource 

Evaluation Report. Natural Resource Report NPS/NRPC/GRD/NRR—2006/010. National 

Park Service, Denver, Colorado. 

NPS D-215, July 2006 
 GOSP Geologic Resource Evaluation Report iii

Table of Contents 

List of Figures .............................................................................................................. iv

Executive Summary ...................................................................................................... 1

Introduction ................................................................................................................... 2

Purpose of the Geologic Resource Evaluation Program ............................................................................................2

Geologic Setting .........................................................................................................................................................2

The Joining of Two Tracks .........................................................................................................................................3

Geologic Issues............................................................................................................. 6

Introduction.................................................................................................................................................................6

Flooding, Erosion, and Gullying..................................................................................................................................6

Seismicity and Mining Activity.....................................................................................................................................6

Landslides and Other Slope Processes......................................................................................................................7

Disturbed Lands .........................................................................................................................................................7

Historic Landscape and Present Condition.................................................................................................................7

Paleontologic Potential ...............................................................................................................................................8

Faulting and Deformation Processes..........................................................................................................................8

Volcanic Potential.......................................................................................................................................................8

Wind Erosion and Deposition .....................................................................................................................................8

General Geology ........................................................................................................................................................9

Cave Protection and Study.........................................................................................................................................9

Geologic Features and Processes............................................................................. 11

Chinaman’s Arch ......................................................................................................................................................11

Cut and Fills..............................................................................................................................................................11

Big Fill.......................................................................................................................................................................11

Big Trestle ................................................................................................................................................................11

Lake Bonneville ........................................................................................................................................................11

Older Structural Faults and Folds.............................................................................................................................12

Basin and Range Features.......................................................................................................................................12

Map Unit Properties .................................................................................................... 16

Geologic History.......................................................................................................... 19

Glossary....................................................................................................................... 31

References................................................................................................................... 33

Appendix A: Geologic Map Graphic .......................................................................... 35

Appendix B: Scoping Summary................................................................................. 37

Attachment 1: Geologic Resource Evaluation Products CD
 NPS Geologic Resources Division iv 

List of Figures 

Figure 1. Map of the physiographic features surrounding Golden Spike National Historic Site......................................4

Figure 2. The shanty town development at Promontory, Utah .......................................................................................5

Figure 3. The joining of the rails ceremony at Promontory, Utah ...................................................................................5

Figure 4. Map showing 7.5 minute quadrangles...........................................................................................................10

Figure 5. Chinaman’s Arch...........................................................................................................................................13

Figure 6. A cut along the railroad line grade through limestone ...................................................................................14

Figure 7. The Big Fill as it appears today.....................................................................................................................14

Figure 8. The Big Trestle at Promontory, Utah.............................................................................................................15

Figure 9. A locomotive on the Big Trestle at Promontory, Utah ...................................................................................15

Figure 10. Geologic time scale.....................................................................................................................................23

Figure 11. Paleogeographic map of Early Mississippian age.......................................................................................24

Figure 12. Major uplifts and basins present during the Pennsylvanian age .................................................................25

Figure 13. Jurassic structural elements affecting sedimentation in the western U.S....................................................26

Figure 14. Location of Golden Spike National Historic Site on a tectonic map.............................................................27

Figure 15. Early post-Laramide map............................................................................................................................28

Figure 16. Segments of the Wasatch fault ...................................................................................................................29

Figure 17. Generalized graphic overview of geologic evolution of Utah.......................................................................30
 GOSP Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 1

Executive Summary 

This report has been developed to accompany the digital geologic map produced by Geologic 

Resource Evaluation staff for Golden Spike National Historic Site in Utah. It contains 

information relevant to resource management and scientific research. 

Knowing the geology of Golden Spike National Historic 

Site enhances one’s understanding of the unique 

relationship between geology and the environment. 

Geology provides the foundation of the entire 

ecosystem. Surface exposures in Golden Spike consist 

primarily of rocks from the Devonian, Mississippian, 

Pennsylvanian, Permian, and Tertiary ages. Vast 

unconsolidated Quaternary deposits overlay these units. 

Detailed geologic information helps determine the 

history of Golden Spike National Historic Site and helps 

managers preserve its present resources. 

Geologic processes initiate complex responses that give 

rise to rock formation, surface and subsurface fluid 

movement, soils, and mountain formation. These 

processes produce a landscape that influences patterns 

of human use. Preserving the historic context at Golden 

Spike inspires wonder in visitors to the park, imparting 

geologic knowledge to these same visitors is sure to 

enhance their experience. 

The Promontory Mountains, a small part of the dramatic 

Basin and Range physiographic province, provided the 

backdrop for the joining of the Central Pacific and Union 

Pacific railroads at Golden Spike 1869. This historic site 

defined by its geology, attracted over 45,888 visitors in 

2002. Visitors were impressed by the historic engineering 

marvels made necessary by the geologic setting. The 

history of the area results from regional geology and 

reflects the human struggle to manipulate the landscape. 

The number of visitors attracted to this unique site are 

placing increasing demands on the resources available at 

the park. 

Golden Spike National Historic Site hosts some of the 

most complete relics of the grand era of railroad 

building. The interplay of geology, water, tectonic forces, 

and climate posed a great challenge for railroad 

engineers. Some of the principal geologic issues and 

concerns pertain to protecting the historic landscape. 

Humans have modified the landscape surrounding 

Golden Spike and, consequently, have modified the base 

geologic system. This system is dynamic and capable of 

noticeable change within a human life span (less than a 

century) even without human alterations. 

The following features, issues, and processes were 

identified as having the most geological importance and 

the highest level of management significance at the 

historic site: 

• Flooding, Erosion, and Gullying. Arid environments 

are especially susceptible to erosion during flooding 

because of lack of stabilizing plant growth and the 

relatively frequent occurrence of intense seasonal 

rainstorms. Intense storms produce runoff that 

dramatically alters the landscape and creates new 

hazard areas in the process. Cut and fill for railroad 

construction as well as for road and trail construction 

affect the stability of the slopes. Rockfalls and slope 

failures could occur almost anywhere along the roads 

and trails of Golden Spike National Historic Site. 

• Seismicity and Mining Activity. The area around 

Golden Spike National Historic Site is seismically 

active. Impacts from seismicity and ground shaking 

from detonation of explosive in nearby mines have the 

potential to damage historic features and facilities at 

Golden Spike. 

• Disturbed Lands. Borrow pits, gravel pits, animal 

grazing, housing construction, and other outside 

development adjacent to park lands impact the soil, 

vegetation, and the viewshed of the site. Park 

management may wish to consider establishing 

cooperative relationships with the parties involved in 

order to remediate and restore disturbed areas. 

• Historic Landscape and Present Condition. Geology 

influenced the decisions of the railroad construction 

engineers, with challenges to constructing the 

transcontinental railroad that are still visible at Golden 

Spike. Golden Spike National Historic Site is charged 

with preserving and restoring the historic landscape 

from 1869. Fighting the natural, geological processes of 

erosion and weathering is essential to maintain the 

historic landscape. 

Other geologic management issues at the Golden Spike 

National Historic Site include: protecting the 

paleontological potential of the area; contending with the 

effects of wind erosion and deposition, landslides and 

slope processes, faulting and deformation processes, 

possible volcanism; and managing cave resources. These 

are discussed in more detail in the Geologic Issues 

section of this report. 

The variety of rock types together with the geologic 

processes of uplift and erosion have created the 

topographic landscape seen today. Understanding these 

features and processes allows resource managers to 

assess potential hazards and to protect the environment, 

the historic context, and especially park visitors. 

The Formation Properties section details the different 

geologic units present on the digital geologic map of 

Golden Spike National Historic Site and potential 

resources, concerns, and issues associated with each. 
 NPS Geologic Resources Division 2 

Introduction 

The following section briefly describes the regional geologic setting and the National 

Park Service Geologic Resource Evaluation program. 

Purpose of the Geologic Resource Evaluation Program 

Geologic features and processes serve as the foundation 

of park ecosystems and an understanding of geologic 

resources yields important information for park decision 

making. The National Park Service (NPS) Natural 

Resource Challenge, an action plan to advance the 

management and protection of park resources, has 

focused efforts to inventory the natural resources of 

parks. Ultimately, the inventory and monitoring of 

natural resources will become integral parts of park 

planning, operations and maintenance, visitor 

protection, and interpretation. 

The Geologic Resource Evaluation (GRE) Program, 

which the NPS Geologic Resources Division administers, 

carries out the geologic component of the inventory. 

Staff associated with other programs within the Geologic 

Resources Division (e.g., the abandoned mine land, cave, 

coastal, disturbed lands restoration, minerals 

management, and paleontology programs) provide 

expertise to the GRE effort. The goal of the GRE 

Program is to provide each of the identified 270 “natural 

area” parks with a digital geologic map, a geologic 

resource evaluation report, and a geologic bibliography. 

Each product is a tool to support the stewardship of park 

resources and is designed to be user friendly to nongeoscientists. 

GRE teams hold scoping meetings at parks to review 

available data on the geology of a particular park and to 

discuss specific geologic issues affecting the park. Park 

staff are afforded the opportunity to meet with park 

geology experts during these meetings. Scoping meetings 

are usually held for individual parks although some 

address an entire Vital Signs Monitoring Network. 

Bedrock and surficial geologic maps and information 

provide the foundation for studies of groundwater, 

geomorphology, soils, and environmental hazards. 

Geologic maps describe the underlying physical 

framework of many natural systems and are an integral 

component of the physical inventories stipulated by the 

NPS in its Natural Resources Inventory and Monitoring 

Guideline (NPS- 75) and the 1997 NPS Strategic Plan. 

The NPS GRE is a cooperative implementation of a 

systematic, comprehensive inventory of the geologic 

resources in National Park System units by the Geologic 

Resources Division; the Inventory, Monitoring, and 

Evaluation Office of the Natural Resource Program 

Center; the U.S. Geological Survey; and state geological 

surveys. 

For additional information regarding the content of this 

report, please refer to the Geologic Resources Division 

of the National Park Service, located in Denver, 

Colorado. Up- to- date contact information is available 

on the GRE website 

(http://www2.nature.nps.gov/geology/inventory/). 

Geologic Setting 

On May 10, 1869, “Done,” a single telegraphed word 

signaling to the nation the completion of the first 

transcontinental railroad was sent from Promontory 

Summit some 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Ogden, 

Utah, in Box Elder County. The Central Pacific and 

Union Pacific railroads met here amidst much 

celebration and showcasing the engineering marvels. 

Completion of the transcontinental railroad united the 

country with high- speed rail access from the east coast 

to the west coast with a single golden spike made from 

California gold and driven by Leland Stanford, president 

of the Central Pacific Railroad, and others. The spike was 

engraved with the words, “May God continue the unity 

of our Country as this Railroad unites the two great 

Oceans of the world.” This spike now resides at Stanford 

University. 

It was the dawn of a new era in the American West. Prior 

to completion of the railroad, the journey was either a 

long stagecoach ride from end- of- rail to the west coast 

or an even longer sailing trip around the tip of South 

America. Both options were dangerous and tedious, 

usually taking several months. The new, 4- day route was 

envisioned as a means to move mail, supplies, and people 

immigrating to the west. For more detailed information 

on the history of the railroad’s construction and western 

expansion, refer to the following informational website: 

http://www.outdoorplaces.com/Destination/USNP/utgo

lspi/ 

Golden Spike was designated as a National Historic Site 

in nonfederal ownership on April 2, 1957. The mission of 

the site is to preserve the historical context that 

surrounded the completion of the first transcontinental 

railroad across the United States and to illustrate the 

social, economic, and political impacts of the railroad on 

the growth and westward development. On July 30, 1965, 

an act of congress authorized Golden Spike for federal 

ownership and administration. 

Some 690 miles east of Sacramento and 1,087 miles west 

of Omaha, the 2,735 acres of Golden Spike National 

Historic Site lie in the extreme northeastern part of the 

Great Basin, a subdivision of the Basin and Range 

Physiographic province. The province is characterized 

by long, linear ranges separated by parallel valleys. 

The valleys are bounded by a series of normal faults (see 

glossary) along which extensional deformation occurred. 

Elevations range from 1,311 to 1,494 m (4,300 to 4,900 ft) 

above sea level (figure 1) 
 GOSP Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 3

There are many parallel ranges throughout the region 

that developed as a result of extensional tectonics pulling 

the crust apart in a roughly east- west oriented pattern. 

The Cedar, Oquirrh, and Promontory ranges to the west 

of the Wasatch Range, and the Cricket Mountains, 

Pavant, and Confusion ranges to the south and 

southwest are examples of parallel ranges. Basins 

including the Tule, Snake, and Great Salt Lake valleys 

surrounding Golden Spike, as well as Cedar and Little 

valleys, and Sevier Basin to the southwest are typical 

examples of the fault bound basins in the province. 

The Wasatch Mountain Range forms the sharp eastern 

boundary of the Basin and Range separating it from the 

Middle Rocky Mountain physiographic province. The 

Wasatch Range is an uplifted crustal block that extends 

approximately 200 km (125 mi) from Malad City, ID, 

south to Nephi, UT. The range is 13 to 26 km (8 to 16 mi) 

wide and is bounded dramatically on the western side by 

the prominent scarp of the seismically active Wasatch 

fault. The scarp, referred to as the Wasatch Front, rises 

dramatically up to 2,134 m (7,000 ft) from the valley floor 

below. 

A fundamental human compulsion to know the world is 

stimulated by the landscape at Golden Spike National 

Historic Site (De Courten 1994). Preservation of this 

environment is facilitated by natural resource 

management and increased understanding of the 

underlying geologic processes affecting the trails and 

other visitor facilities. 

