Be a Virtual Junior Ranger

The Pledge

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Begin Your Journey

Get ready to discover the people, places, and technology that helped connect a nation

Do your best to complete the activities on your own, but a parent, grandparent, teacher, scout leader, or another helpful adult may lend a hand. You can complete these activities at home, in a classroom, outdoors, or during a future visit to Golden Spike National Historical Park.

If you have questions or need additional help, contact a park ranger
Phone: [phone] ext 429 or email us

Requirements

• Ages 5–7: Complete two or more activities.
• Ages 8–10: Complete three or more activities.
• Ages 11 and older: Complete four or more activities.

Activities

Indoor Activities:
Park Symbols, Build a Railroad, Telegraph Challenge, Web Detectives

Outdoor Activities:
Explore with Your Senses

Indoor or Outdoor Activity:
Many Hands Built the Railroad

Once you have completed the required number of activities and received approval from an adult, take the Junior Ranger Pledge and download your virtual badge and certificate.

Good luck, Junior Ranger!

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Arrowhead Graphic

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Activity One: Park Symbols

Each part of the National Park Service arrowhead represents something protected by the National Park Service.

• The sequoia tree represents plants.
• The bison represents wildlife.
• The mountains and water represent scenery and natural resources.
• The arrowhead shape represents history and archaeology.

Golden Spike National Historical Park protects the place where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads joined on May 10, 1869. The park also protects the original railroad grade, historic construction features, cultural landscapes, wildlife, and stories of the people who built the railroad.

Your Mission

Draw your own National Park Service arrowhead. Inside it, include pictures or symbols representing things you believe should be protected.

For a Golden Spike arrowhead, you might include:

• A steam locomotive
• Railroad tracks
• A telegraph key
• A golden spike
• Sagebrush
• A bird or animal
• A railroad worker

 

Blank Arrowhead

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• If you do not have a printer, draw and color your own arrowhead on a blank piece of paper.

• Draw your own symbols on the arrowhead showing things that you think needs protecting. If you do not have a printer at home, use a blank piece of paper to draw and color your own arrowhead.

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BFT

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Activity Two: Build a Railroad

During the 1860s, the Union Pacific Railroad built westward while the Central Pacific Railroad built eastward. Thousands of workers prepared the ground, blasted through rock, built bridges and trestles, and laid wooden ties and iron rails.

Railroad workers did not have modern bulldozers, excavators, or power tools. Much of the work was completed using hand tools, black powder, wheelbarrows, horses, and human strength.

Your Mission

Build a small model railroad grade using materials you have at home.

You may use:

• Books or blocks
• Cardboard
• Paper
• Craft sticks
• String
• Small rocks
• Soil or sand
• Building bricks

Your railroad must cross one of these obstacles:

• A hill
• A valley
• A stream
• A rocky area

Decide whether you will build around, over, or through the obstacle.

When you finish, answer these questions:

1. What obstacle did your railroad face?
2. How did you overcome it?
3. Would your railroad need a cut, fill, bridge, trestle, or tunnel?
4. What was the most difficult part of building your railroad?
5. How would the work have been different in 1869?

Remember to return outdoor materials to the places where you found them.

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Illustration-Last Miles to finish the TCRR-1869

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Activity Three: Many Hands Built the Railroad

The first transcontinental railroad was built by tens of thousands of people from many backgrounds. Workers included Chinese immigrants, Irish immigrants, Civil War veterans, formerly enslaved African Americans, Mormans / Latter-day Saint workers, Native people, and other laborers.

Their jobs included surveying the route, preparing the railroad grade, blasting rock, building bridges, laying track, caring for animals, cooking meals, repairing equipment, and carrying supplies.

The completion of the railroad was an important technological achievement, but it also brought enormous changes to the lands and lives of Native peoples. Learning the complete story means recognizing both the railroad’s accomplishments and its consequences.

Resource: History and Culture

Your Mission

Choose one group of people who helped build or support the railroad.

Create one of the following:

• A drawing
• A short report
• A diary entry
• A poem
• A recorded presentation
• A miniature exhibit

Include answers to these questions:

1. Who did you choose to learn about?
2. What work did they perform?
3. What difficulties or dangers did they face?
4. Why was their work important?
5. Why should their story be remembered today?

After completing your project, share it with a friend, family member, classmate, or teacher.

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Last Spike Site Landscape

Activity Four: Explore with Your Senses

Golden Spike National Historical Park is located in a sagebrush-steppe environment. Although it may appear quiet, the landscape is filled with movement, sounds, textures, plants, and wildlife.

You can use your senses to explore the environment around your own home, school, or neighborhood.

Find a safe place outdoors and sit quietly for five minutes. Use four of your senses: sight, hearing, smell, and touch.

Do not taste wild plants, berries, soil, rocks, or other unfamiliar objects.

