Bonneville Salt Flats | |
---|---|
Floor elevation | 1,291 m (4,236 ft) |
Length | 12 mi (19 km) |
Width | 5 mi (8.0 km) |
Area | 40 sq mi (100 km2) [1] |
Geography | |
Country | United States |
State | Utah |
County | Tooele |
Borders on | Interstate 80 in Utah (south) West Wendover, Nevada (west) |
Coordinates | 40°47′59″N113°48′00″W / 40.79972°N 113.80000°W |
The Bonneville Salt Flats are a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County in northwestern Utah, United States. A remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, it is the largest of many salt flats west of the Great Salt Lake. It is public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and is known for land speed records at the Bonneville Speedway. Access to the Flats is open to the public.
The Flats are about 12 miles (19 km) long and 5 miles (8 km) wide, with a crust almost 5 ft (1.5m) thick at the center and less than one inch (2.5 cm) towards the edges. It is estimated to hold 147 million tons of salt, approximately 90% of which is common table salt. [2]
Geologist Grove Karl Gilbert named the area after Benjamin Bonneville, a U.S. Army officer who explored the Intermountain West in the 1830s. [2] [4] In 1907, Bill Rishel and two local businessmen tested the suitability of the salt for driving by taking a Pierce-Arrow onto its surface. [5]
A railway line across the Flats was completed in 1910, marking the first permanent crossing. [2] The first land speed record was set there in 1914 by Teddy Tetzlaff. [6]
Entertainment filmed at the Flats include portions of Walking with Dinosaurs Special - The Ballad of Big Al , Knight Rider , Warlock , Independence Day (1996) and its sequel, SLC Punk , Cremaster 2 from Cremaster Cycle , The Brown Bunny , The World's Fastest Indian , Gerry , The Tree of Life , Top Gear and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End . Furthermore, the Pontiac Bonneville (former flagship sedan of the Pontiac motor division), the Triumph Bonneville motorcycle, and the Bonneville International media company are all named for the Flats.
The Bonneville Salt Flats hosts the annual US Flight Archery Championships. The goal of flight archery is to shoot arrows from bows at the greatest distance possible without regard to hitting a target, and so the vast flat plane of the flats serves as an ideal location to measure the linear distance traveled by arrows without geographic interference. Both the 1977 (archer Don Brown) and 1982 (archer Alan Webster) world records were set there; while the current world record, achieved in 1987 (archer Don Brown), was set at the salt flats near Smith Creek, Nevada. [7]
The thickness of salt crust is a critical factor in racing use of the salt flats. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has undertaken multiple studies on the topic; while a 2007 study determined that there was little change in the crust's thickness from 1988 to 2003, [8] more recent studies have shown a reduction in thickness, especially in the northwest area where racing occurs. [9]
The flats' overall area has contracted significantly over the past several decades. [9] The cause or causes of this remain unclear, but many believe adjacent evaporative potash mining is the primary factor. [10]
Collaboration between racing organizations, the potash mine, and the BLM led to a pilot program begun in 1998 to release excess brine onto the salt flats during winter. Plans to increase the volume of brine returned to the salt flats are hoped to halt loss of crust thickness, or possibly restore it where it has become too thin to sustain human use. [11]
Land speed records and Land speed racing records have been set many times on the Bonneville Salt Flats. The record for wheel-driven vehicles (449 MPH) was set there in 2018, and for rocket or jet propelled vehicles (630 MPH; since superseded) in 1970.
Motorcar racing has taken place at the salt flats since 1914. Racing takes place at part of the Bonneville Salt Flats known as the Bonneville Speedway. There are five major land speed events that take place at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Bonneville "Speed Week" takes place mid-August followed by "World of Speed" in September and the "World Finals" take place early October.
These three events welcome cars, trucks, and motorcycles. The "Bub Motorcycle Speed Trials" are for motorcycles only. World records are contested at the Mike Cook ShootOut in September. The Southern California Timing Association and the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association organizes and plans the multi-vehicle events, but all event promoters contribute to prepping and maintaining the salt. "Speed Week" events in August were canceled in 2015 and 2022, due to the poor condition of the salt in certain parts of the flats. The salt flats had been swamped by heavy rains earlier in the year, as usual, but this year the rains also triggered mudslides from surrounding mountains onto a section of the flats used for the land-speed racing courses. [12]
In 2004, the Stardust spacecraft released its sample-return capsule for a landing in the Bonneville Salt Flats after its flybys of asteroid 5535 Annefrank in 2002 and comet Wild 2 in 2004. [13]
Tooele County is a county in the U.S. state of Utah. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 72,698. Its county seat and largest city is Tooele. The county was created in 1850 and organized the following year.
