PROMONTORY -- Utah's commemorative quarter will memorialize neither the state's "greatest snow on earth," nor the famous industriousness of the territory's founding pioneers. Instead, the honor goes to the so-called "Wedding of the Rails" -- the driving of a gold spike into railroad ties that in 1896 established the first transcontinental railroad.

"No other state can claim that," said Norm Nelson, the current president of the Golden Spike Association, a group of volunteers who each year dons period dress to re-enact the historic event.

Gov. Jon Huntsman announced the selection of the coin design in Promontory on Wednesday -- the 110th anniversary of the event -- riding in to kick off re-enactment ceremonies on No. 119, a replica of the westbound red and black Union Pacific steam engine that met nose-to-nose with the eastbound Central Pacific's locomotive "Jupiter" on the swath of high desert plain.

The governor's announcement ends a three-year selection process that saw more than 5,000 design ideas for the state's quarter submitted to the U.S. Mint, which is crafting a representative coin for each state. From the 5,000 ideas, most of which came from Utah schoolchildren, U.S. Mint officials selected three concepts, including the trains, a beehive and a pigtailed girl snowboarder catching some air.

Last month, a 25-day public comment period opened, allowing Utahns to vote online for their choices, said Margaret Hunt, chairwoman of the Utah Commemorative Quarter Commission.

"People had some very strong opinions," Hunt said.

But the railroad rendition was the overwhelming favorite, Hunt said.

Of the 135,951 votes cast, the trains earned 52 percent of votes.

The beehive, Utah's symbol of industry which appears on the state flag, was second with 27 percent of votes. The snowboarder earned only 21 percent of votes.

Huntsman's arrival, with steam spewing from the engine and 20-year-old daughter Abby Huntsman yanking a rope to ring the train's bell, brought a cheer of "Hip, hip hooray," from the crowd of several hundred spectators.

"Very smooth," Huntsman said of the ride.

The crowd cheered again when Huntsman unveiled a 3-foot poster-board replica of the coin showing both trains, a spike and the slogan "Crossroads of the West."

Huntsman says his personal choice for the commemorative quarter was always the transcontinental railroad, because the event is so important in both U.S. and western history.

The railroad allowed travelers to cross the United States in days instead of months, allowed for transcontinental commerce and moved Utah's own agrarian-based economy toward the industrial age, opening the door to the mining industry, said Phillip Notarianni, director of the Division of State History and a member of the commission.

The railroad also changed settlement patterns in the western United States and brought diversity to Utah, because so many of the Chinese workers who built the railroad settled here.

"It changed everything," said Phillip Notarianni, director of the Division of State History and a member of the commission. "Some people see it as the equivalent in the 19th Century to a man walking on the moon."

The mint will issue 450 million coins beginning next January, Hunt said. About 99 percent of those are expected to circulate outside of Utah, she adds.

"I think it will play a significant education role in people's understanding of Utah," Hunt said, adding that education was a primary goal behind the mint's state coin program.

U.S. history books note the completion of the coast-to-coast railroad lines as a pivotal point in history, but many people don't associate the event with Utah. Comments from out-of-staters show many believe the "Crossroads of the West" is in Wyoming or Arizona, Hunt said. A recent nationwide survey conducted for the Utah Office of Tourism showed that more respondents associated a photograph of the two trains meeting at Promontory with New Mexico than Utah.

"Absolutely, this puts us on the map," she said.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.