The Joining of Two Tracks 

The meeting of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific 

Railroads was more than a joining of rails; it changed the 

course of western expansion and culture forever. For a 

brief moment, it changed the local setting around 

Promontory, Utah, as well. Crews of the Union Pacific, 

8,000 to 10,000 Irish, German, and Italian immigrants, 

had pushed west from Omaha, Nebraska, while laborers 

including over 10,000 Chinese built the line east from 

Sacramento, California (Kraus 1969). These workers 

were among many others who helped link the east with 

the west. Promontory continued to be a town of tents 

and rudimentary shacks for several weeks after the 

joining ceremony. Land speculators, petty merchants, 

saloon keepers, gamblers, and prostitutes who had 

followed these so- called tent cities stayed only as long as 

there were workers to entice and money to be made. 

Promontory, Utah, never became the site of a permanent 

town (figure 2) perhaps due to its isolated location. 

President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railways 

Act in 1862. Federal legislation at the time encouraged 

building railroads with subsidies. Companies building 

tracks received loans of $16,000, $32,000, and $48,000 

for building each mile of track across the plains, the 

Great Basin, and the mountains, respectively. Railroad 

companies also received 10 alternate sections of land on 

each side of the railroad right- of- way (Gwynn 2002). As 

a result of this policy, railroad builders were reluctant to 

stop construction, and the crews built several miles of 

track parallel to each other before Congress acted to set 

the meeting point at Promontory. The ceremony held on 

May 10, 1869, has various witness accounts with many 

discrepancies; however, a general description is as 

follows: 

“Union Pacific's No. 119 and Central Pacific's "Jupiter" 

engines lined up facing each other on the tracks, 

separated only by the width of one rail (figure 3). 

Leland Stanford, one of the "Big Four" of the Central 

Pacific, had brought four ceremonial spikes. The 

famed "Golden Spike" was presented by David Hewes, 

a San Francisco construction magnate. It was engraved 

with the names of the Central Pacific directors, special 

sentiments appropriate to the occasion, and, on the 

head, the notation "the Last Spike." A second golden 

spike was presented by the San Francisco News Letter. 

A silver spike was Nevada's contribution, and a spike 

blended of iron, silver, and gold represented Arizona. 

These spikes were dropped into a pre- bored 

laurelwood tie during the ceremony. No spike 

represented Utah, and Mormon Church leaders were 

conspicuous by their absence (Ketterson 1969). 

At 12:47 P.M. the actual last spike- - an ordinary iron 

spike- - was driven into a regular tie. Both spike and 

sledge were wired to send the sound of the strikes over 

the wire to the nation” (Blake). 

The enthusiasm for the event soon faded. In 1901 the 

Central Pacific steam engine "Jupiter" was scrapped for 

iron and other materials. The Union Pacific's No. 119 was 

scrapped 2 years later. The 1903- 04 rail line construction 

of the Lucin Cutoff diverted most of the traffic from 

Promontory's "Old Line” across Great Salt Lake (Gwynn 

2002). Only the "Last Spike" remained - preserved at 

Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. 

During World War II in 1942, the old rails over the 76 km 

(123 mi) Promontory Summit rail line were salvaged in 

ceremonies marking the "Undriving of the Golden 

Spike." Tourists and relic hunters picked over the area 

for ties and other mementos. The area seemed destined 

for quiet obscurity (Mann 1969). 

However, a small memorial marker of the "Last Spike" 

had been placed along the right- of- way in 1943; and in 

the years following World War II, local residents began 

observing the event. In the 1948 reenactment of the 

driving of the last spike, miniature locomotives were 

produced and distributed by the Southern Pacific 

Railroad Co. 

In 1951 a monument to the event was dedicated and 

placed in front of the Union Station in Ogden, Utah. 

After a series of legislative actions, Golden Spike 

National Historic Site was established; and in 1965 Weber 

County extended the highway from 12th Street to 

Promontory, which made access to the site easier (Blake). 
 NPS Geologic Resources Division 4 

Figure 1. Map of the physiographic features surrounding Golden Spike National Historic Site. Note the location of Golden Spike and the 

Wasatch Range to the east. West of the Wasatch Range the mountains are arranged in roughly parallel, linear chains. Adapted from 

image by David Rose from www.UtahWild.com. 
 GOSP Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 5

Figure 2. The shanty town development at Promontory, Utah. Photograph from A.J. Russell. This and other Russell photographs are

available at http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/photos/ajrussellstereo/ (accessed April 4, 2004) 

Figure 3. The joining of the rails ceremony at Promontory, Utah. The two steam engines, “No. 119” and “Jupiter,” face off while the four 

final spikes are driven. Photograph from A.J. Russell. 
 NPS Geologic Resources Division 6 

Geologic Issues 

A Geologic Resource Evaluation scoping session was held for Golden Spike National 

Historic Site, June 15- 16, 1999, to discuss geologic resources, to address the status of 

geologic mapping, and to assess resource management issues and needs. The following 

section synthesizes the scoping results, in particular, those issues that may require 

attention from resource managers. 

Introduction 

Issues in this section are identified in relative order of 

resource management significance with the most critical 

listed first. Potential research projects and topics of 

scientific interest are presented at the end of this section. 

Flooding, Erosion, and Gullying 

Floods have the potential to create hazards in much of 

the Golden Spike area. Intense seasonal thunderstorms 

combine with a scarcity of stabilizing vegetation on 

slopes creating a situation in which flooding can send 

torrents of water and debris down grades, destroying 

trails, roads, and other park facilities. In addition to 

threatening park infrastructure flash floods are a visitor 

safety concern. 

Several Holocene alluvial fans mapped along both sides 

of the North Promontory Mountains have been active 

since the deposition of Bonneville lacustrine deposits. All 

are probable sites for future alluviation, including debris 

flows and deposition during floods. Narrow canyons 

upslope from the fans are also potential sites for 

powerful floods and debris flows. 

Gullying occurs in many areas underlain by 

unconsolidated to moderately consolidated materials. 

The uplands, areas of intensive agriculture east of the 

North Promontory Mountains, show especially 

pronounced gullying. The fine- grained Miocene, 

Pliocene, and Quaternary materials in the Sunset Pass 

quadrangle are highly susceptible to erosion following 

the destruction of natural ground cover by overgrazing 

and ground tilling. 

Inventory, Monitoring, and/or Research Needs for Flooding, 

Erosion, and Gullying 

• Study the flood history of deposition behind culverts 

and filled grades and compare the findings with the 

historic climate records. This will lead to a better 

understanding of erosion and the stability of culverts 

and trestles. 

• Study, describe, map, and monitor flood deposits 

behind railroad embankments. 

Seismicity and Mining Activity 

The Basin and Range is a seismically active area. Small 

scale earthquakes occur in Nevada and Utah almost 

daily. Most of these quakes are too small to be detected 

without a seismometer. The region from Hansel Valley 

east to the Wasatch Mountains has experienced 

considerable historic seismic activity, including 

magnitude 6 and larger events in Hansel Valley in 1909 

and 1934 (figure 4). The Wasatch Front east of Golden 

Spike is considered “due” for a major earthquake. 

No historical earthquakes associated with surface 

rupture faulting have occurred along the Wasatch fault 

zone during at least the past 133 years. However, the 

recurrence interval, or time between major seismic 

events, for the entire Wasatch fault zone may be 50 to 

430 years (Swan et al. 1980). 

Golden Spike National Historic Site is located near 

several active mines that use blasting to extract ore, coal, 

and other mineral resources. These blasts produce 

seismic waves that propagate through the earth and 

produce significant ground shaking. 

The historic landscape is a major reason that the Golden 

Spike area was set aside for preservation and protection. 

The effect of ground shaking on local geomorphology is 

a significant resource management issue because of the 

potential for its occurrence in the area as a result of 

natural or manmade causes. 

No fault scarps or faults cutting upper Pleistocene 

deposits were discovered during miscellaneous 1980’s 

field investigations surrounding Golden Spike. The 

youngest faults cut the oldest alluvial fan deposits of 

Pliocene and lower Pleistocene age, but do not cut upper 

Pleistocene deposits, and are probably no younger than 

middle Pleistocene in age. However, several Quaternary 

and historic surface ruptures have been documented 

within a short distance of the Sunset Pass area, and 

Holocene alluvium or talus may have covered similar 

young scarps in the Sunset Pass quadrangle. The western 

flank of the North Promontory Mountains has a 

particularly abrupt topographic expression. Jordan (1985) 

and Robison and McCalpin (1987) mapped normal faults, 

cutting Pleistocene alluvial fan deposits in one area and 

Lake Bonneville deposits in another north of the Sunset 

Pass quadrangle along the mountain front (see figure 4). 

The regional history of seismic activity and evidence for 

Quaternary faults in Hansel Valley raise the possibility of 

moderate to large earthquakes in the Sunset Pass 

quadrangle and, by extension, the Golden Spike area. 

The Wasatch fault zone and related faults 50- km (30 mi) 

to the east project westward at moderate angles, 

presenting a potential for a major seismic event that 

could strongly shake the Golden Spike region. In 
 GOSP Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 7

addition to hazards from ground shaking and surface 

rupture, lateral spreads and localized liquefaction could 

result from a major earthquake. 

Inventory, Monitoring, and/or Research Needs for Seismicity 

and Mining Activity 

• Perform a comprehensive study of the faulting and 

seismic processes active at Golden Spike National 

Historic Site, taking into account rock formations, 

slope aspects, and location and likelihood of 

instability. 

• Evaluate railroad cuts on Golden Spike. The slopes of 

these areas are likely to fail in a moderate to large 

seismic event. Providing safe trails and other visitor 

access along steep hillsides and/or cuts beneath 

rockfall- prone areas requires careful planning. 

• Monitor seismic activity in the Golden Spike area by 

cooperating with local agencies including the USGS 

and Utah Geological Survey. 

• Study the effects on the historic features at Golden 

Spike of nearby mining practices including blasting. 

Determine how this relates to natural seismicity in the 

area. 

• Perform an exhaustive study of seismically active faults 

in close proximity to the Golden Spike area including 

the mapping of small scale faults and shear fractures. 

Landslides and Other Slope Processes 

Landslides, slumps, and other forms of slope failure are 

common for geologic units that are not necessarily 

associated with cliffs. Unconsolidated alluvial deposits 

are especially vulnerable to failure when exposed on a 

slope. A few isolated landslides are present within 

lacustrine deposits as well as in Miocene deposits in the 

northwest corner of the Golden Spike region. The 

slumps within lacustrine materials in the east- central 

part of the area involve thick lacustrine gravel deposits 

that probably were built northward by shoreline 

processes with the gravels overlapping finer grained 

sediments. These features create steep, unstable slopes 

where slides are likely to continue. 

Torrential rains that produce flash flooding at Golden 

Spike also act on slopes lacking stabilizing plant and tree 

roots by saturating and mobilizing the rock and soil 

producing huge slumps, mudslides, or debris flows. 

Many trails in the park follow original railroad grades 

and lead visitors through interesting scenery. These trails 

may be at risk for rockfall and landslides. The rock 

overhead is prone to fall where the railroad bed passes 

through cuts in limestone potentially exposing hikers to a 

hazardous situation. 

Inventory, Monitoring, and/or Research Needs for 

Landslides and Other Slope Processes 

• Perform a comprehensive study of the erosion and 

weathering processes active at Golden Spike National 

Historic Site. Take into account the different rock 

formations versus slope aspects, location and stability. 

• Create a rockfall susceptibility map using rock unit 

versus slope aspect in a Geographic Information 

System (GIS). Use the map to aid in planning future 

NPS developments and evaluating current resource 

management practices regarding trails, buildings, and 

recreational use areas. 

• Monitor rockfall potential in the railroad cuts; relate to 

slope and loose rock deposits. 

• Inventory and monitor debris flow potential near 

picnic areas; relate to slope and loose rock deposits. 

• Inventory flash flood susceptible areas; relate to 

climate and confluence areas. 

• Perform trail stability studies and determine which 

trails are most at risk and in need of further 

stabilization. 

• Monitor the location of facilities in relation to 

fractures and potential for sloughing. Evaluate these 

areas for future risks. 

Disturbed Lands 

There are several human- made scars on the landscape at 

Golden Spike which have little or nothing to do with the 

historical relevancy of the area. These include borrow 

pits for sand and gravel, areas for animal grazing, 

development adjacent to NPS land, and nearby private 

gravel pits such as the Adams Ranch gravel operation. 

These situations may require reclamation to fulfill the 

goal of preserving and restoring the historical landscape 

that accompanied completion of the first 

transcontinental railroad. 

Inventory, Monitoring, and/or Research Needs for Disturbed 

Lands 

• Perform a comprehensive study of development 

adjacent to the park. 

• Establish cooperative working relationships with local 

citizens, representatives, private- land owners, etc. to 

address disturbed land and viewshed issues. 

Historic Landscape and Present Condition 

Key resource management issues at Golden Spike 

National Historic Site are preserving the historic context 

including landforms and restoring and maintaining the 

natural environment. The relationship between rock 

units and erosional processes is dynamic. Changes in 

climate, especially precipitation, affect the entire system. 

Maintaining the balance between visitor access and use 

and preserving the historical and natural environment is 

a difficult but necessary task. The ~150- year written, oral 

and photographic record can be deciphered and 

correlated with sedimentation and erosion histories 

recorded along major streams such as Blue Creek. 

Correlating historic features captured in photographs 

such as the Union Pacific and Central Pacific parallel 

grades with parallel rock cuts, including the "false cut" 

just west of the Big Trestle/Big Fill area, trestle footings, 

major earth fills, stone wash culverts, former- trestle 

locations gives a clear indication of the evolution of the 

landscape since the railroad was completed. These 

grades, cuts, fills, and trestle footings represent nearly 
 NPS Geologic Resources Division 8 

every variety of the heavy manual labor undertaken by 

the railroad workers except tunneling. Drill marks are 

still clearly visible in the numerous rock cuts. Railroad 

era borrow pits remain beside the grades (NPS website). 