Your Mission

Complete the following sentences:

The sky looks ___________________________________________

The air smells ___________________________________________

The wind sounds _________________________________________

The temperature feels ____________________________________

The ground feels _________________________________________

Now list or draw something that is:

• Older than you
• Younger than you
• Rough
• Smooth
• Moving in the wind
• Making a sound
• Providing shelter for an animal
• Showing evidence of human activity
• Showing evidence of nature

What was your favorite discovery?

Junior Rangers protect natural and historic places. Observe objects carefully, but leave plants, rocks, historic objects, and other materials where you find them so others can enjoy and study them.

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Telegraph

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Activity Five: Railroad Morse Challenge

A Message Across the Nation

Before telephones, text messages, or the internet, people could send information over long distances using the telegraph.

Telegraph operators sent electrical signals through wires using a telegraph key. At the other end of the line, a device called a sounder made a series of clicks. Skilled operators learned to recognize the rhythm of those clicks and turn them back into letters and words.

In 1869, American telegraph operators used a system called American Morse Code. It is also known as Railroad Morse because railroads continued using it to communicate between stations and help control train movements.

American Morse is different from the International Morse Code commonly used today. It uses short signals, longer signals, and special pauses to create letters.

May 10, 1869

When the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads were joined at Promontory Summit, the telegraph allowed people across the country to follow the ceremony.

When the railroad was complete, the message went out:

D O N E

Within moments, people across the nation knew that the first transcontinental railroad was complete.

Your Mission

Become an 1869 telegraph operator!

Use the American Morse — Railroad Morse chart to discover how telegraph operators communicated.

Challenge 1: Decode the Message

Can you use American Morse to decode a railroad message?
*see code chart below

D O N E

Write the American Morse symbols for each letter:

D: ______________________

O: ______________________

N: ______________________

E: ______________________

Challenge 2: Send Your Name

Use the American Morse chart to translate your first name into Railroad Morse.

My name: __________________________________

My Railroad Morse message:

Ask a friend or family member to see if they can decode it.

Challenge 3: Make Some Noise!

Railroad telegraph operators didn't normally listen to musical beeps like the Morse code you may have heard in movies.

They listened to the click-clack rhythm of a telegraph sounder.

Try creating your own telegraph sounder.

You can use:

• Two pencils or sticks
• Two wooden blocks
• A spoon and tabletop
• Your fingers tapping on a desk

Use short and long taps—and carefully timed pauses—to send a Railroad Morse message.

Can someone else figure out what you sent?

Junior Ranger Discovery

Did you know?

American Morse is sometimes called Railroad Morse because North American railroads continued using it long after International Morse became common elsewhere.

For railroad workers, the telegraph was more than a way to send messages. Dispatchers and operators used telegraph lines to communicate train orders and help trains move safely across the railroad.

At Golden Spike, the railroad and telegraph came together to do something extraordinary:

*One it connected the nation by Transportation*

*The other connected it by Communication*

AMERICAN MORSE CODE CHART REFERENCE

Letter	Railroad Morse	Letter	Railroad Morse
A	• —	N	— •
B	— • • •	O	• [gap] •
C	• • [gap] •	P	• • • • •
D	— • •	Q	• • — •
E	•	R	• [gap] • •
F	• — •	S	• • •
G	— — •	T	—
H	• • • •	U	• • —
I	• •	V	• • • —
J	— • — •	W	• — —
K	— • —	X	• — • •
L	━━	Y	• • [gap] • •
M	— —	Z	• • • [gap] •

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Activity Six: Web Detectives

The Golden Spike National Historical Park website contains information about the railroad, the locomotives, the workers, the natural environment, and the park’s historic places.

Explore the park website and write your answers on a piece of paper.

Your Mission

1. On what date was the first transcontinental railroad completed?
2. What were the names of the two locomotives represented at the Last Spike Site?
3. Name one historic railroad construction feature that visitors can see at the park.
4. What was the purpose of the telegraph message sent during the Last Spike Ceremony?
5. Name one group of workers who helped build the transcontinental railroad.
6. Name one animal that may be found at Golden Spike National Historical Park.
7. What type of vegetation covers much of the park?
8. What is one thing visitors can do to protect the park’s historic or natural resources?
9. Which part of Golden Spike’s history would you most like to learn more about?
10. What question would you ask a Golden Spike park ranger?

Suggested links:

• Golden Spike National Historical Park
• History and Culture
• Nature and Science
• Junior Ranger Program
• Locomotive Ranger Programs
• Park Safety

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Pledge

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You have completed the Golden Spike Virtual Junior Ranger Program. You are now part of a nationwide community of Junior Rangers who learn about, explore, and protect America’s national parks.

 

Virtual Junior Ranger Badge

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Right click the image above and select "Save As" to save and print your Virtual Junior Ranger Badge!

YOU EARNED IT!

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Virtual Junior Ranger Certificate

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Right click the image above and select "Save As" to save and print your Virtual Junior Ranger Certificate!

Congratulations!