November 7, 1885 - Last Spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway Driven in British Columbia

On November 7, 1885, you can trace Canada's defining moment to Craigellachie, British Columbia, where Donald A. Smith drove the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway at 9:22 a.m. That single iron spike completed a 5,000-kilometre transcontinental line connecting Montréal to the Pacific coast. It fulfilled an 1871 promise to British Columbia and stitched the country together. There's far more to this story than one ceremonial swing of a spike maul.

Key Takeaways

• On November 7, 1885, Donald A. Smith ceremonially drove the Last Spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway at Craigellachie, British Columbia.
• Smith bent the first iron spike on his initial swing, then successfully drove a second ordinary iron spike to complete the railway.
• The ceremony symbolized the fulfillment of Canada's 1871 promise to British Columbia and connected a 5,000-kilometre transcontinental line.
• Governor General Lansdowne was absent, and a commissioned silver spike was never driven due to poor weather conditions.
• Approximately 15,000 Chinese labourers built the western section yet were excluded from the commemorative Last Spike photograph.

What Was the Last Spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway?

On November 7, 1885, Donald Smith drove the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) at Craigellachie, British Columbia, marking the completion of Canada's first transcontinental railway. The spike connected a 5,000-kilometre track stretching from Port Moody on the Pacific Coast through Montréal and onward to Halifax via existing rail lines.

More than just a piece of iron, it carried profound engineering symbolism, representing years of overcoming financial crises, natural disasters, and brutal construction conditions. Approximately 15,000 Chinese workers helped build the British Columbia segment alone, enduring rockslides, blasting accidents, and deadly falls.

Today, the last spike stands as a powerful piece of heritage memory, embodying Canada's national unity and the extraordinary human effort required to link an entire country by rail. The completion of the CPR also fulfilled a commitment made to British Columbia in 1871 to build a railway connecting the Pacific province to Central Canada. The transcontinental railway also served as a vital trade corridor, much like the ancient Silk Road that connected civilizations across Asia through key desert regions and beyond. The town of Craigellachie itself takes its name from a prominent crag in Morayshire, Scotland.

How Canada's Transcontinental Railroad Got Built

When British Columbia joined Confederation in 1871, it did so on one condition: a transcontinental railway linking east and west within 10 years. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald envisioned a line stretching from Montreal to the Pacific, but political scandal and railway financing challenges delayed construction until 1878.

The Canadian Pacific Railway Company incorporated on February 16, 1881, with a private syndicate covering construction costs in exchange for ownership. William Van Horne oversaw the massive undertaking, dividing work into three sections across Canada. Labour migration brought hundreds of workers to blast through 1,100 kilometres of Canadian Shield granite and bridge 480 kilometres of muskeg.

Survey crews had already spent 10 years mapping 19,000 kilometres of terrain, ultimately selecting Rogers and Kicking Horse Passes over the previously surveyed Yellowhead route. The CPR's completion in 1885 spurred western expansion and immigration, though its monopolistic policies and southerly routing generated significant discontent among western settlers. The last spike was driven at Craigellachie, just south of Revelstoke, marking the ceremonial completion of the transcontinental line. The railway's growth also coincided with the adoption of standard time zones by North American railroads in 1883, a coordinated system that synchronized schedules across the continent to improve safety and operations.

The 15,000 Chinese Workers Who Made the CPR Possible

Behind the hammers, blasting powder, and brutal terrain lay the labour of some 15,000 Chinese men who immigrated to British Columbia between 1881 and 1884 to build the CPR's western section. These Chinese labourers earned half the pay of white workers, received no protection from dangerous assignments, and died by the hundreds in tunnels and avalanches. Contractors excluded them from official accident reports, so the true death toll remains unknown.

When the Last Spike ceremony took place at Craigellachie, you won't find a single Chinese face in the photograph. Their railroad legacy was written not in commemorative images but in blasted rock, laid track, and unmarked graves. Thousands who survived faced destitution, anti-Asian violence, and the punishing Chinese Head Tax that followed. The surge of Chinese labourers into British Columbia also fuelled widespread anti-Asian sentiment, a fear and hostility commonly referred to as the "yellow peril". Those who endured ultimately established the basis of British Columbia's Chinese community, leaving a cultural footprint that outlasted the railway itself.

Why Craigellachie Was Chosen as the Meeting Point

The Last Spike didn't fall just anywhere — it fell at Craigellachie, a small settlement near Eagle Pass in British Columbia's interior, where the western and eastern railway segments finally met. You won't find a grand city here, just a practical location shaped by terrain challenges and the relentless pace of parallel track-laying crews closing in from both directions.

Engineers didn't select Craigellachie in advance. They chose it because that's where the two sides met — no ceremony, no politics, just geography deciding the outcome. Its proximity to Revelstoke made access manageable, and the surrounding Columbia-Shuswap region provided the necessary conditions for completion. The community impact extended far beyond this small settlement, as the connection stretched the railway from Montreal to Port Moody, stitching the country together permanently.

The completion of the railway fulfilled a federal promise made in 1871, when the government committed to building a transcontinental line as a condition of British Columbia joining Confederation. Much like the Danube, which flows through or along the borders of 10 different countries and serves as a vital continental connector, the Canadian Pacific Railway became an enduring symbol of national unity and cross-border integration.

The historic moment was immortalized when Donald Smith drove the Last Spike on November 7, 1885, with Winnipeg photographer Alexander Ross capturing the scene in what became one of the most famous photographs in Canadian history.

The Key Figures Behind the Last Spike Ceremony

At 9:22 a.m. on November 7, 1885, a small gathering of men at Craigellachie made history — and each one played a distinct role in getting there.