Inventory, Monitoring, and/or Research Needs for Historic 

Landscape and Present Condition 

• Monitor and inventory human signatures in the park 

and other cultural resources. 

• Study the role of enlarging fractures in the rock 

through solution weathering and freeze- thaw cycles. 

• Study how different lithologies respond to weathering 

and erosion. 

• Survey and map in detail the area surrounding the 

historic wash culvert present on the East Slope near 

the park, completed July 14, 1916. 

• Develop an in- house plan to inventory, monitor, and 

protect significant historic resources from threats. Use 

assigned staff to oversee the implementation. 

• Perform a detailed 3- dimensional cartographic survey 

of the area following appropriate standards and 

guidelines and include man- made features in the 

survey. 

• Continue efforts to minimize the continuing erosion 

on the Union Pacific grade that is already severely 

eroded; temporarily mitigate the erosion by stabilizing 

the slope until more permanent measures are taken. 

Paleontologic Potential 

The desert landscape of Golden Spike contains more 

than a historic record of western expansion; it contains a 

record of prolific ancient life. Fossils at the park include 

algae, corals, snails, trilobites, clams, turtles, ammonites, 

oysters, and plants. It would be beneficial to protect and 

catalogue preserved specimens for scientific study, future 

generations, and increased visitor appreciation of the 

entire park. 

Inventory, Monitoring, and/or Research Needs for 

Paleontologic Potential 

• Perform a comprehensive study of the paleontologic 

resources at Golden Spike National Historic Site. 

• Compile an inventory of all paleontologic specimens 

present in the park. 

• Determine the locations of paleontologic specimens 

removed from the park as part of private collections. 

• Draw visitor attention to the fossil resources at Golden 

Spike with graphics, brochures, and exhibits. 

Faulting and Deformation Processes 

The rock units at Golden Spike National Historic Site 

have undergone multiple phases of deformation resulting 

in folds, faults, joints, and other fractures, that create 

weaknesses in the rocks. Faults or fractures are zones 

where the rock has been cracked and even pulverized. 

Surface runoff loosens rock along faults and fractures 

that can eventually develop into a gulley. 

Deformation is ongoing at Golden Spike and small scale 

fractures and joints are actively forming. Understanding 

the nature and location of these features allows 

predictions as to where weathering and erosion are likely 

to be concentrated - important information for resource 

management. 

Inventory, Monitoring, and/or Research Needs for Faulting 

and Deformation Processes 

• Conduct a detailed study of fractures, faults, and 

bedding in the area. 

• Study the role of jointing and faulting (both strike- slip 

and thrust faulting) with landscape development and 

their interrelationship. 

• Conduct an inventory of recent fault scarps in the area. 

These are commonly present in Quaternary surficial 

deposits. 

Volcanic Potential 

Recent volcanic deposits including tuff and basalt are 

present at Golden Spike. The volcanic features of Craters 

of the Moon lie to the north in southern Idaho (NPS 

website). The volcanic activity has been active at Craters 

of the Moon for the past 15,000 years and is probably 

responsible for the tuff layers present at Golden Spike. 

Because of its proximity to this volcanic center, it is 

possible that volcanic events could affect the Golden 

Spike area in the future. 

Inventory, Monitoring, and/or Research Needs for Volcanic 

Potential 

• Date applicable minerals to determine the age of lava 

flows. 

• Determine the original volume of volcanic material in 

the park and the amount removed by erosion. 

• Use resistivity to locate cavities in flows. These cavities 

could contain preserved animals, lava tubes, large 

vesicles, or other items. 

• Conduct detailed mapping of volcanic terrain features 

in the volcanic field. 

Wind Erosion and Deposition 

In addition to water, wind is a major force that can 

redistribute soil and soil resources (e.g., litter, organic 

matter, and nutrients) within and among ecosystems. 

Erosion and deposition by wind are important at Golden 

Spike National Historic Site and can be accelerated by 

human activities. 

Accelerated losses of soil and soil resources by erosion 

can indicate degradation of ecosystems because 

ecosystem health is dependent on the retention of these 

resources. Wind erosion and sediment transport may be 

strongly impacted by land- use practices outside the 

park. Human impacts within the park are associated 

primarily with off- trail hiking in high- use areas because 

park management practices limit or prohibit off- road 

vehicular travel. Accelerated soil erosion can be more 

extensive where livestock grazing or trailing is still 

permitted in surrounding areas. Grazing was permitted 
 GOSP Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 9

in the headquarters area for 73 years and led to extensive 

local erosion (NPS website). 

Inventory, Monitoring, and/or Research Needs for Wind 

Erosion and Deposition 

• Monitor movement of soil materials. 

• Investigate the impacts to ecosystems from the aeolian 

transport of soil and soil materials. 

• Investigate the variability of soil movement in relation 

to landscape configuration and characteristics. 

General Geology 

The geology at Golden Spike shaped the railroad grade 

and influenced the decisions made by engineers there. 

The tie between history and geology can enrich park 

decision making and the publics understanding of the 

opportunities and challenges that faced the railroad 

builders of the 19th century. 

Inventory, Monitoring, and/or Research Needs for General 

Geology 

• Identify unconformity- bounded stratigraphic 

packages in order to better define depositional systems 

in the past. 

• Continue to implement geographic information 

systems (GIS) technology for interpretation, resource 

management, and maintenance through interpretive 

mapping, 3- D visualization, a virtual field trip, and 

surface rockfall hazard assessment. 

• Develop more graphics and brochures emphasizing 

geology in cooperation with the Utah Geological 

Survey, Geologic Resources Division of the NPS, and 

NPS Cultural Resources targeted to the average 

enthusiast. 

• Examine and date pack rat middens and examine the 

pollen record for recent climate history. 

• Study, map, and date the Hansel Valley ash layer. 

• Study and describe Pliocene upland valley blankets. 

• Study ancient Lake Bonneville shorelines (including 

Provo, Bonneville, Stansbury, and Gilbert) in an 

attempt to find the Gilbert shoreline that has not yet 

been located within Golden Spike. 

Cave Protection and Study 

There is a cave present in the limestone units of the park. 

Cave systems are dynamic. Changes in water level, 

humidity, airflow, and light all have profound effects on 

the entire ecosystem. Water level and humidity affect any 

speleothems in the process of forming, drop by drop 

from mineral precipitation. The cave’s location is not 

disclosed to the public or noted on the park map. 

Determining the balance between visitor access and cave 

preservation is a difficult task. 

Inventory, Monitoring, and/or Research Needs for Cave 

Protection and Study 

• Monitor and inventory human signatures in the cave, 

including any cultural and/or historical resources. 

• Comprehensively study and monitor the atmospheric 

conditions and hydrology in the cave. 

• Perform a detailed 3- dimensional cartographic survey 

that follows standards and guidelines of the cave 

interior including features (speleothems and 

speleogens). 

• Study palynology and stratigraphy of sediments and 

cores. 
 NPS Geologic Resources Division 10 

Figure 4. Map showing 7.5 minute quadrangles surrounding Golden Spike National Historic Site and prominent landforms including 

Hansel Valley, Blue Creek Valley, and the Sunset Pass area. 
 GOSP Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 11

Geologic Features and Processes 

This section provides descriptions of the most prominent and distinctive geologic features 

and processes in Golden Spike National Historic Site. 

Chinaman’s Arch 

This unusual formation carved naturally from limestone 

is known as Chinaman's Arch (figure 5). It has become a 

memorial to the thousands of Chinese who helped build 

the transcontinental railroad from Sacramento, 

California. Because of labor shortages in California, 

Chinese were employed experimentally by the Central 

Pacific Railroad in 1865. Most were excellent workers 

and by 1868 over 10,000 Chinese people were working on 

the railroad. 

Many of the Chinese remained with the Central Pacific 

after the completion of the railroad at Promontory, Utah. 

Travelers often noticed their clusters of tents along the 

rail route. Apparently, one such camp was near 

Promontory during the 1880’s when this arch received its 

commemorative name. 

Cut and Fills 

Railroad engineers employed various methods to bring 

the new railroad route through the area within the 

required grade, a maximum of 2%. Cuts of various sizes 

exist at Golden Spike and are seen along the railroad 

grade. Conversely, many low areas had to be filled to 

conform to the grade requirement. When possible, 

material for the fills came from nearby cuts (figure 6). 

The construction of railroad cuts was usually a difficult, 

time- consuming, and dangerous process. Teams of men 

and animals, even with the aid of black powder, could 

expect to spend weeks or months clearing out a rock cut 

of the size found on the Big Fill Walk. Cuts were created 

in a stair step fashion, enabling several crews at different 

levels to work on the cut simultaneously. 

Big Fill 

As late as December 1868, Central Pacific surveyors 

planned a railroad route that would require a 244 m-

(800 ft) long tunnel be blasted through the eastern face of 

the Promontory Mountains. Central Pacific president 

Leland Stanford rejected this idea as too costly and timeconsuming. After his veto, surveyors plotted a new route 

that would avoid tunneling. This new route required 

crossing Spring Creek ravine and in February 1869, work 

began on the Big Fill (figure 7). 

The construction that followed took over 2 months of 

intense effort by 250 dumpcart teams and over 500 

workers. Fill totaling over 10,000 cubic yards was hauled 

to the ravine and used to complete the 500- foot span of 

Spring Creek ravine at a depth of 70 feet. 

The Big Fill has been in constant use since becoming part 

of the main line to Ogden, Utah. It was first a railroad 

route; then after removal of all rails in the area in 1942, it 

became an access road. It has been part of Golden Spike 

National Historic Site since 1965. The Big Fill has 

remained usable for over 130 years and is a lasting tribute 

to 1860's railroad engineering and construction. 

Big Trestle 

Just 46 m (150 ft) from the nearly completed Big Fill, 

construction began on the Union Pacific's Big Trestle on 

March 28, 1869. Since completion of the transcontinental 

railroad appeared imminent and the Union Pacific line 

was falling further behind the Central Pacific crew, it was 

decided that speed, not quality, was the overall 

construction goal. On May 5, just 3 days before the 

scheduled completion ceremony and only 36 days since 

building began, the last spike went into the 26 m (85 ft) 

high, 122 m (400 ft) long Big Trestle (figure 8). 

The flimsy Big Trestle was never intended to be a 

permanent structure. As one newspaper reporter 

recorded, “It will shake the nerves of the stoutest hearts 

of railroad travelers when they see that a few feet of 

round timbers and 7- inch spikes are expected to uphold 

a train in motion” (figure 9). The trestle was abandoned 

in favor of the Big Fill when final control of the line 

passed to the Central Pacific. Within a few years, nothing 

remained of the Big Trestle except for Andrew J. 

Russell's photographs and the abutments that can still be 

seen today. This story lends credence to the dynamic 

geomorphological forces at work on the landscape of 

Golden Spike National Historic Site. 

Lake Bonneville 

The ancient Lake Bonneville covered the Golden Spike 

area from about 32,000 to 14,000 years ago. This lake, the 

precursor to the Great Salt and Utah lakes of today, was 

vast in size, about 523 km (325 mi) long and 217 km (135 

mi) wide with a depth of over 305 m (1,000 ft). It is 

responsible for large deposits of lacustrine and other 

related Quaternary age deposits in the area during its 

12,000- year regression from the area. Lacustrine marl 

silt, sand, and gravel cover the locale in bars, spits, and 

tombolos (see glossary) (Miller et al. 1991). 

Lake Bonneville remained at constant depth for a 

prolonged period during its intermittent regression, 

leaving the shorelines with prominent horizontal 

benches and terraces on the adjacent hills and 

mountains. 
 NPS Geologic Resources Division 12 

Several of the most pronounced shorelines are called the 

Provo, Bonneville, Stansbury, and Gilbert shorelines at 

1,594 to 1,600 m (5,230 to 5,250 ft), 1,487 to 1,478 m (4,880 

to 4,850 ft), 1,329 to 1,364 m (4,360 to 4,475 ft), and 1,303 m 

(4,275 ft) in elevation, respectively (Miller and Schneyer 

1994). For more information regarding Lake Bonneville, 

please refer to the following website: 

http://www.ugs.state.ut.us/online/PI- 39/pi39pg01.htm 

Older Structural Faults and Folds 

Several large- scale faults and folds are present in the 

Golden Spike area. The Thatcher Mountain syncline is a 

north- trending feature that controls the distribution of 

bedrock units in the area in the southeastern portion of 

the Golden Spike area. The axial surface dips westward 

40 to 50 degrees (Jordan et al. 1988). 

The Blue Springs thrust fault is located southwest of 

Golden Spike National Historic Site. The fault passes 

from the southern Blue Springs Hills to Anderson Hill in 

the upper Blue Creek Valley with approximately 3,050 m 

(10,000 ft) of eastward translation (see figure 4) (Miller et 

al. 1991). The fault has a westward dip of about 35 

degrees, and it places Oquirrh Formation rocks on top of 

the Thatcher Mountain syncline. 

Another regional thrust fault, the Samaria thrust, 

parallels the Thatcher Mountain syncline and may be 

connected in origin to both the syncline and the Blue 

Springs thrust. This fault thrusts Pennsylvanian and 

Permian age rocks eastward relative to the Mississippian 

age and older rocks. The Samaria thrust fault is part of 

the Manning Canyon detachment system that underlies 

the Pennsylvanian and Permian bedrock north of Great 

Salt Lake (Jordan et al. 1988). 

Basin and Range Features 

High- angle normal faults cut all preexisting structures in 

the area surrounding Golden Spike National Historic 

Site. 

Most of these faults trend north- south, but locally some 

are oriented east- west to the southeast of Golden Spike. 

