Salt Lake City and Points Beyond
July 5 - 12, 2010








The Family History Center in Salt Lake City, where Nancy spends her time when we are here. It is one of the best genealogy libraries in the U.S. It has five levels packed with a lot of information. While Nancy was in the library, I stayed at the RV park and did research.






The people at the RV park told us about a real treat that we were able to take in; the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has its recording sessions for its radio and TV program each Sunday morning. Normally it is held in the Tabernacle, but during the summer it is held in the LDS Convention Center auditorium due to the larger crowds. It was quite a show. The choir practiced for about 30 minutes and then took a break. An announcer explained what would be happening, and the choir came back in and the 30 minute recording session started. With about 300 voices in the choir and a 110 member orchestra, the music was fabulous.










The choir director and part of the orchestra.







The auditorium itself was rather impressivie. It seats 21,000 people and there is not a pillar to be seen. Everyone has a great view of the stage, regardless of where they are sitting.








Since I am on the team that runs the sound board in our church I was interested in what their sound board looked like. Wow!







After Salt Lake City we headed for the Tetons, but made a short detour along the way. We went to the Golden Spike Historic Site, which is where the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869.Union Pacific started laying rails in Omaha, heading west, and Central Pacific started laying rails in Sacramento, heading east. They met in Promontory, Utah in May 1869, where the last tie was laid and the rail secured with golden spikes in a ceremony on May 10, 1869. The Park Service does a renactment of the event using replicas of the two locomotives, one from the West and one from the East, that were part of that historic event.







The park ranger describing the events leading up to and on May 10, 1869. Since the railroad companies got paid according to how much track they laid, each company wanted to have the meeting further down the track. It took an act of   Congress to determine the meeting point. The ceremony was scheduled for May 9, but the 119 locomotive from Union Pacific arrived late in the day, so the ceremony was postponed until the next day.







The two locomotives facing each other. The 119 from Union Pacific is on the left and the Jupiter (#60) from Central Pacific is on the right.








A replica of the last tie. The original was stored in a vault in San Fransciso and destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.







The placque on the last tie.









Upon leaving the Golden Spike site we followed signs to a rocket display and found ourselves at the Thiokol plant where they have a display of the various solid propellant rockets they make. The large rocket in the foreground is the booster used on the Space Shuttle. It has two of these, one on each side of the huge fuel tank to which the Shuttle is attached.








After the rocket display we headed up Logan canyon and into Idaho, where we came upon the National Oregon/California Trail Center in Montpelier, ID (the Oregon trail came through here). The Trail Center takes you on a make-believe trip on the Oregon trail so you can experience something of what the journey was like. Our wagonmaster is explaining the items that we need to "purchase" to have what we need for the trip, and what we should toss out or leave behind because it will be too heavy or probably won't survive the journey. It was an interesting and enjoyable experience.

Next stop - Grand Teton National Park.