Golden Spike National Historical Park gets new superintendent
Brandon Flint, who grew up in Davis County, has been named the new superintendent at Golden Spike National Historical Park.
Brandon Flint is the new superintendent for the Golden Spike National Historical Park in Box Elder County.
PROMONTORY SUMMIT — After “bouncing” all over the country in the service of our national parks, the new superintendent of the Golden Spike National Historical Park is returning home.
Brandon Flint, who assumed the Box Elder County park’s top spot on Sunday, April 26, has deep roots in the area. A southern Idaho native who grew up in Northern Utah, Flint comes to Golden Spike from a position as chief of administration for Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts.
Flint and his wife, Sarah — who also works for the National Park Service — grew up in the Kaysville area. They both attended Davis High School, although they didn’t start dating until they were up at Utah State University in Logan.
As a teenager, Flint even spent three summers working at a park of another kind: Lagoon amusement park.
“I’m definitely a Davis County native,” Flint said in a recent telephone interview from his home in Massachusetts.
The decision to accept the superintendent position at Golden Spike had a lot to do with moving closer to family, according to Flint.
“Really, it’s about — as much as anything — two reasons,” he said. “We wanted to get back West, and this is a good next career step for me.”
Flint replaces Leslie Crossland, who had been serving as park superintendent for the past 12 years.
The new superintendent has fond childhood memories of the park that commemorates the May 10, 1869, driving of the last spike to complete the transcontinental railroad.
“Golden Spike is such a cool little park,” he said. “When I was a kid, I’d spend a week or two with my grandma in Brigham City every summer, and we’d go out to the park.”
He looks forward to being able to hang out full time at the park, and to help tell its tale.
“I think there’s a ton of opportunities,” Flint said. “The unique thing about Golden Spike is that it still has a story that can, if we do our jobs right, resonate with people today. When I think about the story of the transcontinental railroad, and the enormous technological effort it took, and how it brought a nation together — a nation of immigrants, really — it’s just a cool story that really resonates.”
National Park Service Regional Director Mike Reynolds announced Flint’s selection earlier this month in a news release from NPS.
“The marking of the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad helped connect visitors to a significant moment in history and highlight our country’s ongoing technological achievements,” said Reynolds, as quoted in the release. “I’m confident that Brandon’s collaborative approach and business acumen will build on the momentum of the park’s recent initiatives.”
Flint says that collaborative approach will serve him well in his new role — both with the staff and the community. He points out that Golden Spike is the closest national park to most cities in Northern Utah, and he believes there’s a strong connection between the park and the surrounding communities.
“One of the things that is most important now that any superintendent brings to the job is the ability to work well with the staff — as well as the community around us,” he said. “All national parks are a part of a community.”
Indeed, Flint tells the story of when he was in Brigham City a few months ago, talking with a woman in a local store. He told her he was moving back to the area, and she asked him what he was going to be doing here.
“When I told her I was going to be superintendent of the Golden Spike National Historical Park, she went on for five minutes about how much she and her family love Golden Spike,” he said. “Golden Spike has a close connection with the community, and it’s important for a superintendent to recognize that. Although it’s 30 minutes from Brigham City, people don’t think of it as an isolated park off somewhere. The community loves us; we can’t do any of this on our own.”
Golden Spike was “promoted” from a national historical site to a historical park on March 12, 2019, just weeks ahead of the sesquicentennial celebration of the driving of the golden spike.
Flint says he doesn’t worry that he missed last year’s big celebration of the 150th anniversary of the driving of the golden spike. And he doesn’t worry that, going forward, the annual May 10 celebrations will seem anticlimactic after last year’s.
“To answer the bigger question, I think the 150th celebration is a springboard into the future,” Flint said. “It was a refresher to people that Golden Spike is out there, that we have this amazing park out there. So my concern is to make future plans — how do we build on this?”
Flint has a bachelor’s degree in parks and recreation from Utah State and a master of public administration from the University of Baltimore in Maryland.
Before taking the position at Cape Cod National Seashore, Flint completed the National Park Service Bevinetto Fellowship, which included a year with the U.S. House of Representatives on the Natural Resources Committee staff, and a year with the NPS Office of Legislative Affairs in Washington, D.C. At that time, he also served as the interagency pass program manager with the national recreation fee program.
Flint also spent time working at Lassen Volcanic National Park, Yosemite National Park, Yellowstone National Park and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
“For me, personally, there’s nothing like being in a national park — whether it’s Golden Spike or Yellowstone or Cape Cod.”
Flint said the challenges facing him and his staff at Golden Spike will be the same as at most national parks, and his experience at other parks should serve him well here.
“There’s just never enough money to do what we want to do at the park,” he said. “And people are working more and more each day. Our free time is less, so the question becomes, ‘How do we encourage people to take their precious vacation days and spend them with us?'”
As for the impact of COVID-19 on Golden Spike National Historical Park, the 151st anniversary of the driving of the golden spike is just a couple of weeks away. Flint said he and his staff are in the process of trying to determine if they can safely hold an event that brings a couple thousand people into a small area together.
“I’m afraid to say, I’m worried about that,” he said. “I think this is going to be a different year for Golden Spike. The thing we focus on most is keeping people safe, and slowing the spread of the virus. The way you visit Golden Spike in the future may differ from the way you have in the past.”
Flint said Cape Cod National Seashore has been hit hard by the government-mandated social distancing.
“Our public buildings and facilities have been closed for three weeks here (in Massachusetts). It has impacted every part of the park,” Flint said. “So the mentality I’m bringing with me is that we don’t want it to get bad in Utah. You don’t want to experience what we’re experiencing out here on the East Coast.”
Flint says he and his wife are looking to settle in the Perry/Brigham City/Honeyville area. Their hobbies include gardening, skiing, camping, boating and fishing.
“We’ve had a big garden in the past, we ride bikes, go hiking,” he said. “We’re outdoor people.”
And as such, Flint is excited to return to his homeland.
“We’re looking forward to it — getting back to Utah — there’s just nothing like it,” Flint said. “So I’m really excited. And I just think it’s going to be a great opportunity for us. Hopefully this is a chance to make a difference and get people out to Golden Spike, to celebrate the incredible story that this is.”
For more information about Golden Spike National Historical Park, visit nps.gov/gosp.