This embossed metal emblem appeared as part of the menu on the early, or 1941, nightly express train "The Prospector" between Denver and Salt Lake City. As a brochure promoting the train from the period shows, this emblem in the form of a gold nugget in relief with, above, artist Mahonri Mackintosh Young's original bronze sculpture "The Prospector" and with, below, an embossed representation of the streamlined train with the also stylized "Rio Grande" logo as a plinth for the sculpture.

Young's original bronze sculpture "The Prospector" is reproduced photographically on a brochure of the period for the train, as well.  This verifies that this is an accurate version of Young's design, perhaps overseen by him (he would have had to give permission both for the relief version on the base of a logo's train and for the photograph).  Young was from Utah, with an eminent surname there and by the opening of the 20th c. was studying art in New York and later in Paris. In the 1930s and early 1940s he was teaching art in New York.