Armstrong Academy fourth grade students and their teacher David Pendleton kick off the student-led Spikes2Utah letter writing campaign during a press conference at the school in West Valley City on Friday, April 7, 2023. The Golden Spike, the ceremonial final spike driven to join the rails of the transcontinental railroad, is not in Utah but instead housed at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University in California. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — Some Utah elementary school students think it’s time to bring the Golden Spike back home. Driven into the railbed in Promontory, Utah to complete the transcontinental railroad, it’s been kept at Stanford University in California.
But at Neil Armstrong Academy in West Valley, fourth graders have launched a campaign to bring it back. One of those kids is Katie Foster.
“To them, in California, it’s no big deal. And, to us in Utah it’s, it’s really big” Foster said.
Another student involved with the campaign, Jaden Chadwick, said he is excited about the campaign.
“So the reason I’m excited about it is because I’m glad I can help with something, you know, something that’s important to this state,” Chadwick said.
Foster’s teacher saw the Golden Spike in California. She was shocked to discover it wasn’t even kept in a special display. The class has launched the campaign with the website spikes2utah.org. Along with this, the campaign also has a Twitter and Facebook account.
The students are hoping its efforts are “on track” to get the spike back.
Devin Oldroyd contributed to this story.