A dry lake bed, also known as a playa, is a basin or depression that formerly contained a standing surface water body, which disappears when evaporation processes exceed recharge. If the floor of a dry lake is covered by deposits of alkaline compounds, it is known as an alkali flat. If covered with salt, it is known as a salt flat.
Bonneville may refer to:
The Great Salt Lake Desert is a large dry lake in northern Utah, United States, between the Great Salt Lake and the Nevada border. It is a subregion of the larger Great Basin Desert, and noted for white evaporite Lake Bonneville salt deposits including the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Bonneville Speedway is an area of the Bonneville Salt Flats northeast of Wendover, Utah, that is marked out for motor sports. It is particularly noted as the venue for numerous land speed records. The Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Wilhelm Herz was a German professional motorcycle racer and land speed racer. After his motorcycle racing career, he became the manager for the Hockenheimring circuit.
Utah Motorsports Campus is a race track facility located in Grantsville near Tooele, Utah, United States. It operated under the name of Miller Motorsports Park from 2006 until October 2015. The course has hosted auto, motorcycle, bicycle and kart racing, along with corporate events.
The Wendover Cut-off, also called the Wendover Road or Wendover Route, is a two-lane highway in the western part of Tooele County in the U.S. state of Utah. Stretching 40.3 miles (64.9 km) from Wendover to Knolls across the Bonneville Salt Flats, a part of the Great Salt Lake Desert, the cut-off was once part of the primary link between the Nevada state line and Salt Lake City. In 2012, between 240 and 250 vehicles used the cut-off near its western terminus in Wendover on an average day.
David Abbott "Ab" Jenkins was the 24th mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah between 1940 and 1944. He was a professional race car driver. Jenkins' interest in motorsports began with racing motorcycles on dirt tracks and across country. He then became interested in land speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats. He was instrumental in establishing Bonneville as a location for such events, and in attracting overseas drivers such as George Eyston and Sir Malcolm Campbell to compete there.
Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) is a competition sanctioning body that maintains rules and record for Land Speed Racing events held at El Mirage Dry Lake, California and at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah. It is a non-profit, volunteer organization made up of eleven separate car clubs.
Knolls is an unincorporated community in north-central Tooele County, Utah, United States.
The TOP 1 Ack Attack is a specially constructed land-speed record streamliner motorcycle that, as of March 2013, has held the record for world's fastest motorcycle since recording a two-way average speed of 605.697 km/h (376.363 mph) on September 25, 2010, in the Cook Motorsports Top Speed Shootout at Bonneville Speedway, Utah. The Ack Attack's fastest one-way speed was officially recorded at 634.217 km/h (394.084 mph). This was the third time in four years the Ack Attack had broken the motorcycle land-speed record.
Arinosa is a ghost town located in Tooele County, Utah, United States. Arinosa is 19 miles east of Wendover and 100 miles west of Salt Lake City, in the middle of the Great Salt Lake Desert. Although it lies along the route of the current Interstate 80, there is no exit providing access to the area.
Salduro is a ghost town located in Tooele County, Utah, United States.
Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials (BMST) is a motorcycle land speed racing event, held annually at Bonneville Speedway, US. The event is sanctioned by American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) as the Land Speed Grand Championship and Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) as the FIM Land Speed World Records. AMA-certified US National Land Speed records, and FIM-certified Land Speed World Records are set at this event. The event features motorcycles ranging from 50-cc to 3000-cc, as well as electric classes.
Tetzlaff Peak is a 6,267-foot elevation (1,910 m) mountain summit located in Tooele County, Utah, United States.
Rishel Peak is a 6,212-foot elevation (1,893 m) mountain summit located in Tooele County, Utah, United States.
Jenkins Peak is a 7,268-foot elevation (2,215 m) mountain summit located in Tooele County, Utah, United States.
Graham Peak is a 7,563-foot elevation (2,305 m) mountain summit located in Tooele County, Utah, United States.
Cobb Peak is a 7,021-foot elevation (2,140 m) mountain summit located in Tooele County, Utah, United States.
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