Bishop wants to turn Utah’s Golden Spike into national park

OGDEN, Utah – Utah Republican Rep. Rob Bishop wants to turn northern Utah’s Golden Spike National Historic Site into a national park.

Bishop told The Standard-Examiner in Ogden that he’s introducing legislation Thursday that would elevate the status of the site at Promontory Summit where the first transcontinental railroad in country was completed in 1869.

His plan comes a year before the 150th anniversary of the driving of a golden railroad spike connecting the Central Pacific and Union Pacific rail lines.

Bishop says the site’s monument isn’t enough to draw people 30 miles off the highway to visit.

The lawmaker is known for his opposition to the establishment of southern Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments by past presidents but he says the national park proposal is unrelated and will spur tourism “but do it in the right way.”

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Information from: Standard-Examiner, http://www.standard.net