Salt Lake City, UT - Golden Spike National Historic Park

After gold was discovered in Coloma in 1848, thousands of people including Chinese arrived in California to seek work in the mining industry. Red Bluff was the furthest point north and the last ferry stop on the steamboat. Logically, when the Chinese arrived in Red Bluff they took the boat as far north as possible in order to reach the “Gold Mountain” (金山 or "Gam Saan" in Cantonese). For those who had worked on the railroad, it was a sense of pride to witness the first transcontinental railroad and the union of such with one Gold Spike. A replica of the spike can be found at the Golden Spike National Historic Park and the Sacramento Railroad Museum.

This museum does a good job at providing a good history lesson around the unequal treatment of Chinese laborers working on the railroads despite their high quality of work. In addition, it is common all across the U.S. that 19th Century photographs intentionally omit including any Chinese in their pictures. However, this site has one with all celebrating this big day.