In August of 1870, conductor Burch worked the Kansas-Pacific line that converged with the Denver-Pacific rail at Strasburg. The meeting made national railway history. Although the fanfare was nowhere near that of Promontory, Utah, where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific joined on their route between the Missouri and Sacramento Rivers, the silver spike driven at Strasburg marked the completion of the first continuous track linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Tom Burch, who began life as a disenfranchised orphan from Rochester, New York, participated in this significant event and marked its importance to his own life by treasuring the lantern that he used on that historic day. After his passing, Burch’s lantern and the stories told about his railroading experiences became gifts of great consequence to his grandson, Charles.

"I have no children of my own," declares Schuler toward the end of our telephone conversation, "so I want the people of Colorado to have the lantern to remind them of an important time in their own history."
I hear the dogs bark excitedly in the background once more. "It’s been real nice talkin’ with you, ma’am," he says, "but I need to see what all the shoutin’s about." I thank him for the lantern that I will soon receive into the collections of the Colorado Historical Society, and for the memories of his grandfather that he so generously shared as we talked. "The pleasure has been mine, Mr. Schuler; the pleasure has surely been mine."