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Social studies activity

Utah's Story: Pioneer Trails, Salt Lake & Five Parks

On May 10, 1869, two trains met in the middle of nowhere in Utah — and when the last spike was hammered in, the very first telegraph message sent across the entire country at the same moment said just one word: 'DONE.' The whole nation celebrated. Church bells rang in New York. Cannons fired in San Francisco. All because of one word from Utah.

Hands OnAbout 25 minutesScreen-freeParent help expected

Materials and setup

How this changes by age

Pre-K (ages 3–4)

On May 10, 1869, two trains met in the middle of nowhere in Utah — and when the last spike was hammered in, the very first telegraph message sent across the entire country at the same moment said just one word: 'DONE.' The whole nation celebrated. Church bells rang in New York. Cannons fired in San Francisco. All because of one word from Utah.

Difficulty 1 of 3

Steps

  1. Look at a picture of two old steam locomotives facing each other on the tracks.
  2. Draw two trains on the same track, facing each other, almost touching in the middle.
  3. Draw a crowd of people cheering around them.
  4. Color your picture, then tap your pencil on the table like a hammer hitting a spike.
  5. Ask a grown-up: 'What would YOU send as the very first message across the whole country?'

Learning objectives

  • Wonder at the moment the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in Utah
  • Notice that a single event in one place can be celebrated by the whole country
  • Ask questions about how people communicated before phones and internet

Kindergarten (ages 5–6)

Imagine walking 1,300 miles — from Illinois to Utah — in the blazing summer heat, pulling a handcart loaded with everything you own. No horses. No wagon. Just you and your family and a cart. That is what thousands of Mormon pioneers did in the 1850s. When they finally saw the Salt Lake Valley, their leader Brigham Young said four words: 'This is the right place.' And they stopped walking.

Difficulty 2 of 3

Steps

  1. Look at a picture of a handcart pioneer family and a picture of the Salt Lake Valley.
  2. Draw a handcart with a family walking beside it through a mountain pass. Show tired faces, worn shoes, heavy load.
  3. In the distance, draw the Great Salt Lake shining blue in a wide valley.
  4. Write or dictate: 'The pioneers walked 1,300 miles because they were looking for ___.'
  5. Talk about: What is something so important that you would walk very, very far to find it?

Learning objectives

  • Understand that Mormon pioneers traveled over 1,300 miles on foot to reach Utah
  • Identify Salt Lake City as Utah's capital, founded by pioneers in 1847
  • Retell the pioneer journey and connect it to the concept of seeking freedom and safety
  • Compare what pioneers carried to what you would choose to bring

Early elementary (ages 6–8)

The Golden Spike ceremony on May 10, 1869 was America's moon landing moment. Two railroad companies — the Union Pacific building west from Nebraska, the Central Pacific building east from California — had been racing toward each other for years. The Central Pacific's hardest sections through the Sierra Nevada mountains were built almost entirely by Chinese workers: 15,000 men who drilled through solid granite, used special blasting techniques to carve tunnels, and rigged themselves over cliff faces to do work no one else would attempt. When the railroads met at Promontory Summit, Utah, the Chinese workers who made it possible were not invited to the ceremony. Utah also has five national parks — more spectacular parks in one state than almost anywhere in the country.

Difficulty 2 of 3

Steps

  1. Draw the Golden Spike ceremony at Promontory Summit: two trains facing each other, a crowd of men in top hats — and in the corner, a small group of Chinese workers watching from a distance, not invited in.
  2. Create a three-part cause-and-effect chain: Chinese workers build the hardest railroad sections → railroad completed at Promontory Summit, Utah → country celebrates, Chinese workers excluded. Write one sentence for each.
  3. Research: What made drilling through the Sierra Nevada so difficult? Write two sentences about the remarkable engineering challenges the workers solved.
  4. On a Utah map, mark: Salt Lake City, Promontory Summit (where the Golden Spike was driven), and two national parks of your choice.
  5. Write a paragraph: Why is it important to know WHO built something, not just that it was built?