These faults are usually steeply inclined with dips greater 

than 50 degrees. Many faults with inferred large offsets 

are covered with unconsolidated Quaternary age 

deposits, making documentation and measurement 

difficult. Areas underlain by thick sequences of Oquirrh 

Formation or Manning Canyon shale offer few 

stratigraphic markers to determine faulting. Engineer 

Mountain, the northern Promontory Mountains, and the 

central part of the Blue Springs Hills are probably cut by 

many unmapped, high- angle faults (Miller et al. 1991). 

Offsets of several hundreds of feet are suggested by 

gravity anomalies, topographic breaks, and juxtaposition 

of rock units (Jordan et al. 1988). The Thiokol fault, 

located just northeast of Golden Spike, is a major northstriking fault that cuts the Blue Springs thrust fault. It 

dips steeply east and shows a large degree of stratigraphic 

separation down to the west, suggesting offsets as great 

as 450 m (1,500 ft) along its length (Miller et al. 1991). 

High angle faults bound the eastern and western sides of 

the North Promontory Block in the northwestern corner 

of the region. The western faults are grouped under the 

name North Promontory fault system, and the eastern 

faults are part of the development of the deep Miocene 

basin (Sand Hollow) (Miller and Schneyer 1994). 

The North Promontory fault strikes north- northeast 

and is composed of two or more parallel fault strands. 

The faults dip moderately west at approximately 58 

degrees. Segments of this fault are probably as young as 

Pleistocene in age (~16,000 years old) (Miller and 

Schneyer 1994). The faults accompanying development 

of the Sand Hollow basin on the eastern side of the 

North Promontory block all dip generally to the east. 

The sediments in the basin may be as much as 2,100 m 

(6,900 ft) thick (Miller and Schneyer 1994). For more 

information on the geologic structures and units featured 

on the digital geologic map of Golden Spike National 

Historic Site, please refer to the Windows helpfile 

GOSPGLG.hlp that accompanies the map. 
 GOSP Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 13

Figure 5. Chinaman’s Arch, a natural bridge carved from a limestone rock formation. Photograph courtesy of the National Park Service. 
 NPS Geologic Resources Division 14 

Figure 6. A cut along the railroad line grade through limestone. Photograph courtesy of the National Park Service. 

Figure 7. The Big Fill as it appears today, still in use as a road at Golden Spike National Historic Site. Photograph courtesy of the 

National Park Service. 
 GOSP Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 15

Figure 8. The Big Trestle at Promontory, Utah. Photograph from A.J. Russell. This and other Russell photographs are available at 

http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/photos/ajrussellstereo/r0528.shtml 

Figure 9. A locomotive on the Big Trestle at Promontory, Utah. Photograph from A.J. Russell. This and other Russell photographs are 

available at http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/photos/ajrussellstereo/ 
 NPS Geologic Resources Division 16 

Map Unit Properties 

This section provides a description for and identifies many characteristics of the map 

units that appear on the digital geologic map of Golden Spike National Historic Site. The 

table is highly generalized and is provided for informational purposes only. Ground 

disturbing activities should not be permitted or denied on the basis of information 

contained in this table. More detailed unit descriptions can be found in the help files that 

accompany the digital geologic map or by contacting the NPS Geologic Resources 

Division. 

Golden Spike National Historic Site is underlain almost 

entirely by Mesozoic rocks, with Tertiary rocks capping 

the high points. These rocks are strikingly visible due to 

regional erosion, uplift, and extension. 

The Laketown Dolomite of Silurian age, is the oldest 

rock in the area. The Water Canyon, Beirdniau, Oquirrh, 

and Thatcher Mountain Formations; Gardison, Great 

Blue, and Deseret Limestones; and the Manning Canyon 

Shale were formed in a variety of depositional 

environments in the Devonian, Mississippian, 

Pennsylvanian, and Permian periods. 

Extension characteristic of the Basin and Range province 

followed late Cretaceous to early Tertiary compressional 

Sevier–Laramide orogenic events. Tertiary basalts, tuff, 

loess and gravels and redeposited tuffs, interbedded with 

sandstone, shale, and marlstone of the Salt Lake 

Formation are the result of local tectonic activity. 

Quaternary alluvium, colluvium, eolian sand, lacustrine 

sand and silt, and talus deposits overlie Tertiary and 

older underlying rock units.

During and after uplift, erosion carved the ravines, 

gullies, sweeping valleys, and channels present at Golden 

Spike today. Pleistocene glaciation and other 

geomorphological agents including streams and 

landslides have all left recent Quaternary age deposits on 

the landscape. The engineering of the railroad grade 

through the area introduced vast man- made fill deposits 

and cuts to the landscape. 

The following pages present a tabular view of the 

stratigraphic column and an itemized list of features for 

each map unit. This sheet includes several properties 

specific to each unit present in the stratigraphic column 

including: map symbol, name, description, resistance to 

erosion, suitability for development, hazards, potential 

paleontologic resources, cultural and mineral resources, 

potential karst issues, recreational use potential, and 

global significance. 
Map Unit Properties Table 

Age Unit Name (Symbol) Features and Description Erosion Resistance Suitability for Development Hazards Potential Paleontologic Resources Pot

Cu

Res

QUATERNARY 

Fill, alluvium, colluvium, 

lacustrine deposits, massmovement, fan deposits 

and loess (Qf, Qal, Qae, 

Qai, Qaf1, Qap, Qc, Qam, 

Qlso, Qlu, Qes, Qai/Qls, 

Qla, Qmc, Qmt, Qrm, Qms, 

Qas, Qli, Qlgs, Qlg, Qll, 

Qls, Qlm, Qa, Qaf2, Qlf) 

Assorted silts, sands, gravels and clays in streams, terraces, and lakes (Lake Bonneville shorelines and lake bottoms). Dark brown silts, sands and clays in flood plain deposits. Poorly sorted gravel, sand, silt and clay in alluvial fans. Some sand and silt are wind transported. Blocky, unsorted debris as talus fans and slides at the bases of slopes, and along former lake shores along with deposits of ooid sands 

Very low 

Unconsolidated deposits could fail if water saturated and should be avoided for waste facilities and large structures, especially if slope is present 

Slumps, slides, mass movement, flash flood washes, seismic activity and liquefaction a threat, gullying, debris flows and floods 

Unknown 

Valle

prese

surface

cam

Alluvial Fan Deposits 

(QTaf3) 

Unit is composed of moderately consolidated to caliche-cemented, poorly sorted deposits of boulders, cobbles, and pebbles forming highly dissected fans and terraces. 

Very low to 

low 

Poor cementation is likely to fail on slopes, high permeability for waste facility development 

Slumps, slides and rockfall 

Modern fossils 

possible 

An

cam

huntin

QUATERNARYTERTIARY Alluvium and Loess (QTal) Unit is unconsolidated to cemented, white caliche-coated boulders, cobbles, and pebbles of quartzite, shale and siltstone near terrace crests. Underlain by red, well-bedded alluvium and fine sand and siltsized loess. Thin to thick bedded. Very low to low Poor cementation is weak on slopes, high permeability for waste treatment Rockfall, slides, slope creep Modern fossils possible An

cam

huntin

Eolian Loess and Alluvial 

Gravel (Tel) 

Combined units of moderately consolidated red loess composed of locally thick accumulations of fine sand and silt size particles. Alluvium is well bedded with clasts of rounded to subangular quartzite, limestone, shale and siltstone. 

Low 

Low consolidation makes unit vulnerable to rockfall and sliding, okay for most recreational use 

Rockfall and slides, weak shales 

Modern fossils 

possible, or 

derivations from 

earlier units 

An

cam

huntin

Basalt (Tb) 

Dark gray to very dark gray, fine grained to very fine grained, crystal-rich olivine-pyroxene-plagioclase basalt. Classified as olivine tholeiite basalt and consists of lava flows 3 to 12 m (10 to 40 ft) thick, each generally with a vesicular top and bottom. Flaggy to slaty appearance also present at some flow boundaries. Breccia present between some flows. Contains sparse phenocrysts of plagioclase, pyroxene, and quartz. Dated at about 3.5 Ma. 

Moderate to 

high 

Rough nature of surface makes it a poor choice for recreational development. 

Blockfall if undercut on slope, rough uneven surfaces for walking 

None Un

Sedimentary Rocks and 

Tuff (Tt) 

Unit is moderately consolidated, gray to brown air-fall tuff and tuffaceous rock redeposited in fluvial and lacustrine environments, and conglomerate and sandstone. Air-fall tuff is mainly glass shards, locally with feldspar and pumice. Redeposited tuff, generally sand and silt sized, contains varying amounts of lithic fragments. Unit is interbedded with sand, silt, and marl containing little tuff. 

Low 

Unit is suitable for most development, except in areas of pumice concentration (sharp surfaces) 

Sharp volcanic glass surfaces, rockfall, slumps in lacustrine deposits 

Modern fossils 

possible Un

TERTIARY 

Salt Lake Formation (Ts) 

Unit is moderately consolidated, gray to brown air-fall tuffaceous rock redeposited in lacustrine environment. Redeposited tuff, generally sandand silt-sized and yellow to green, contains varying amounts of lithic fragments, and is size-sorted and bedded; interbedded with sandstone, shale, and marlstone. Minimum thickness equals 100 m (330 ft). 

Low 

Low consolidation makes unit vulnerable to rockfall and sliding, okay for most recreational use 

Rockfall, slides, slope creep 

Modern fossils 

possible Un

Upper Member (Pt) 

PERMIAN 

Thatcher 

Mountain 

Formation Cherty Member (Ptc) Unit is 1520 m (5000 ft) thick at type section. Upper member is thin-to thick-bedded, reddish-brown, fine- to coarse-grained sandstone, with local crossbeds and some limestone to dolomite interbeds. Bluish-gray nodular and anastamosing chert replaces some sandstone, interbedded with calcite and dolomite. Moderate to high (increases with chert content) Suitable for most development unless highly fractured Rockfall, blockfall Scant fossils in limestone layers Chert 

may 

provide

tool m

Thinly Bedded 

Member (Pot) 

Sandstone 

member (Pos) 

Silty limestone 

member (Posi) 

Bioturbated 

Limestone Member 

(PPNob) 

LOWER PERMIAN UPPER 

PENNSYLVANIAN 

Oquirrh Formation 

Limestone Member 

(PNol) 

Unit is more than 3000 m (10000 ft) thick in the area. Unit is composed of coarse limestone, silty limestone and quart sandstone with medium to thick bedding. Calcsiltite beds with dark-brown chert lenses are common 

in the upper layers. Light-gray, medium-grained orthoquartzite and calcareous quartzite in beds more than 395 m (1300 ft) thick in sandstone member. Sandstone grades downward into light gray siltstone interbedded with brown limestone with some burrows and fossiliferous beds. Light-medium-gray, silty and sandy clastic limestone 

and brown, calcareous, very fine-grained quartz sandstone dominates 

lower beds. Bioturbated beds and laminated beds are interbedded on medium scale. Some chert nodules occur locally. Forms small cliffs. 

High 

Unit should be competent for most forms of development unless highly fractured or weathered 

Rockfall hazard if rock is highly jointed or dissolved. Some shale layers may prove incompetent if highly weathered 

Abundant early 

Pennsylvanian age 

fossils in 

conjunction with 

assorted fusulinids 

such as Millerella 

sp. 

Chert 

coul

provi

ma
Age Unit Name (Symbol) Features and Description Erosion Resistance Suitability for Development Hazards Potential Paleontologic Resources Pot

Cu

Res

Transitional 

Member (PNmct) 

Manning Canyon 

Shale Lower Member 

(PNMmc) 

Transitional member is 150-210 m (490-680 ft) thick, whereas lower member is >915 m (3000 ft) thick. Unit forms layers of interbedded quartzite, siltstone, and medium-bedded fossiliferous limestone; transitional into the limestone member of the Oquirrh Formation. Units weather to tan and gray. Lower beds contain medium- to coarse-grained sandstone and bold, dark-brown quartzite interbedded with noonresistant gray to black shale and minor fossiliferous limestone 

Low to 

moderate 

Rock weathers easily 

making it a poor foundation 

base for structures and 

most permanent 

development, especially if 

a slope is present 

Severe slumping and sliding hazards exist for this unit on slopes and/or if water saturated 

Brown shale 

contains fossil 

plants and 

abundant marine 

fossils 

N

PENNSYLVANIN 

Older Sedimentary Rocks 

(Pzs) 

Unit contains beds of undifferentiated carbonate, sandstone, and shale 

typical of the region. Moderate 

Unit is suitable for most forms of development unless highly fractured 

Rockfall, blockfall on slopes 

Possible fossils in 

this unit N

Great Blue Limestone 

(Mgb) 

Present only beneath the surface this unit is locally cherty, thick-bedded limestone containing abundant coral fossils. 

Moderate to 

high 

Suitable for most development unless significant dissolution or weathering has occurred. Dissolution can pose a problem with waste facilities 

Unit is only present in subsurface, some dissolution may produce caves and sinkholes 

Late Mississippian 

age fossils 

Chert 

coul

provi

ma

Humbug Formation and 

Deseret Limestone, 

Undivided (Mhd) 

Only present in cross section of the area, these units are composed of brown sandy and silty limestone and calcareous siltstone with abundant fossils of corals, brachiopods. 

Moderate 

(weathers 

as caves) 

Dissolution can create conduits which pose a problem for waste facilities and severe dissolution can make construction on this unit risky 

Unit is only present in subsurface, some dissolution may produce caves and sinkholes 

Late Mississippian 

age brachiopods 

and corals, crinoid 

stems, cup corals 

and colonial corals 

N

Americ

have 

caves 

chert 

may h

tool m

MISSISSIPPIAN 

Gardison Limestone (Mg) Only present in cross section of the area, unit is composed of dark-gray, thin-bedded limestone. Fossils are abundant. High 

Shaly partings can render the unit unstable for foundations and other permanent facilities 

Unit is only present in subsurface, some dissolution may produce caves and sinkholes 

Mississippian age 

fossils, some 

corals and 

brachiopods 

Man

nodul

for anc

Beirdniau Formation (Db) Present in cross section only, calcareous sandstone, dark dolomite and limestone dominate this unit. Moderate to high 

Unit is only in subsurface in park area, dissolution increased permeability may factor in to waste facility development. 

