The audience and actors pose for a picture to replicate the historic photograph of the driving the golden spike on Sat. May 7 2022.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Chinese Railroad Workers Descendants Association held a groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday for a monument honoring Chinese railroad workers and others who helped build the first Transcontinental Railroad.
With shovels in hand, they turned over the ground symbolically making space for the 40 X 43-inch upright monument that will be erected to recognize approximately 12,000 Chinese workers.
Utah Senator Karen Kwan said this is something the Chinese Railroad Workers Descendants Association has been dreaming about for several years.
“The only real monument is at Promontory Point, and we thought it would be great to do something in the Salt Lake area,” she said. “We reached out to architect to get an idea of what it should look like.”
The Utah Capitol Preservation Board put out the word they wanted to place two monuments this year. Its purpose is to safeguard the Utah State Capitol as a symbol of the state’s government and a significant national historical monument to be enjoyed by present and future generations.
“It was ripe for us to put in an application earlier this year and we were one of the two monuments placed this year on the capitol grounds,” Kwan said. “It is really a big deal. Many of our ancestors were unknown to a lot of us.”
The Chinese worked during hot summers and freezing cold winters and helped complete the railroad connecting the eastern United States to the western part of the country. Many lost their lives while working on the railroad.
The monument will be set on the state capitol’s southeast lawn in Salt Lake City and will represent not only the Chinese workers but also Native Americans, former slaves, and Latter-day Saints.
Box Elder’s Promontory Summit, the site of Golden Spike National Historical Park, is a place that honors all railroad workers. The park touts connecting the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad as one of the greatest technological achievements of the 19th century.
The National Historical Park also memorializes the thousands Civil War veterans, formerly enslaved African Americans, Irish and Chinese immigrants, American Indians, and Latter-day Saints who helped build the railroad.
Chinese workers, despite holding a record that still stands today for laying 10 miles of track in a day, faced discrimination and earned lower wages than the other workers.
Utah will pay tribute to the influence Asian immigrants played and recognize their role in shaping Utah’s history by placing the monument on the ground of the State Capitol.
There are many of the Chinese who have no history in Utah. They came and worked on the railroad and other places but there are many who are anonymous.
“My ancestors were lost in history. They came in the late 1880’s, but I can’t find any records of them,” she said. “The workers labored in terrible conditions. The Chinese did the hardest jobs for the lowest pay. They also had to pay for food and other things, and they worked in harsh conditions.”
Kwan said there are ghost towns in the west desert that are empty because of the harsh conditions. It is hot and dry in the summer and there is little rain. When it rains there are flash floods, and it gets really muddy.
“There are many people that died out there and no one knows who they are or where they are buried,” she said. “Many of the Chinese that built the railroad worked in towns like Kelton and Terrace to work in the mines in places like Park City.”
The Chinese spread across the west and many settled in the Salt Lake area.
Next year is the 155th anniversary of the driving of the Golden Spike. Kwan is looking for all of Utah to be at Promontory Point and join the festivities and see where history was made.