New web page announcement -- bonnevillesaltwatch.org

[hotrod]

I am making an announcement regarding a new web page I am putting up to document and help publicize the condition of the salt at Bonneville.

It is a new domain that I just finished initial coding on yesterday.

The intent is to have a single web site where people can find documentary photos and data about the salt conditions at Bonneville.

Right now you have to jump all over multiple web sites and do searches on the forums to find various comments about what people recall from the past and what they have observed / measured in recent years.

I also want to document what I believe are some misunderstandings about the salt thickness like the assertion on one of the BLM's web pages that the "salt crust" is 5 ft thick at its thickest point.

The photos that I am putting on the site are released to the public domain for the purpose of publicizing the salt conditions.
Please feel free to copy and or post links to them to document what we have all observed, provided you include a link back to my web page and proper photo credit.

I would be happy to add anyone's photos that provide similar documentation of salt conditions, especially from years past under the same terms.

If you have any pictures that document salt conditions 10, 20, 30+ years ago, please let me know if you would like them added to the site.

Likewise first person accounts of your experience with the salt. We have all heard "back in the old days" stories but they are mostly 2nd or 3rd hand accounts.
I would like to capture first person accounts with dates, locations and who actually experienced the situation reported.
If you have such information please contact me by PM here and I will provide you email information.

The web page is at:

bonnevillesaltwatch.org

Please drop in and check it out, I would love to hear anyone's comments regarding the content, and any suggestions you might have for the site.

Larry
blackhorsephoto.net

[Seldom Seen Slim]

Larry, since many of us will have photos that were taken somewhat "informally", but showing the salt depth or something -- will shots that show the camera's date stamp be good enough for proving the date the photo was taken?  I can think of a few in our archive that have the stamp - and therefore might be a bit of data, no matter not very much, for the photo documentation.  Good enough, or not what you've got in mind?

[hotrod]

Certainly that would be great, actually more than necessary. I would not require the photo be date time stamped on the face of the photo.

I am not talking about court of law sort of documentation, just that we make a reasonable attempt to put dates locations and source information on the pictures.

Given that the dates of the major events are well known just the event and year such as:

Event _________
Year the image was taken ______________
Who took the image ___________________
Comments regarding circumstances if available ________________________


World of Speed 2002 or something like that would be sufficient in most cases, and some comment about location such as pit area or impound or starting line. I just want to build a pool of evidence that is better than "my cousins brothers friend told us that ..." sort of stories that don't have any real documentary value because there is no way to put them in context or establish a definite place in time.

For instance at this years Mike Cook Shootout after the event wrapped up I took some measurements at several locations and recorded the actual GPS coordinates of the samples. That way  5 years from now someone can go back and take another measurement at the same place and validate if the salt is still deteriorating, getting better or stable. The last formal study to my knowledge was made in 2003 and is the source of the chart on page 3 of the site. I will be adding my measurements taken last year along with pictures of the salt samples as I get the time.

Ideally  someone has a picture or two taken much earlier like in the 1970's or earlier showing the salt crust thickness along with enough information about the location so that the same area can be revisited and measured again some time in the future.

I know Russ Eyres has been taking measurements for the last 4 years or so. I would like to add that information if it is available.

If anyone has such information just let me know and I will try to pull together a crowd sourced data bank of previous salt conditions.

At this point the most important issues are that we determine what sort of documentation exists. Find out who has control over it and chase down a copy and permission to add it to the Bonneville Salt Watch project.

Larry

[Tman]

I posted the link  on the HAMB and JockeyJournalthis morinng. Thousands of eyeballs there to see it.

[hotrod]

Thanks much!

I was just looking at the logs to see who was hitting the site and noticed that link, I was going to thank you for spreading the word.
Getting lots of hits so people are looking at the site. Someone has shared it on face book as I see incoming hits from facebook too, so I also put an announcement up on my face book page. Please "like it" if you think it is worthwhile.

I also added a unique visitor counter to the page to get a feel for traffic.

Larry

[Tman]

Thanks much!

I was just looking at the logs to see who was hitting the site and noticed that link, I was going to thank you for spreading the word.
Getting lots of hits so people are looking at the site. Someone has shared it on face book as I see incoming hits from facebook too, so I also put an announcement up on my face book page. Please "like it" if you think it is worthwhile.

I also added a unique visitor counter to the page to get a feel for traffic.

Larry

I will get it up on FB as well.

[RidgeRunner]

Larry,

     Checked it out this AM, nice job!  Thanks for all the time and effort you have put into getting it up and running.  When I get a chance I'll try to pass along in a PM my observations from my limited salt experiences in '71, '72, and '08.  Don't remember that I took any photo's that would document the instant case but I'll keep my eyes open and pass along any that might pop up.

Tman'

      Thanks for helping to get the word out.

                    Ed

[hotrod]

Just thought I would update.

In 11 days since the web site went up, it has received 468 unique visitors, and a slow but steady count increase means new people are finding the site every day.

Google search engine has now indexed the site and will return useful results on any page if you search for a specific bit of information.

Larry

[Seldom Seen Slim]

Our local US Representative's latest bit of junk re-election mail arrived yesterday and included an email address so we constituents could get in touch to respond to the curve ball questionnaire he sent.  So what'd I do?  I sent an email about saving the salt.  Boy, that was easy - he even reminded me to send it.  Merry Christmas, Rep Benishek.

[WOODY@DDLLC]

Slim maybe you can get him to ship some of the salt from Manistee? 

If we could get all the winter salt put on the northern roads put on the flats that might work. Europe uses sand, gravel and studded tires.

Maybe the greenies could help us get the salt back where it belongs! Naaaah!

[Queeziryder]

Hi Woody,
Slightly off topic, but in the Uk we use rock salt mixed with molasses (helps it stick to the road, and keeps it active to lower temps) We are just starting to use winter tyres, but studs are illeagal here.

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