Unit is only present in subsurface, some dissolution may produce caves and sinkholes 

Fossils possible, 

noted elsewhere 

for this unit 

N

Hyrum Dolomite (Dh) Unit is present in cross section only, but is composed of dolomite and limestone interbeds. Moderate to high 

Unit is only in subsurface in park area, dissolution increased permeability may factor in to waste facility development 

Unit is only present in subsurface, some dissolution may produce caves and sinkholes 

Fossils possible N

DEVONIAN 

Water Canyon Formation 

(Dwc) 

Present in cross section only, unit contains conspicuously laminated light and dark-gray dolomite present in outcrop as bands. High 

Unit is only in subsurface in park area, dissolution increased permeability may factor in to waste facility development 

Unit is only present in subsurface, some dissolution may produce caves and sinkholes 

Fossils possible N

SILURIAN Laketown Dolomite (Sl) Unit is in cross section of the area only. Unit is composed of pale-gray to white dolomite with scant sandstone and limestone interbeds. Rather massive. High Unit is only in subsurface in park area, dissolution increased permeability may factor in to waste facility development Unit is only present in subsurface, some dissolution may produce caves and sinkholes Fossils possible N
 GOSP Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 19

Geologic History 

This section highlights the map units (i.e., rocks and unconsolidated deposits) that occur 

in Golden Spike National Historic Site and puts them in a geologic context in terms of the 

environment in which they were deposited and the timing of geologic events that created 

the present landscape. 

Rocks in the Golden Spike National Historic Site area 

record a vast span of geologic history (figure 10). The 

oldest rocks provide a rare glimpse into the tectonic 

setting of the Proterozoic Era. The earliest event 

preserved and recorded by rocks exposed in the area was 

the deposition of the layers of sand and mud from nearby 

highlands that now form the uppermost part of the Big 

Cottonwood Formation (exposed in the Wasatch Range) 

of late Precambrian time. This formation is exposed in 

the deepest canyons cutting the Wasatch Mountains east 

of Golden Spike. The deposition was interrupted by a 

prolonged period of glaciation. The ancient glaciation 

was followed by local tectonic uplift and subsequent 

extreme erosion (Baker and Crittenden 1961). 

Late Proterozoic rifting created a new continental 

margin along western North America. During the late 

Precambrian and through the Cambrian, thousands of 

feet of shallow- water marine sediments accumulated 

along a passive plate- tectonic margin on the western side 

of the Transcontinental Arch, an upland that stretched 

from present northern Minnesota southwestward across 

Nebraska, Colorado, and northwestern New Mexico 

(Speed 1983; Sloss 1988; Graham et al. 2002). The Golden 

Spike area was locatednear the western shoreline in this 

paleoenvironment (figure 11). 

Throughout the Paleozoic Era, Europe, Africa, and South 

America were approaching North America as the two 

great landmasses, Laurasia and Gondwana, collided. The 

ancient continent of Gondwana included Australia, 

Antarctica, Africa, South America, and India south of the 

Ganges River, plus smaller islands. Laurasia, located in 

the northern hemisphere, is the hypothetical continent 

that contained the present northern continents (Graham 

et al. 2002). 

The region again underwent uplift followed by severe 

erosion in the early Cambrian Period. The region 

subsided following the uplift, and an ancient sea 

advanced. The sea provided the depositional basin that 

captured vast amounts of sediments from the adjacent 

land mass. Sediments included the sand for the Tintic 

Quartzite and the mud for the Ophir Formation. As the 

basin subsided and the sea deepened, limy muds settled 

to the bottom, later lithifying into the Maxfield 

Limestone. 

These units are all exposed in the Wasatch Mountains. 

This sequence of stratigraphic units records the 

deepening of the sea and advance of the shoreline. Late 

Precambrian shallow- water sediments thicken across 

Utah from east to west, reaching a thickness of 3000-

6000 m (10,000 to 20,000 ft) in western Utah (Hintze 

1988; Graham et al. 2002). 

Water covered virtually the entire state following the 

uplift and subsequent subsidence for a long stand of 

marine sediment deposition. The Equator ran northward 

through Utah, and limy muds accumulated under these 

warm- water conditions in much the same way as they do 

in the broad lime- mud shoal- bank area in the Bahaman 

Islands today (Hintze 1988). 

Paleozoic rocks, specifically Silurian age rocks, are first 

to record the geologic history exposed at the surface in 

Golden Spike. Rocks of the Laketown Dolomite near 

Golden Spike document broad carbonate shelves 

evolving into open and restricted marine environments 

and later near- shore marine environments. 

The first compressive pulses of the Antler Orogeny in the 

west and the Acadian Orogeny in the east (part of the 

Appalachian evolution’s series of orogenic events) were 

felt in the Middle Devonian Period (about 401 Ma) as 

landmasses accreted onto both the western and eastern 

borders of North America. A subduction zone formed 

west of Utah, and lithospheric plates collided against one 

another bending, buckling, folding, and faulting into a 

north- south trending mountain range that stretched 

from Nevada to Canada. The Roberts Mountains Thrust 

marks the easternmost thrust sheets generated by the 

Antler Orogeny. 

Great sheets of rock measuring tens to hundreds of 

kilometers in width and length were stacked on top of 

one another during orogenic events. The weight 

depresses the land in front of the thrust sheets, or 

foreland, and causes the foreland to subside into a 

foreland basin. As the highlands to the west thrust above 

sea level at the beginning of the Mississippian, warm 

marine water flooded the foreland basin and spread over 

eastern Utah and creating an extensive carbonate 

platform. 

Fossils of animals that once lived in normal marine 

salinity including brachiopods, trilobites, corals, 

bryozoans, crinoids, fish, foraminifera, and conodonts 

(see Glossary)) are found in the thick Mississippian 

marine limestones. The sea became shallower during the 

regression that followed the Antler Orogeny, and 

habitats dwindled restricting animal life. Eastern Utah 

transitioned to a broad karst plain of shallow- marine 

sandstone and micrite (carbonate mudstone). The area 
 NPS Geologic Resources Division 20 

was again exposed to subaerial erosion by the end of the 

Mississippian (Poole and Sandberg 1991; Graham et al. 

2002). 

Layers of carbonates, intermittently alternating with 

sandy sediments, accumulated in the area during Early 

Mississippian and much of Late Mississippian time. 

These were to become the Fitchville, Gardison, Deseret, 

and Humbug formations. 

The sea became shallower during the regression that 

followed the Antler Orogeny, and the Kaskaskia 

Sequence (a prominent pile of cratonic deposition 

consisting of quartz sandstones, carbonates, and 

evaporites) came to an end. The shoreline again receded 

from the Transcontinental Arch; by early Pennsylvanian 

time, soils began forming in low lands and the higher 

areas experienced erosion. Coincident with 

Pennsylvanian tectonics (figure 12) was a global climate 

shift in the region of Utah from the warm humid 

environment of the Late Mississippian to a much more 

arid environment during the Early Pennsylvanian 

(Rueger 1996). 

As the Ancestral Rocky Mountains formed, the 

Ouachita- Marathon thrustbelt, the Anadarko Basin, and 

other Permian basins developed to the south and the 

Oquirrh Basin subsided (Jordon and Douglas 1980; 

Peterson 1980; Kluth 1986; Gregson 1992). Vertical relief 

in some of these basins relative to sea level (i.e., the 

Oquirrh and Central basins) was greater than the 

emergent mountains. The Ancestral Rockies may have 

reached as much as 3,000 m (10,000 ft) of relief. 

The thick sedimentary sequence of the Oquirrh Group 

east of the Golden Spike area represents the variety of 

shallow marine and arid near- shore environments 

present in the Oquirrh basin area throughout the 

Pennsylvanian. Included were eolian dunes, marine shelf, 

open coastal area, intermittent fluvial systems and 

channels, and calm storm buffered basins (Konopka 

1982). The Oquirrh Basin, along with these other 

paleotectonic structures, probably reflects a regionally 

pervasive tectonic stress field. Precambrian structural 

weaknesses and the compressional stress field that 

evolved with the assembly of Pangaea (Tweto 1977; Kluth 

1986; Ross and Ross 1986; Gregson 1992) likely controlled 

the basin and range structures. 

Continuing from the Pennsylvanian and during the 

middle part of the deposition of the Permian Park City 

Formation, shallow, stagnant seas persisted over most of 

the region providing the arid, evaporitic conditions 

required for the deposition of phosphate and other salts 

(Baker and Crittenden 1961). The Permian Period 

appeared to be a time of dramatic environmental change 

across the globe. Wyoming and eastern Utah were 

oriented along a trend that placed the Permian equator 

on a southwest- northeast line through the area. An arid 

climate prevailed in this western part of the 

supercontinent Pangaea and resulted in restricted marine 

evaporitic conditions over much of the cratonic seaway 

(Peterson 1980; Graham et al. 2002). These shallow seas 

filled the Oquirrh and Paradox basins today known for 

their incredible accumulations of sediments and salts. 

Geologists have documented from deposits around the 

globe that the third and most extensive mass extinction 

in geologic time occurred at the close of the Permian. 

Although not as well known as the extinction that wiped 

out the dinosaurs at the end of the Mesozoic, the 

Permian extinction was much more widespread. The 

most recent hypothesis relating to this event suggests that 

a comet, about 6- 13 km (4 to 8 mi) in diameter, slammed 

into Earth (Becker et al. 2001). 

Thousands of species of insects, reptiles, and amphibians 

perished on land. In the oceans, coral formations 

vanished as did snails, urchins, sea lilies, some fish, and 

the once- prolific trilobites. The extinction wiped out 

virtually 300 million years of life history. Five million 

years later, at the dawn of the Mesozoic Era, the oceans 

began a shift toward the chemistry of the modern oceans 

(Graham et al. 2002). 

There are no Mesozoic rocks present in the walls east of 

and surrounding Golden Spike National Historic Site. 

They were eroded and removed from the area following 

uplift along regional faults. This missing rock record 

makes determining the paleoenvironment of the 

Mesozoic at Golden Spike difficult. Geologists refer to 

surrounding areas to determine the history in a regional 

context. 

Periodic incursions from the north throughout the 

Triassic and Jurassic brought shallow seas flooding into 

Wyoming, Montana, and into a northeast- southwest 

trending trough on the Utah- Idaho border (figure 13). 

Volcanoes formed an arcuate north- south chain of 

mountains off the western coast in what is now central 

Nevada. To the south, the landmass that would become 

South America split away from the Texas coast. Africa 

and Great Britain rifted away from the present East Coast 

opening up the Atlantic Ocean. The Ouachita 

Mountains, formed when South America collided with 

North America, remained a significant highland, and 

rivers from this highland flowed to the northwest toward 

the Colorado Plateau. The Ancestral Rocky Mountains 

and the Monument Upwarp also remained 

topographically high during the Jurassic. 

The Western Interior Basin was a broad, shallow sea on 

the southwest side of the North American craton during 

this time. The basin stretched northward from its 

southern margin in Arizona and New Mexico across the 

Canadian border. The basin was asymmetric with the 

rapidly subsiding Utah- Idaho trough along the west side 

and a more gently dipping shelf farther east. 

At the beginning of the Middle Jurassic Period, the 

western Elko highlands emerged to the west of the UtahIdaho trough. The highlands record an irregular, pulsed 

orogeny with continued compression along the western 

margin, at varied rates of motion (Peterson 1994). The sea 
 GOSP Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 21

lapped on to the continent from the north as plate 

tectonic activity increased to the west. 

The next major tectonic event in the Golden Spike area 

has its origins in the Late Jurassic when a passive margin 

became a convergent continental boundary. The Sevier 

Orogeny began in the late Early Cretaceous (Albian age) 

and peaked in the Late Cretaceous. Slightly later, but 

overlapping in time (mid- Late Cretaceous to early 

Oligocene), the Laramide (Rocky Mountain) Orogeny 

formed the southern Rocky Mountains, Uinta 

Mountains, the San Rafael Swell, and other uplifted 

features to the east and south of Golden Spike. Both were 

in response to crustal shortening as the Farallon and 

North American plates collided. During the Sevier 

Orogeny in western Utah and southern Nevada, large 

thrust sheets moved eastward. Great compressional 

forces pushed these sheets of rock from west to east 

along thrust faults, first as thin slabs of sedimentary 

rocks, then as thick slabs with basement detachments. 

This formed overlapping columns of rock, and 

eventually enough rock was uplifted to create the Rocky 

Mountains (figure 14). This compression also resulted in 

the uplift of thousands of meters of sedimentary deposits 

that were buried in the basin that covered central Utah. 

The Gulf of Mexico, separating North and South 

America, continued to rift open in the south. Marine 

water transgressed northward from the expanding Gulf 

of Mexico and southward from the Arctic into the 

roughly north- south trending trough east of the rising 

mountains. 

The seas advanced, retreated, and advanced again many 

times during the Cretaceous until the most extensive 

interior seaway ever recorded drowned much of western 

North America. The Western Interior Seaway was an 

elongate basin that extended from today’s Gulf of 

Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, a distance of about 4,827 km 

(3,000 mi) (Kauffman 1977). The width of the basin was 

1,600 km (1,000 mi) from western Utah to western Iowa 

during periods of maximum transgression. The basin was 

relatively unrestricted at either terminus (Kauffman 

1977). 