You can trace the ceremony's success through five essential figures whose financier legacy and photographic impact still resonate today:

• Donald A. Smith drove the ceremonial spike, bending it on his first swing
• William Van Horne managed construction and organized the austere ceremony amid near-bankruptcy
• Sandford Fleming joined as surveyor, lending expertise to CPR route planning
• Albert Bowman Rogers directed routing through Rogers Pass and celebrated alongside converging crews
• Alexander J. Ross stepped in as photographer, producing one of three known ceremonial images

Without each man, this moment might've vanished entirely. The completion of the CPR also fulfilled a commitment made in 1871 to bring British Columbia into Confederation by connecting the Pacific province to Central Canada through rail. Notably, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald and company president George Stephen were both absent from the ceremony, with Van Horne sending Macdonald a telegraph crediting his far seeing policy for making the railway possible.

What Actually Happened at the Last Spike Ceremony on November 7?

On November 7, 1885, at 9:22 a.m., Donald Smith swung a spike maul at Craigellachie, British Columbia — and missed cleanly, bending the iron spike with a glancing blow. Workers pulled the bent spike out and replaced it. Smith then drove the second iron spike successfully, completing the Canadian Pacific Railway between Montreal and Port Moody.

You might expect ceremonial myths to surround this moment, and they do. The spike wasn't golden or specially made — it was a standard construction iron spike, identical to thousands already driven. That spike was later removed to prevent theft, replaced by another ordinary spike. The bent spike was later repurposed into commemorative scarf pins, each set with 13 diamonds and a circular piece of the original iron in the centre.

At least three photographs captured the event. Public memory tends to romanticize this ceremony, but what actually happened was messier, more human, and far more interesting. The famous photograph taken by Alexander J. Ross of Winnipeg documents the assembled crowd, yet no Chinese labourer appears in the image despite their enormous contribution to building the railway.

The Silver Spike That Never Got Driven

Few people know that a solid silver spike was commissioned for the Craigellachie ceremony — one that never made it there. Governor General Lansdowne planned to drive this unused artifact himself, but poor weather forced his return to Ottawa. Donald Smith drove a plain iron spike instead.

Consider what this ceremonial symbolism reveals:

• A Montreal silversmith crafted it with stamped hallmarks for a dignitary who never arrived
• It passed to CPR General Manager William Van Horne after the ceremony
• Van Horne's family quietly kept it for 127 years
• Descendants finally solved the mystery in 2012
• It now rests in the Canadian Museum of History, Gatineau

You're looking at history's most significant spike that never touched a rail. Lansdowne mounted the silver spike on a stone base before sending it to Van Horne as a personal gift, a gesture documented in surviving correspondence between the two men. The iron spike Donald Smith did drive was badly bent, extracted by Roadmaster Frank Brothers, straightened, and cut into strips mounted with diamonds as gifts.

Where Did the Original Iron Spike End Up?

The iron spike Donald Smith drove into the rail at Craigellachie didn't stay intact for long. Roadmaster Frank Brothers pulled the badly bent spike from the tie and handed it directly to Smith, establishing clear artifact provenance from the moment of extraction.

Smith then had it straightened and cut into strips, which craftsmen fashioned into miniature spikes adorned with 13 diamonds and a central circular piece.

These smith memorabilia items carried genuine historical weight since they came from the original iron. However, rumors about the spike's whereabouts swirled for over 125 years. A tiny handwritten error eventually helped B.C. historical experts unravel part of the mystery after 126 years. The ceremony itself took place on 7 November 1885 at Craigellachie, British Columbia, marking the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Even so, no source has definitively confirmed where the original spike or its miniature descendants currently reside. A separate set of souvenir strips was also produced from an additional ordinary iron spike, with four of these pins known to exist today.

How the CPR Connected Montreal to the Pacific and Ended Regional Isolation

Driving that last spike at Craigellachie didn't just complete a railway—it stitched together a nation. The CPR's economic integration transformed Canada, connecting Montreal directly to the Pacific and enabling coastal trade that reshaped commerce forever.

You can feel the magnitude when you consider what it actually delivered:

• Settlers finally reached the Prairies and British Columbia
• Isolated western communities joined the national economy
• Vancouver grew from a small settlement into a major urban center
• Year-round trans-Atlantic cargo moved through Saint John
• Asian trade routes opened through Pacific coastal connections

Before the CPR, regional isolation defined Canadian life. After November 7, 1885, it didn't.

The railway ended that fragmentation permanently, binding seven provinces into one functioning, trading, breathing nation you could cross by rail. To make it possible, the Canadian Pacific Railway Company received a staggering 25 million acres of land along the right-of-way as part of its government subsidies. The government also provided an additional 22.5 million dollar loan through the Railway Relief Bill, which received royal assent on March 6, 1884, helping to keep construction financially viable during its most critical phase.

Why the Last Spike of 1885 Still Defines Canadian Railway History

More than a century after Donald Smith drove that ceremonial spike into the ground at Craigellachie, the moment still anchors Canadian railway history like nothing else. It's embedded in national memory not simply as an engineering achievement, but as proof that an ambitious, fractured country could will itself into unity. You can trace that cultural symbolism to every conversation about Canadian sovereignty and coast-to-coast identity.

The site itself remains a national monument, open year-round, drawing visitors who want to stand where 5,000 kilometres of track finally joined. The challenges were immense — financial crises, natural disasters, and a brutal human cost paid largely by 15,000 Chinese workers. Yet the last spike endures as the defining image of what Canada chose to become. The completion of the railway fulfilled a promise made to British Columbia in 1871, when the Pacific province was guaranteed a rail link to Central Canada as a condition of joining Confederation.

The ceremonial spike itself was a sterling silver reproduction, presented by the Governor General to William Cornelius Van Horne, the General Manager of the CPR, in recognition of the railway's historic completion.