Learning objectives

  • Explain the Golden Spike ceremony as a national turning point completed in Utah
  • Identify Chinese workers as the primary builders of the Central Pacific's hardest sections
  • Analyze the injustice of erasure: being excluded from the celebration of work you built
  • Connect the Transcontinental Railroad to national unity and economic transformation

Upper elementary (ages 8–10)

The first telegraph message sent simultaneously coast-to-coast was the single word 'DONE,' transmitted from Promontory Summit, Utah on May 10, 1869, marking the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. This was the internet of its age — suddenly, a letter that took weeks to cross the country arrived in seconds. Goods that cost a fortune to ship became affordable. The nation's economy was rewired. But the 15,000 Chinese workers who built the most dangerous sections of the Central Pacific — including hand-drilling through solid granite at Donner Summit — were paid less than white workers, excluded from the celebration, and within 13 years were barred from immigrating to the U.S. under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

Difficulty 3 of 3

Steps

  1. The Dilemma: The hardest part of a massive project just got finished by workers who did the job nobody else was willing to do — drilling through solid rock in winter, with explosives, at enormous personal risk. Now the project is complete and a big celebration is being organized. These workers want to attend and be honored. Your business partners are pushing back, saying it will cause political headaches. The work was real. The risk they took was real. The unfairness of leaving them out would also be real. What do you do? This is the exact situation that faced Leland Stanford, president of the Central Pacific Railroad, at the famous Golden Spike ceremony on May 10, 1869 — when 15,000 Chinese workers who built the most dangerous sections of the Transcontinental Railroad were excluded from the celebration. Write one page arguing for the decision you believe is right, and anticipate the objection from your business partners.
  2. Research the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. How did Congress justify it? Write a two-paragraph analysis: What does the Exclusion Act reveal about how the U.S. treated Chinese workers after using their labor to build the railroad?
  3. Create a Utah timeline from 700 CE (Ancestral Puebloan peak) to 1915 (National Park Service established) with at least nine events. Include: at least two involving Indigenous nations, the pioneers, the Golden Spike, and at least one involving Utah's five national parks.
  4. On a Utah map, label: Salt Lake City, Promontory Summit, all five national parks (Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef), and the Great Salt Lake.
  5. Write a persuasive essay: 'The Golden Spike is celebrated as a triumph of American ingenuity. Is that celebration complete or incomplete?' Argue a specific position using at least three historical facts.
  6. Cross-state connection: California's Central Valley agriculture was also built largely on Chinese and later Mexican labor under similar conditions. Does the same pattern of 'use and exclude' show up there?
  7. Chinese railroad workers on the Central Pacific earned about $26 a month in 1868 while white workers earned $35 a month plus free food and housing (estimate). Calculate the yearly wage gap per worker. Multiply by 15,000 Chinese workers. If you were running the railroad today and wanted to fix this, would you raise wages, cut profits, or raise ticket prices? Write one sentence explaining the tradeoff.
  8. Central Pacific tunnel crews hand-drilled holes into solid granite, packed them with black powder, and blasted rock a few feet at a time. Draw the Summit Tunnel crew at work and label: hand drill, sledgehammer, powder charge, fuse, ore cart. Research how many feet per day they could advance through granite, and sketch one tool improvement that would speed the work.

Learning objectives

  • Evaluate the Chinese workers' exclusion from the Golden Spike ceremony as a case study in labor exploitation
  • Analyze the Chinese Exclusion Act as the legal endpoint of a larger pattern of discrimination
  • Construct a complex argument about incomplete historical celebrations using specific evidence
  • Connect Utah's national monuments and railroad history to the full human story of their creation

Safety and evidence note

Read the full activity before beginning. An adult should supervise tools, heat, food, outdoor work, movement, and experiments as appropriate. Completion records that the activity was done; the child’s explanation, work sample, photo, or demonstration is stronger evidence of learning than a completion check alone.

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