The Late Cretaceous to early Tertiary rocks that crop out 

south of Golden Spike record Sevier orogenic 

deformation and its evolution into Laramide 

deformation (Goldstrand 1990). This deformation, 

contrasting with earlier Sevier deformation, involved 

thick, basement- cored uplifts along thrust faults that 

shallowed downward accompanied by extensive folding. 

The Sevier orogeny shoved relatively thin slabs of older, 

upper Precambrian and lower Paleozoic sedimentary 

rocks eastward over younger, upper Paleozoic and lower 

Mesozoic rocks. 

For about 35 million years during the Laramide Orogeny, 

from roughly 70 Ma to 35 Ma, the collision of the 

tectonic plates transformed the extensive basin of the 

Cretaceous Interior Seaway into smaller interior basins 

bordered by rugged mountains (figure 15) (Graham et al. 

2002). The crustal unrest of the Late Cretaceous 

Laramide orogeny culminated in the great dislocations 

along the Charleston thrust fault southeast of Great Salt 

Lake. 

Following the extensive crustal thickening during the 

Laramide orogeny, melting of the lower crust during 

decompression gave rise to the volcanic activity of the 

Wasatch Igneous Belt. The emplacement of the belt was 

facilitated by mantle upwelling and underplating of a hot 

lower crust during the regional, Basin and Range crustal 

extension following decompression (Vogel et al. 1997). 

Near the end of the Laramide Orogeny in early midTertiary time, igneous activity occurred across the 

southwest (Baars 2000; Fillmore 2000). 

Laccoliths emplaced during this time provide some of 

the spectacular topography seen from national parks and 

monuments in Utah today, including the Henry, Abajo 

and La Sal Mountains (Graham et al. 2002). This onset of 

volcanic activity signaled the ultimate end of the 

Laramide Orogeny. The area’s deformational regime 

changed once again from compressional to extensional 

and the southwestern margin of North America 

underwent extensional deformation. As crustal 

extension continued the surface developed into the 

basin- and- range topography of today in western Utah, 

Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. 

Golden Spike is in the Basin and Range physiographic 

province and the Wasatch Front forms part of the 

eastern edge. The Wasatch Mountains are a narrow, 

uplifted fault- block range trending north- south from 

southern Idaho (Malad City, ID) to central Utah 

(Gunnison, UT), some 370 km (230 mi) (Swan et al. 1980). 

The Wasatch fault is defined for much of its extent by a 

zone of lesser faults and a well- marked fault scarp, the 

dramatically sharp Wasatch Front. The fault exhibits 

almost continuous geomorphic expression of late 

Quaternary uplift (Swan et al. 1980). 

Uplift along the Wasatch ongoing today along the 

various segments of the Wasatch fault (figure 16). Though 

no significant seismic events have occurred in recorded 

history along the fault, geologists speculate an 

earthquake is possible at any moment. One of the largest 

of these segments located southeast of Great Salt Lake 

has a footwall of Great Blue limestone and a hanging wall 

of Manning Canyon shale. The top of the Great Blue 

limestone is displaced by this series of faults, from an 

elevation of about 2743 m (9,000 ft) to a position below 

the valley floor, making the total displacement more than 

1219 m (4,000 ft) (Baker and Crittenden 1961). Estimates 

of average total throw across the fault zone vary from 2.6 

to 4 km (1.6 to 2.5 miles) (Bruhn et al. 1987). 

Fault- bounded valleys separating the uplifted mountain 

ranges are filled with a variety of sediments shed from 

the newly exposed highlands. In the Golden Spike area, 

during and after a period of intense regional erosion that 

probably occurred during much of the Eocene and early 

Oligocene, the conglomerates and reworked volcanics of 
 NPS Geologic Resources Division 22 

the Tibble Fork Formation were deposited, possibly 

contemporaneous with volcanic rocks erupting in the 

Park City area to the northeast (Baker and Crittenden 

1961). 

The Quaternary Period is subdivided into two epochs: 1) 

the Pleistocene which ranges from about 1.6 Ma to 10,000 

years before present (B.P.), and 2) the younger Holocene 

Epoch that extends from 10,000 years B.P. to the present. 

The Pleistocene Epoch, known as the Ice Age, is 

characterized by multiple episodes of continental and 

alpine glaciation. Great continental glaciers thousands of 

feet thick advanced and retreated over approximately 

100,000- year cycles. Huge volumes of water were stored 

in the glaciers during glacial periods so that sea level 

dropped as much as 91 m (300 ft) (Fillmore 2000). 

About 16,800 years ago, ancient Lake Bonneville covered 

an area larger than the Great Salt Lake. It was 305 m 

(1,000 ft) deep and the highest shoreline, called the 

Bonneville shoreline, was located around 1,565 m (5,135 

ft) above sea- level. The Provo shoreline, at which level 

the water remained the longest, was a little over 1,463 m 

(4,800 ft) in elevation. Both are expressed by marked 

contours, parallel to the valley floor, along the foot of the 

Wasatch range (Baker and Crittenden 1961). In the 

foothills of the mountains in Utah and in the Salt Lake 

valley, benches of gravel and sand were deposited by 

Lake Bonneville. At the mouth of American Fork canyon, 

southeast of Golden Spike near Timpanogos Cave 

National Monument, two large hills (about 30.5 m or 100 

feet high) are formed by gravel deposited as the ancient 

American Fork River reached Lake Bonneville and 

formed a river delta. 

Lake Bonneville once covered 51,800 square km (20,000 

square mi) over Utah and parts of Nevada and Idaho. At 

Golden Spike Bonneville age lacustrine marl silt, sand, 

and gravel cover older sediments. Approximately 16,800 

years ago, Lake Bonneville crested over a pass at Red 

Rocks (near Downey, Idaho) into southern Idaho. This 

breach sent a torrent of water out of Lake Bonneville and 

into the Snake River drainage. The water carved 

incredible deep valleys and left deposits of sand, gravel, 

and even boulders as it rushed along. The Bonneville 

flood lasted less than a year and lowered lake level by 122 

m (400 ft). As Utah's climate became warmer and drier, 

Lake Bonneville slowly evaporated until the Great Salt 

Lake and Utah Lake were all that remained. 

Geologically, the region around Golden Spike has 

changed little during the Holocene, the age of humans, 

with the exception of railroad development, blasting, and 

filling. Streams have modified the landscape since the 

end of the Pleistocene. Figure 17 summarizes the geologic 

history from the Proterozoic to the present at Golden 

Spike National Historic Site. 
 GOSP Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 23

Figure 10. Geologic time scale; adapted from the U.S. Geological Survey. Red lines indicate major unconformities between eras. Included 

are major events in life history and tectonic events occurring on the North American continent. Absolute ages shown are in millions of 

years. 
 NPS Geologic Resources Division 24 

Figure 11. Paleogeographic map of Early Mississippian age. Note the location of Golden Spike in relation to Transcontinental Arch. 
 GOSP Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 25

Figure 12. Major uplifts and basins present during the Pennsylvanian age in the southwestern United States. Sediment eroded from the 

uplifts was deposited in adjacent basins. Modified from Rigby (1977). 
 NPS Geologic Resources Division 26 

Figure 13. Jurassic structural elements affecting sedimentation in the western U.S. The arc-graben depression probably did not exist in Late 

Jurassic time. Eastern Elko highlands rose out of the Utah-Idaho trough in latest Middle and Late Jurassic time. Modified from Peterson 

(1994). 
 GOSP Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 27

Figure 14. Location of Golden Spike National Historic Site on a tectonic map showing Laramide-age structures in the Western U.S. The map 

illustrates the anastamosing nature of the basement-cored arches (regional-scale anticlines) and the spatial relationships with the adjacent 

thrust belt, Colorado Plateau, and North American craton. The ‘Thrust Belt’ marks the eastern extent of the Sevier Orogeny. Note the 

location of Golden Spike, west of the Sevier Thrust Belt. Adapted from Gregson and Chure (2000). 
 NPS Geologic Resources Division 28 

Figure 15. Early post-Laramide map showing the probable location of the continental divide, major depositional basins, erosional features, 

and stream systems in the western US. Light gray areas denote basins, dark gray areas indicate highlands, and arrows indicate probable 

directions of sediment transport into the basins and away from the continental divide. SDC = Sangre de Cristo Mountains; SJ = San Juan 

Mountains. Modified from Christiansen et al. (1994). 
 GOSP Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 29

Figure 16. Segments of the Wasatch fault as identified by Machette (1987). Boundaries are placed at offsets of discontinuities in the trend of 

the fault and are marked by red arrows. Adapted from Hintze (1988). 
 NPS Geologic Resources Division 30 

Figure 17. Generalized graphic overview of geologic evolution of Utah from the Archean Eon to the Holocene Epoch. Adapted from Hintze 

(1988). 
 GOSP Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 31

Glossary 

This glossary contains brief definitions of technical geologic terms used in this report. Not all 

geologic terms used are referenced. For more detailed definitions or to find terms not listed 

here please visit http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/docs/parks/misc/glossarya.html. 

active margin. A continental margin where significant 

volcanic and earthquake activity occurs; commonly a 

convergent plate margin. 

alluvial fan. A fan- shaped deposit of sediment that 

accumulates where a high gradient stream flows out of 

a mountain front into an area of lesser gradient such as 

a valley. 

alluvium. Stream- deposited sediment that is generally 

rounded, sorted, and stratified. 

angular unconformity. An unconformity where the strata 

above and below are oriented differently; generally 

caused by structural deformation and erosion prior to 

deposition of the upper bed. 

aquifer. Rock or sediment that are sufficiently porous, 

permeable, and saturated to be useful as a source of 

water. 

ash (volcanic). Fine pyroclastic material ejected from a 

volcano (also see tuff). 

basement. The undifferentiated rocks, commonly 

igneous and metamorphic, that underlie the rocks of 

interest. 

basin (structural). A doubly- plunging syncline in which 

rocks dip inward from all sides (also see dome). 

basin (sedimentary). Any depression, from continental 

to local scales, into which sediments are deposited. 

bed. The smallest sedimentary strata unit, commonly 

ranging in thickness from one centimeter to a meter or 

two and distinguishable from beds above. 

bedding. Depositional layering or stratification of 

sediments. 

bedrock geology. The geology of underlying solid rock 

as it would appear with the sediment, soil, and 

vegetative cover stripped away. 

block (fault). A crustal unit bounded by faults, either 

completely or in part. 

chemical weathering. The dissolution or chemical 

breakdown of minerals at Earth’s surface via reaction 

with water, air, or dissolved substances. 

conglomerate. A coarse- grained sedimentary rock with 

clasts larger than 2 mm in a fine- grained matrix. 

continental drift. The concept that continents have 

shifted in position over Earth (see and use ‘plate 

tectonics’). 

convergent boundary. A plate boundary where two 

tectonic plates are moving together (i.e., a zone of 

subduction or obduction). 

cordillera. A Spanish term for an extensive mountain 

range that is used in North America to refer to all of 

the western mountain ranges of the continent. 

cross section. A graphical interpretation of geology, 

structure, and/or stratigraphy in the third (vertical) 

dimension based on mapped and measured geological 

extents and attitudes depicted in an oriented vertical 

plane. 

crust. The outermost compositional shell of Earth, 10- 40 

km (6- 25 mi) thick, consisting predominantly of 

relatively low- density silicate minerals (also see 

oceanic crust and continental crust). 

crystalline. Describes the structure of a regular, orderly, 

repeating geometric arrangement of atoms 

debris flow. A rapid and often sudden flow or slide of 

rock and soil material involving a wide range of types 

and sizes. 

deformation. A general term for the process of faulting, 

folding, shearing, extension, or compression of rocks 

as a result of various Earth forces. 

delta. A sediment wedge deposited at a stream’s mouth 

where it flows into a lake or sea. 

dip. The angle between a structural surface and a 

horizontal reference plane measured normal to their 

line of intersection. 

divergent boundary. A tectonic plate boundary where 

the plates are moving apart (e.g., a spreading ridge or 

continental rift zone). 

drainage basin. The total area from which a stream 

system receives or drains precipitation runoff. 

exfoliation. The breakup, spalling, peeling, flaking, etc. of 

layers or concentric sheets from an exposed rock mass 

due to differential stresses resulting from thermal 

changes or pressure unloading. 

extrusive. Of or pertaining to the eruption of igneous 

material onto the surface of Earth. 

fault. A subplanar break in rock along which relative 

movement occurs between the two sides. 

formation. Fundamental rock- stratigraphic unit that is 

mappable and lithologically distinct from adjoining 

strata and has definable upper and lower contacts. 

fracture. Irregular breakage of a mineral; also any break 

in a rock (e.g., crack, joint, fault) 

geology. The study of Earth including its origin, history, 

physical processes, components, and morphology. 

graben. A down- dropped structural block bounded by 

steeply- dipping, normal faults (also see horst). 

horst. An uplifted structural block bounded by highangle normal faults. 

igneous. Refers to a rock or mineral that originated from 

molten material; one of the three main classes or rocks: 

igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary. 

intrusion. A body of igneous rock that invades older 

rock. The invading rock may be a plastic solid or 

magma that pushes its way into the older rock. 

joint. A semi- planar break in rock without relative 

movement of rocks on either side of the fracture 

surface. 
 NPS Geologic Resources Division 32 

laccolith. A tack head- to arcuate- shaped, concordant 

pluton that domed or up- arched the overlying country 

rocks. 

lacustrine. Pertaining to, produced by, or inhabiting a 

lake or lakes. 

landslide. Any process or landform resulting from rapid 

mass movement under relatively dry conditions. 

lava. Magma that has been extruded out onto Earth’s 

surface, both molten and solidified. 

limbs. The two sides of a structural fold on either side of 

its hingeline. 

lithification. The conversion of sediment into solid rock. 

lithology. The description of a rock or rock unit, 

especially the texture, composition, and structure of 

sedimentary rocks. 

lithosphere. The relatively rigid outmost shell of Earth’s 

structure, 50 to 100 km (31 to 62 mi) thick, that 

encompasses the crust and uppermost mantle. 

loess. Silt- sized sediment deposited by wind, generally 

of glacial origin. 

magma. Molten rock generated within Earth that is the 

parent of igneous rocks. 

mantle. The zone of Earth’s interior between crust and 

core. 

mechanical weathering. The physical breakup of rocks 

without change in composition (syn: physical 

weathering). 

member. A lithostratigraphic unit with definable contacts 

that subdivides a formation. 

metamorphic. Pertaining to the process of 

metamorphism or to its results. 

normal fault. A normal fault is defined as a surface where 

the hanging wall (the block above the fault surface) 

appears to have moved downward relative to the 

footwall (the block below the fault surface). 

orogeny. A mountain- building event, particularly a wellrecognized event in the geological past (e.g. the 

Laramide orogeny). 

outcrop. Any part of a rock mass or formation that is 

exposed or “crops out” at Earth’s surface. 

paleontology. The study of the life and chronology of 

Earth’s geologic past based on the phylogeny of fossil 

organisms. 

