We reported in 1999 that North Platte, Nebraska, proposed to build a 15-story Golden Spike Tower overlooking a railroad yard containing 10,000 freight cars near I-80. The observation tower would be railroad spike-shaped and covered with gold-enameled metal. Completion was targeted for 2000. Five years later, the Spike Project is unrealized, but still not dead.

The city of North Platte has been accumulating funds from a 2% hotel/motel occupation tax all that time, slated for use on the Spike. While this has provided over $1.6 million, the planning board has spent $918,000 of it on designs, plans, marketing, and other costs associated with thinking about a huge spike for North Platte.

Now the city is worried that the rising price of steel, a material needed to construct the structure, may cause contractor bids to spike above available funding. The USDA approved a $4.1 million loan for the project, which the city will pay off over the next 24 years.

We hope the Golden Spike tower will be completed by 2029, when the 2% Spike tax on motel rooms will end.... [12/04/2004]