Wooden chip cut from a railroad tie, Promontory, Utah, 1869
date: label: date made
content: 1869
label: associated date
content: 1869
notes: label: Description
content: Traveling west with his mother in June 1869, eight-year-old Hart F. Farwell stopped at Promontory, Utah, to cut a chip from a special railroad tie. The previous month, on May 10, 1869, the ceremonial “Golden Spike” had been driven into the “last tie” to complete the first transcontinental rail link in the United States.
label: Description
content: The joining of east and west by rail at Promontory was a significant event in American life and culture. A national network of iron, steel, and steam, represented by the driving of the Golden Spike, became a unifying metaphor in the years after the Civil War.
label: Description
content: But, alas, the railroad tie from which young Farwell cut this chip was not the real “last tie.” After the driving of the Golden Spike, the ceremonial last tie was immediately removed and replaced with a pine tie no different from the others. In the weeks and months following the ceremony, relic hunters whittled replacement ties to bits at the rate of about one tie a week. The wooden chip that Farwell cut from one of these ties was his lifelong possession.
label: Description
content: Gift of Hart F. Farwell, 1922
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: used
content: Railroads
setName: label: See more items in
content: Political History: Political History, General History Collection
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content: Government, Politics, and Reform
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content: Souvenir Nation
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content: Transcontinental Railroad
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Hart F. Farwell
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PL.032197
label: catalog number
content: 32197
label: accession number
content: 68308
objectType: label: Object Name
content: tie fragment, railroad
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3/8 in x 1 1/2 in; .9525 cm x 3.81 cm