Pangaea. A theoretical, single supercontinent that 

existed during the Permian and Triassic Periods (also 

see Laurasia and Gondwana). 

plateau. A broad, flat- topped topographic high of great 

extent and elevation above the surrounding plains, 

canyons, or valleys (both land and marine landforms). 

plate tectonics. The theory that the lithosphere is broken 

up into a series of rigid plates that move over Earth’s 

surface above a more fluid aesthenosphere. 

progradation. The seaward building of land area due to 

sedimentary deposition. 

regression. A long- term seaward retreat of the shoreline 

or relative fall of sea level. 

reverse fault. A contractional, high angle (>45o), dip- slip 

fault in which the hanging wall moves up relative to the 

footwall (also see thrust fault). 

rock. A solid, cohesive aggregate of one or more minerals 

or mineraloids. 

scarp. A steep cliff or topographic step resulting from 

vertical displacement on a fault or by mass movement. 

slope. The inclined surface of any geomorphic feature or 

rational measurement thereof (syn: gradient). 

slump. A generally large, coherent mass movement with 

a concave- up failure surface and subsequent 

backward rotation relative to the slope. 

soil. Surface accumulation of weathered rock and 

organic matter capable of supporting plant growth and 

often overlying the parent rock from which it formed. 

strata. Tabular or sheetlike masses or distinct layers (e.g., 

of rock). 

stratigraphy. The geologic study of the origin, 

occurrence, distribution, classification, correlation, 

age, etc. of rock layers, especially sedimentary rocks. 

strike. The compass direction of the line of intersection 

that an inclined surface makes with a horizontal plane. 

strike-slip fault. A fault with measurable offset where the 

relative movement is parallel to the strike of the fault. 

subduction zone. A convergent plate boundary where 

oceanic lithosphere descends beneath a continental or 

oceanic plate and is carried down into the mantle. 

subsidence. The gradual sinking or depression of part of 

Earth’s surface. 

syncline. Down folded strata (concave upward)where 

the stratigraphically younger rocks are in the core and 

become progressively older outward 

talus. Rock fragments, usually coarse and angular, lying 

at the base of a cliff or steep slope from which they 

have been derived. 

tectonic. Relating to large- scale movement and 

deformation of Earth’s crust. 

tectonics. The geological study of the broad structural 

architecture and deformational processes of the 

lithosphere and aesthenosphere (also see structural 

geology). 

terraces (stream). Step- like benches surrounding the 

present floodplain of a stream due to dissection of 

previous flood plain(s), stream bed(s), and/or valley 

floor(s). 

terrestrial. Relating to Earth or Earth’s dry land. 

thrust fault. A contractional, dip- slip fault with a 

shallowly dipping fault surface (<45o

) where the 

hanging wall moves up and over relative to the 

footwall. 

topography. The general morphology of Earth’s surface 

including relief and location of natural and 

anthropogenic features. 

trace (fault). The exposed intersection of a fault with 

Earth’s surface. 

trace fossils. Sedimentary structures, such as tracks, 

trails, burrows, etc., that preserve evidence of 

organisms’ life activities, rather than the organisms 

themselves. 

unconformity. A surface within sedimentary strata that 

marks a prolonged period of nondeposition or 

erosion. 

uplift. A structurally high area in the crust, produced by 

movement that raises the rocks. 

weathering. The set of physical, chemical, and biological 

processes by which rock is broken down in place. 
 GOSP Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 33

References 

This section provides a listing of references cited in this report. It also contains general 

references that may be of use to resource managers. A more complete geologic 

bibliography is available and can be obtained through the NPS Geologic Resources 

Division. 

Adams, O.C. 1962. Geology of the Summer Ranch and 

North Promontory Mountains. 

Baars, D.L. 2000. The Colorado Plateau. Albuquerque, 

NM: University of New Mexico Press. 

Baker, A.A., and M.D. Crittenden, Jr. 1961. Geology of the 

Timpanogos Cave Quadrangle, Utah, U.S Geological 

Survey: Quadrangle Map - GQ- 0132. 

Blake, D., year unknown, 

http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/g/GOLDENSPIKE.

html (accessed April 11, 2004) 

Bruhn, R.L., P.R. Gibler, W.T. Parry. 1987. Rupture 

characteristics of normal faults, An example from the 

Wasatch fault zone, Utah. Journal of the Geological 

Society of London 28: 337- 353. 

Christiansen, E. II, B.J. Kowallis, M.D. Barton. 1994. 

Temporal and spatial distribution of volcanic ash in 

Mesozoic sedimentary rocks of the Western Interior, 

an alternative record of Mesozoic magmatism. In 

Mesozoic Systems of the Rocky Mountain Region, USA, 

eds. M.V. Caputo, J.A. Peterson, K.J. Franczyk, 73- 94. 

Denver, CO: Rocky Mountain Section, SEPM. 

Crittenden, M.D., Jr. 1988. Bedrock geologic map of the 

Promontory Mountains, Box Elder County, Utah. U.S. 

Geological Survey, Open- File Report - OF 88- 0646. 

De Courten, F. 1994. Shadows of time – the geology of 

Bryce Canyon National Park. Bryce Canyon, UT: Bryce 

Canyon Natural History Association. 

Fillmore, R. 2000. The Geology of the parks, monuments 

and wildlands of Southern Utah. University of Utah 

Press. 

Goldstrand, P.M. 1990. Stratigraphy and paleogeography 

of Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary rocks of 

southwest Utah, Utah Geological and Mineral Survey, 

Miscellaneous Publication - MP90- 2. 

Graham, J.P., T.L. Thornberry, S.A. O’Meara. 2002, 

Unpublished. Geologic resources inventory for Mesa 

Verde National Park. National Park Service, Inventory 

and Monitoring Program. 

Gregson, J.D., D.J. Chure. 2000. Geology and 

paleontology of Dinosaur National Monument, UtahColorado. In Geology of Utah’s Parks and Monuments, 

eds. D.A. Sprinkel, T.C. Chidsey, Jr., P.B. Anderson. 

Utah Geological Association publication 28. 

Gwynn, J.W. 2002. The railroads proximate to Great Salt 

Lake, Utah. In Great Salt Lake; an overview of change, 

ed. Gwynn, J.W., 273- 281. 

Hintze, L.F.. 1988. Geologic history of Utah. Brigham 

Young University Geologic Studies, Special 

Publications 7. 

Hood, J.W. 1972. Hydrologic reconnaissance of the 

Promontory Mountains area, Box Elder County, Utah. 

State of Utah, Department of Natural Resources 

Technical Publication 38. 

Jordan, T.E., R.C. Douglass. 1980. Paleogeography and 

structural development of the late Paleozoic to early 

Permian Oquirrh Basin, northwestern Utah. In 

Paleozoic paleogeography of the west- central United 

States, eds. T.D. Fouch, E.R. Magathan, 217- 238. SEPM 

(Society for Sedimentary Geology). 

Jordan, T.E., M.D. Crittenden Jr., R.W. Allmendinger, 

D.M. Miller. 1988. Geologic map of the Thatcher 

Mountain Quadrangle, Box Elder County, Utah. U.S. 

Geological Survey, for Utah Geological and Mineral 

Survey, Utah Department of Natural Resources, MAP 

109. 

Kauffman, E.G. 1977. Geological and biological overview, 

Western Interior Cretaceous Basin. Mountain Geologist 

14: 75- 99. 

Ketterson, F.A., Jr. 1969. Golden Spike National Historic 

Site: Development of an historical reconstruction. 

Utah Historical Quarterly 37: 58- 68. 

Kluth, C.F. 1986. Plate tectonics of the ancestral Rocky 

Mountains. In Paleotectonics and sedimentation in the 

Rocky Mountain region, ed. J. A. Peterson, 353- 369. 

AAPG Memoir 41. 

Konopka, E.H., R.H. Dott Jr. 1982. Stratigraphy and 

sedimentology, lower part of the Butterfield Peaks 

Formation (Middle Pennsylvanian), Oquirrh Group, at 

Mt. Timpanogos, Utah. Utah Geological Association 

Publication 10: 215- 234. 

Kraus, G. 1969. Chinese laborers and the construction of 

the Central Pacific. Utah Historical Quarterly 37: 41- 57. 

Lohman, S.W. 1981. The geologic story of Colorado 

National Monument. U.S. Geological Survey - Bulletin 

1508. 
 NPS Geologic Resources Division 34 

Machette, M.N., W.R. Lund. 1987. Late Quaternary 

history of the American Fork segment of the Wasatch 

fault zone, Utah. Geological Society of America – 

Abstracts with program 19: 317. 

Mann, D.H. 1969. The Undriving of the Golden Spike. 

Utah Historical Quarterly 37: 124- 134. 

Michel, L.V. 1986. The Overthrust Belt in front of the Uinta 

Mountains. Utah. 

Miller, D.M., M.D. Crittenden Jr., T.E. Jordan. 1991. 

Geologic Map of the Lampo Junction Quadrangle, Box 

Elder County, Utah. U.S. Geological Survey, for Utah 

Geological and Mineral Survey, Utah Department of 

Natural Resources, MAP 136. 

Miller, D.M., J.D. Schneyer. 1994. Geologic Map of the 

Sunset Pass Quadrangle, Box Elder County, Utah U.S. 

Geological Survey, Utah Geological and Mineral 

Survey, Utah Department of Natural Resources, MAP 

154. 

Miller, D.M. 2000. Geologic Map of the Rozel Quadrangle, 

Box Elder County, Utah. U.S. Geological Survey, 

Administrative report to the National Park Service, 

Map Unpublished. 

Peterson, F. 1994. Sand dunes, sabkhas, stream, and 

shallow seas: Jurassic paleogeography in the southern 

part of the Western Interior Basin. In Mesozoic Systems 

of the Rocky Mountain Region, USA, eds. M.V. Caputo, 

J.A. Peterson, K.J. Franczyk, 233- 272. Denver, CO: 

Rocky Mountain Section, SEPM. 

Peterson, J.A. 1980 Permian paleogeography and 

sedimentary provinces, west central United States. In 

Paleozoic Paleogeography of the West- Central United 

States, eds. T.D. Fouch, E.R. Magathan, 271- 292. 

Denver, CO: Rocky Mountain Section, SEPM. 

Poole, F.G., C.A. Sandberg, C. A. 1991. Mississippian 

paleogeography and conodont biostratigraphy of the 

western United States. In Paleozoic Paleogeography of 

the Western United States – II, eds. Cooper, John D., 

Calvin H. Stevens, 107- 136. Society of Economic 

Paleontologists and Mineralogists (SEPM), Pacific 

Section. 

Prucha, C.P. 1988. Lineament study from satellite imagery 

of the Promontory Mountains in Utah. 

Prucha, C.P., D.W. Stearns, T.H.L. Williams. 1988. 

Comparison of Landsat TM and stereo SPOT imagery 

for structural geology interpretation in the 

Promontory Mountains, Utah. Proceedings of the 

Thematic Conference on Geologic Remote Sensing 6: 

p.449. 

Ross, C.A., J.R.P. Ross. 1986. Paleozoic paleotectonics 

and sedimentation in Arizona and New Mexico. In 

Paleotectonics and Sedimentation in the Rocky Mountain 

Region, ed. Peterson, J.A., 653- 668. American 

Association of Petroleum Geologists Memoir 41. 

Rueger, B. F. 1996. Palynology and its relationship to 

climatically induced depositional cycles in the Middle 

Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian) Paradox Formation of 

Southeastern Utah. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 

2000- K, 4 plates. 

Sloss, L.L. 1988. Tectonic evolution of the craton in 

Phanerozoic time. In Sedimentary Cover – North 

American Craton, ed. Sloss, L.L., 25- 52. Geological 

Society of America, Geology of North America D- 2. 

Speed, R.C. 1983. Evolution of the sialic margin in the 

central western United States. In Studies in continental 

margin geology, eds. Watkins, S., C.L. Drake, 457- 468. 

American Association of Petroleum Geologists 

Memoir 34. 

Swan, F.H., III, D.P. Schwartz, L.S. Cluff. 1980. 

Recurrence of moderate to large magnitude 

earthquakes produced by surface faulting on the 

Wasatch fault zone, Utah. Bulletin Seismological Society 

of America 70: 1431- 1432. 

Tweto, O. 1977. Nomenclature of Precambrian rocks in 

Colorado. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1422- D. 

Vogel, T.A., F.W. Cambray, L. Feher, K.N. Constenius. 

