SPECIAL REPORT
U.S. Culture: U.S.A. Gold
By LAURINDA KEYS LONG
In another example of using gold to represent a job well done, the tycoons who built America's first Transcontinental Railroad chose a copper-alloyed golden spike to symbolically join the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads at Promontory Summit in Utah on May 10, 1869. The railroad tie made of laurel wood had been pre-drilled. A silver maul wielded by Leland Stanford, later founder of the private university in California, tapped in the spike. It was then removed and preserved, and replaced by a more serviceable one of iron.
The golden spike came from California, the "golden state," so-named for the precious, yellow metal found in rivers, in underground deposits and lying on the ground. The chance for easy wealth spurred the "California Gold Rush," bringing tens of thousands of people from around the world from 1848 to 1855. Many, like Stanford, made fortunes. Gold fever spread throughout the American West. Mines were dug and boomtowns sprang up. When the gold veins ran out, the settlements became empty "ghost towns." Many are now tourist attractions such as Goldfield, Arizona. And the term "gold digger" now refers to someone who marries or romances a rich person with the aim of getting their money, as Kanye West and Jamie Foxx complained in their 2005 song, "Gold Digger."
The Western gold craze extended to naming plants, such as the goldfields flowering herb that covers meadows in California and Arizona, and California's golden poppy, which some people-out-of-staters, of course-may describe as vermillion orange. The same color as the Golden Gate Bridge, named for the strait that it spans, an entryway from the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco Bay, and all of America beyond.
Americans used to use gold and silver coins-even nuggets and ingots-as money. By executive order, President Franklin D. Roosevelt banned private ownership of gold, except for jewelry, in 1933, and Americans were forced to sell their bullion and coins to the Federal Reserve, though this prohibition has been eased in ensuing years. To provide a place to put all that gold, the extremely secure U.S. Bullion Depository was built at the Fort Knox Army Base in Kentucky. This brought new phrases into the American language: "Locked up tighter than Fort Knox" and "I wouldn't do it for all the gold in Fort Knox."
The next big craze was "black gold," oil that is, discovered in Texas, Oklahoma and elsewhere. This brought a whole new wave of men and women eager to make their fortunes by working hard, just like the gold miners of earlier days. The term "black gold" entered the American language and became a popular name for horses, such as the 1924 Kentucky Derby winner, and pet dogs. Americans' favorite dog is the Golden Labrador Retriever. They are loved not just for their soft, pretty coats, but for their sweet dispositions around children, hardiness, loyalty, trustworthiness and "hearts of gold."
More 
