Send Our Town North Platte: Golden Spike Tower

Posted: 4:00 PM Aug 21, 2012
Reporter: Lance Schwartz

Our Town North Platte: Golden Spike Tower

2012 has been exciting here on the west side of North Platte, the Union Pacific Railroad is celebrating their 150th birthday.

While the Golden Spike Tower and Visitor Center is celebrating it's 4th birthday.

From the observation deck of the Golden Spike Tower, its trains as far as the eye can see.

The Golden Spike Tower provides the birds eye view that it takes to fully grasp the magnitude of Bailey Yards.

This is where east meets west for the Union Pacific Railroad. Bailey yard handles 10,000 railroad cars every day and they do it in the world's largest train yard.

From the ground, it's impossible to fully appreciate 3,000 acres of land that stretches out 8 miles. The tower makes it possible and since it opened 4 years ago, more than 132,000 visitors have enjoyed the view.

Joanne Hoatson is the Executive Director of the Golden Spike Tower, "At the beginning of each year we clean the slate so to speak and we have our little reds dots that we start handing out whether their local, regional, national, but most impressive is our international visitors and as you can see we've covered the United States. But what's really impressive is our international visitors."

Train enthusiasts from all over the world have made the Golden Spike a destination, "We are reaching an international market which is wonderful for us and of course it's great for our community."

And that's largely because of the attention to details, "I mean it's a beautiful facility, our customer service is wonderful couldn't do it without our volunteers."

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