1997. Petrochemistry and emplacement history of the 

Wasatch igneous belt, central Wasatch Mountains, 

Utah. Geological Society of America – Abstracts with 

Programs 29 (6): A- 282. 
 GOSP Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 35

Appendix A: Geologic Map Graphic 

The following page provides a preview or “snapshot” of the geologic map for Golden 

Spike National Historic Site. For a poster size PDF of this map or for digital geologic 

map data, please see the included CD or visit the GRE publications webpage: 

http://www2.nature.nps.gov/geology/inventory/gre_publications.cfm 

 GOSP Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 37

Appendix B: Scoping Summary 

The following excerpts are from the GRE scoping summary for Golden Spike National 

Historic Site. The scoping meeting occurred on June 15- 16, 1999; therefore, the contact 

information and Web addresses referred to herein may be outdated. Please contact to 

the Geologic Resources Division for current information. 

An inventory workshop was held at Golden Spike 

National Historic Site (NHS) on June 14- 15, 1999, to view 

and discuss the site’s geologic resources, to address the 

status of geologic mapping for compiling both paper and 

digital maps, and to assess resource management issues 

and needs. Cooperators from the NPS Geologic 

Resources Division (GRD), Natural Resources 

Information Division (NRID), Columbia Cascades 

Support Office (CCSO), Golden Spike NHS 

(interpretation, resource management and 

superintendent), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and 

Utah Geological Survey (UGS) were present for the 2-

day workshop. 

Day one involved a field trip led by USGS Geologist Dave 

Miller who has done extensive geologic mapping and 

research in the Golden Spike NHS area. Day two

involved a scoping session to present overviews of the 

NPS Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) program, the 

Geologic Resources Division, and the ongoing Geologic 

Resource Evaluation (GRE). Round table discussions 

involving geologic issues for Golden Spike NHS included 

interpretation, paleontological and cave and karst 

resources, the status of cooperative geologic mapping 

efforts, sources of available natural resource data, 

geologic hazards and other management issues, unique 

geologic features, potential future research topics, and 

action items generated from this meeting. Brief 

summaries of each are presented below. 

Interpretation 

The GRE aims to help promote geologic resource 

interpretation within the parks, and GRD has staff and 

technology to assist in preparation of useful materials 

including developing site bulletins and resource 

management proposal (RMP) statements appropriate to 

promoting geology. Jim Wood (GRD) and Melanie 

Moreno (USGS- Menlo Park, CA) have worked with 

several other NPS units in developing web- based 

geology interpretation themes and are a source of 

assistance if the park desires. 

One of the major topics of discussion centered around 

the development of a publication describing the geology 

of Golden Spike to be available to visitors, perhaps 

something as simple as a brochure that could be printed 

with little cost. Mark Milligan (UGS Extension Services) 

offered to assist park staff in preparation of such a 

document, and it is hoped that such a joint NPS- UGS 

publication can be produced for GOSP. GOSP, GRD, 

and UGS staff will follow- up. 

Paleontological and Speleological Resources 

Paleontological and speleological natural resources were 

briefly discussed, and the following items were pointed 

out as being noteworthy for Golden Spike: 

• Fossil corals and crinoids in the Paleozoic Oquirrh 

Formation, 

• Ostracodes in White Marl (latest Pleistocene, from 

Lake Bonneville deposits), and 

• Pack rat middens at an undisclosed cave location 

within the NHS. 

Vince Santucci (NPS- GRD Paleontologist) is assembling 

an NPS service- wide paleontological database and 

should be consulted about any information he may have 

for GOSP. 

Status of Geologic Mapping Efforts for Golden Spike 

Dave Miller (USGS- Western Region in Menlo Park, CA) 

has done extensive geologic mapping for the USGS in 

cooperation with the UGS in the Golden Spike area. He 

has worked on several quadrangles and has compiled a 

1:100,000 scale geologic map that encompasses the 

following 7.5' quadrangles: 

• Lampo Junction: M- 136; Geologic Map of the Lampo 

Junction quadrangle, Box Elder County, Utah by D.M. 

Miller, M.D. Crittenden Jr., and T.E. Jordan, 17 p., 2 

plates, 1991, $5.00. Publisher: USGS, 

• Sunset Pass: M- 154; Geologic Map of the Sunset Pass 

quadrangle, Box Elder County, Utah by D.M. Miller 

and J.D. Schneyer, 14 p., 2 plates, 1994, $6.00. 

Publisher: USGS, 

• Rozel, and 

• Golden Spike Monument. 

Lampo Junction and Sunset Pass are available from the 

UGS bookstore in Salt Lake City and contain paper maps 

and write- ups on the geology of the quadrangles. 

Adrienne Anderson thought that the Lampo Junction 

quadrangle needed more work regarding fills along the 

railroad (Blue Creek?). 

The Rozel and Golden Spike Monument quadrangles 

have fieldwork completed but need to be compiled for 

final publication. The Thatcher Mountain Southwest 

quadrangle still needs some fieldwork. Dave estimates 

that it would take him a few months to deliver finished 

products if he were assigned to work on these maps. 

The UGS will be publishing the 30x60 Tremonton 

quadrangle at 1:100,000 scale, but this scale would be too 

broad for park use. Miller's existing work at 1:24,000
 NPS Geologic Resources Division 38 

scale is most desirable. His services need to be obtained 

to complete these three unfinished quadrangles. 

GOSP Superintendent Bruce Powell volunteered to write 

a friendly letter to the USGS requesting Miller's services 

for this NPS project. 

Other Sources of Natural Resources Data for Golden Spike 

Adrienne Anderson (NPS- Intermountain Region; 

cultural resources) presented maps of the cultural areas 

within GOSP. She also drew attention to the layouts that 

Dave Hammond has prepared and the 100,000- scale 

compilation that Dave Miller has put together based 

upon the five quadrangles previously mentioned. 

Dave Miller has supplied some additional bibliographic 

sources to add to the master bibliography for GOSP, 

based on material taken from his published Sunset Pass 

and Lampo Junction quadrangle. These need to be added 

to the IM database. 

Consult with Larry Martin about the NPS- WRD 

“Drinking Water Source Protection Plan” 4- 99. 

Geologic Hazards 

There are numerous issues related to geologic hazards in 

and around Golden Spike NHS. Below is a brief list 

supplied by Dave Miller from his Sunset Pass quadrangle 

summary report. Please consult this publication directly 

if you desire more information. 

Floods. Floods have potential for creating hazards in 

much of the Sunset Pass quadrangle. A potential exists 

for debris flows and floods on alluvial fans. Several 

Holocene alluvial fans mapped along both sides of the 

North Promontory Mountains have been active since the 

deposition of Bonneville lacustrine deposits; all are 

probable sites for future alluviation, including deposition 

during floods. Narrow canyons upslope from the fans are 

also likely sites for powerful floods and debris flows. 

Gullying. Gullying has occurred in many areas underlain 

by unconsolidated to moderately consolidated materials. 

The uplands undergoing intensive agriculture east of the 

North Promontory Mountains show especially 

pronounced gullying. The fine- grained Miocene, 

Pliocene, and Quaternary materials in the Sunset Pass 

quadrangle are highly susceptible to the erosion that 

results from destroying natural ground cover. 

Earthquakes. Northern Utah is part of a seismic belt 

characterized by numerous small- magnitude events and 

by potential for infrequent major events. 

The region from Hansel Valley east to the Wasatch 

Mountains has experienced considerable historic seismic 

activity including magnitude 6 and larger events in 

Hansel Valley in 1909 and 1934. 

No fault scarps or faults cutting upper Pleistocene 

deposits were discovered during field investigations. The 

youngest faults cut the oldest alluvial fan deposits of 

Pliocene and Pleistocene age but not upper Pleistocene 

materials, and, therefore, probably are no younger than 

middle Pleistocene in age. However, several Quaternary 

and historic surface ruptures have been documented 

within a short distance of the Sunset Pass area, and 

Holocene alluvium or talus may have covered similar 

young scarps in the quadrangle. During 1934, a 

magnitude 6.6 earthquake occurred in Hansel Valley, 

and surface rupture from this event is documented about 

8 km (5 mi) west of the Sunset Pass quadrangle. The 

western flank of the North Promontory Mountains has a 

particularly abrupt topographic expression. Jordan (1985) 

and Robison and McCalpin (1987) mapped normal faults 

cutting Pleistocene alluvial fan deposits in one area and 

Lake Bonneville deposits in another north of the Sunset 

Pass quadrangle along the mountain front. 

The regional history of seismic activity and evidence for 

Quaternary faults in Hansel Valley raise the possibility of 

moderate to large earthquakes in the Sunset Pass 

quadrangle. The Wasatch fault zone and related faults 

50- km (30 mi) to the east project westward at moderate 

angles, presenting a potential for a major seismic event 

that could strongly shake the Sunset Pass area. In 

addition to hazards from ground shaking and surface 

rupture, lateral spreads and liquefaction could result 

from an earthquake. 

Landslides. Landslides are present as a few isolated slides 

within lacustrine deposits and Miocene strata. The 

slumps within lacustrine materials in the east- central 

part of the quadrangle involve thick lacustrine gravel 

deposits that probably were built northward by shoreline 

processes, overlapping finer grained sediments. These 

features create steep, unstable slopes where slides are 

likely to occur. 

Also mentioned during the meeting was the possibility 

for volcanism. 

Potential Research Topics for Golden Spike National 

Historic Site 

• A list of potential research topics and future needs 

includes the following: 

• Pack rat midden studies for recent climate history for 

pollen record. 

• GOSP is an excellent candidate for studies of the 

interaction among climate change, land- use history, 

and landscape processes including erosion and 

deposition. The ~150- year photographic, written, and 

oral record can be deciphered along with 

sedimentation and erosion histories recorded along 

major streams such as Blue Creek. 

• Study the deposition behind culverts and filled grades 

for their historic flood history. Compare the findings 

with the historic record of climate. Use this 

information to evaluate the stability of fragile culverts 

and trestles. 
 GOSP Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 39

Disturbed Lands 

The following were classified as disturbed lands and 

include sites to restore: 

• Borrow pits for gravel. 

• Sites to restore: 

• Lands where impacts of grazing are visible, 

• Private land gravel pit that is an eyesore, 

• The Union Pacific grade where it has been eroded; 

minimize erosion for now, 

• Wash Culvert dated 7- 14- 1916; Area where we talked 

about Dave Steensen (NPS- GRD Disturbed Lands 

coordinator) assisting GOSP staff, and 

• Gravel operation on Adams Ranch that is an eyesore. 

Unique Geologic Features 

The Golden Spike area has some unique geologic 

features including the following: 

• Chinaman’s Arch, 

• Flood deposits behind railroad embankments, 

• Hansel Valley ash layer, 

• Pliocene upland valley blankets, 

• Lake level strand lines from the Provo, Bonneville, and 

Stansbury shorelines (the Gilbert shoreline, however, 

is not exposed), 

• Views of the Great Salt Lake, 

• The cave in the park (but its location is not disclosed to 

the public or noted on park maps), and 

• Pack rat middens. 

List of Scoping Meeting attendees with contact information 

NAME AFFILIATION PHONE E- MAIL 

Bruce Heise NPS, Geologic Resources 

Division (303) 969- 2017 Bruce_Heise@nps.gov 

Joe Gregson NPS, Natural Resources 

Information Division (970) 225- 3559 Joe_Gregson@nps.gov 

Tim Connors NPS, Geologic Resources 

Division (303) 969- 2093 Tim_Connors@nps.gov 

Marsha Davis NPS, Columbia Cascades 

Support Office (206) 220- 4262 Marsha_Davis@nps.gov 

Dave Miller USGS (650) 329- 4923 Dmiller@usgs.gov 

Mark Milligan UGS (801) 537- 3326 Nrugs.mmilliga@ut.state.us 

Grant Willis UGS (801) 537- 3355 Nrugs.gwillis@state.ut.us 

Bruce Powell NPS, GOSP 

(435) 471- 2209 

ext. 12 Bruce_M._Powell@nps.gov 

Rick Wilson NPS, GOSP (435) 471- 2209 

ext. 19 Rick_Wilson@nps.gov 

Adrienne Anderson IMDE- CNR, 

Archaeologist (303) 969- 2846 Adrienne_Anderson@nps.gov 

The Department of the Interior protects and manages the nation’s natural resources and cultural heritage; provides scientific and other 

information about those resources; and honors its special responsibilities to American Indians, Alaska Natives, and affiliated Island 

Communities. 

Golden Spike National Historic Site 

Geologic Resource Evaluation Report 

Natural Resource Report NPS/NRPC/GRD/NRR—2006/010 

NPS D-215, July 2006 

National Park Service 

Director • Fran P. Mainella 

Natural Resource Stewardship and Science 

Associate Director • Michael A. Soukup 

Natural Resource Program Center 

The Natural Resource Program Center (NRPC) is the core of the NPS Natural Resource Stewardship and 

Science Directorate. The Center Director is located in Fort Collins, with staff located principally in 

Lakewood and Fort Collins, Colorado and in Washington, D.C. The NRPC has five divisions: Air 

Resources Division, Biological Resource Management Division, Environmental Quality Division, Geologic 

Resources Division, and Water Resources Division. NRPC also includes three offices: The Office of 

Education and Outreach, the Office of Inventory, Monitoring and Evaluation, and the Office of Natural 

Resource Information Systems. In addition, Natural Resource Web Management and Partnership 

Coordination are cross-cutting disciplines under the Center Director. The multidisciplinary staff of NRPC 

is dedicated to resolving park resource management challenges originating in and outside units of the 

national park system. 

Geologic Resources Division 

Chief • David B. Shaver 

Planning Evaluation and Permits Branch Chief • Carol McCoy 

Credits 

Author • Trista Thornberry-Ehrlich

Editing • Sid Covington and Melanie Ransmeier 

Digital Map Production • Heather Stanton 

Map Layout Design • Melanie Ransmeier
Geologic Resources Division 

Natural Resource Program Center 

P.O. Box 25287 

Denver, CO 80225 

http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/inventory/ 

(303) 969-2090 

EXPERIENCE YOUR AMERICATM 

National Park Service 

U.S. Department of the Interior