When you visit Brigham City you have to make the trip to Promontory Summit to see the Golden Spike National Historic Site!
This is where the Central Pacific Railroad, that started in Sacramento, CA met the Union Pacific Railroad, that started in New York. Congress declared Promontory Summit as the meeting place. The actual golden spike is not at this site but you can see it at the Stanford University library.
On May 10, 1869, after the Central Pacific laid 690 miles of track and the Union Pacific 1,086, the Central Pacific's Jupiter...
...met the Union Pacific's No 119. These railroads had crossed 1,776 miles of desert, rivers and mountains to bind together the East and the West with the Transcontinental Railroad. This was a drastic change in that a journey that had taken six months by ox-drawn wagon now took 6 or 7 days by train. Not only had the US economy taken a giant leap forward, it also brought the "frontier" into the national life.
We had ventured into town the night before to check out the local restaurants and found this huge sign announcing the Bird Refuge.
When we got to the Wildlife Education Center we were fascinated by these birds who make their nests along the eaves.
In the visitors center we watched a video that showed us many of the water birds, shore birds and waterfowl in this area. We were fascinated by the video showing the Western Grebe appearing to walk on water.
We're not really bird watchers, but they gave us a map of the 12 mile auto tour route, a full color pamphlet of familiar species in the area, a CD made by the local school children and two sets of binoculars.
We couldn't believe it but we actually had a great time!! We found loads of birds from the pamphlet. Here are some that we especially liked:
American White Pelican
The Red Winged Blackbird and the Yellow-headed blackbird
A Crimson Teal
American Avocets
And even though we didn't get to see them walking on water, we saw lots of Grebes.
The refuge provides beautiful scenery with the Bear River and the mountains in the background.
The one species we really wanted to see is called a Ruddy Duck. We wanted to see it because it has a beautiful blue beak. But we will just stay on the lookout!
Whew!! That was one full day. Now its time to go. On the way out, I dashed into the Grist Mill Bakery where you fill out a form picking the type of bread, type of lunch meat and which toppings you want on it and in a few minutes they call your name and it was ready to go. We're now off to Twin Falls, Idaho.
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