Author Topic: Bonneville the begining of legend for LSR (Benjamin Bonneville)  (Read 7019 times)

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Blown Alcohol 57tbird

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Kevin B. Hallaran
Utah History Encyclopedia

The Bonneville Salt Flats of the western Great Salt Lake Desert were formed through the evaporation of the Pleistocene-era Lake Bonneville. The salt flats are actually the bed of that once massive lake which rivaled in size present Lake Michigan. The flats are composed mainly of potash salts ranging in thickness from less than one inch to six feet.

In 1827, trapper, trader, explorer, and frontiersman Jedediah Smith was perhaps the first white man to cross the salt flats in 1827 while returning from his first expedition to California. Six years later, Joseph Reddeford Walker, another trapper, mapped and explored the areas around the Great Salt Lake and crossed the northern perimeter of the flats while in the employ of Captain Benjamin L. E. Bonneville. It is from Benjamin Bonneville that the salt flats and prehistoric lake derive their name, although it is unlikely that Bonneville himself ever saw the flats.

 
 
In 1845, John C. Fremont and his expedition crossed through the very heart of the salt flats in an effort to find a shorter overland route to the Pacific. In the following year, Fremont's route across the flats would come to be known as the Hastings Cutoff.

The Cutoff, promoted by Lansford Hastings as a faster and easier route to California, proved to be just the opposite for the ill-fated Donner-Reed party of 1846. A factor contributing to the Donner-Reed tragedy in the Sierra Nevadas was the delay the party experienced on the salt flats when their wagons became mired in the mud found just below the thin salt crust. Abandoned wagon parts from the party were present on the flats well into the 1930s, and the wheel tracks of their wagons were still visible in 1986 when archaeologists examined several sites associated with the party.

The tragedy of the Donner-Reed Party inhibited extensive use of the Hastings Cutoff as an overland migration trail. The salt flats did, however, yield scientific information to the expeditions of Captain Howard Stansbury in 1849 and of Captain J.H. Simpson in 1859, both with the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers.

Fifty years after the Donner-Reed party slogged their way across the flats, the area's first use as raceway was conceived by publisher William Randolph Hearst in a publicity stunt. Hearst hired William Rishel of Cheyenne, Wyoming, to attempt a crossing on bicycle. Rishel completed the journey, crossing the salt flats in 22 hours.

Early attempts to promote automobile racing failed until 1925 when Ab Jenkins, driving a Studebaker, beat a special excursion train by ten minutes in a race across the flats. Since that time the Bonneville Salt Flats have attracted racers from throughout the world and have become the site of numerous land speed records. Their attraction for these racers is due to the hard, flat surface expanse - in an area so flat that from certain perspectives the curvature of the earth can actually be seen.



The Bonneville Salt Flats is part of the Great Salt Lake desert, shown here below and Racing on the Salt Flats, 1940s, with Ab Jenkins' Mormon Meteor III


« Last Edit: January 31, 2009, 05:39:14 AM by Blown Alcohol 57tbird »

Model T Steve

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Re: Bonneville the begining of legend for LSR (Benjamin Bonneville)
« Reply #1 on: January 31, 2009, 06:39:31 PM »
I'm all for the bicycle racing! Now how about rooms?

Blown Alcohol 57tbird

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Re: Bonneville the begining of legend for LSR (Benjamin Bonneville)
« Reply #2 on: January 31, 2009, 09:05:32 PM »
I'm all for the bicycle racing! Now how about rooms?


Speedweek Rooms

We are bringing two motor couches park at the RV parking at the Casino in Windover than drive out to the event. I might get a couple rooms reserved with my VIP from the company

Offline Wester

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Your facts are screwed up.
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2009, 02:35:26 PM »
The article you quote is mistaken.  Ab raced a train from SLC to Wendover in 1925 when they opened an alternative to the Lincoln Highway through Wendover.  The SLC policeman in the back seat of the Studebaker threw out 5 pound bags of flour as they crossed and re-crossed the railroad tracks ten times along the way.  He beat the train by ten minutes.  Ab's first timed runs on the salt were in 1932 in a Pierce Arrow.

Bill Rishel wasn't looking for a race course, he was looking for a route from San Francisco to New York for a publicity stunt for William Randolph Hearst.  In 1896, he and a friend started across the salt flats at 2 in the morning hoping to avoid the mid-day heat.  According to a report: "They must have been thrill packed hours too, for Bill relates that the salt crust became thin and their wheels broke through.  They were forced to carry their mud clogged bicycles through the oil like mire.  They ran out of drinking water.  Then they battled through sticky marshes and sweeping clouds of mosquitos."  It took them a total of 22 hours.
Bill was also the first one to drive an automobile in Utah.

Blown Alcohol 57tbird

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Re: Your facts are screwed up.
« Reply #4 on: February 01, 2009, 03:19:34 PM »
The article you quote is mistaken.  Ab raced a train from SLC to Wendover in 1925 when they opened an alternative to the Lincoln Highway through Wendover.  The SLC policeman in the back seat of the Studebaker threw out 5 pound bags of flour as they crossed and re-crossed the railroad tracks ten times along the way.  He beat the train by ten minutes.  Ab's first timed runs on the salt were in 1932 in a Pierce Arrow.

Bill Rishel wasn't looking for a race course, he was looking for a route from San Francisco to New York for a publicity stunt for William Randolph Hearst.  In 1896, he and a friend started across the salt flats at 2 in the morning hoping to avoid the mid-day heat.  According to a report: "They must have been thrill packed hours too, for Bill relates that the salt crust became thin and their wheels broke through.  They were forced to carry their mud clogged bicycles through the oil like mire.  They ran out of drinking water.  Then they battled through sticky marshes and sweeping clouds of mosquitos."  It took them a total of 22 hours.
Bill was also the first one to drive an automobile in Utah.


Are you sure?

Where did you get your facts from? you may want to look deeper into your facts
« Last Edit: February 01, 2009, 03:21:33 PM by Blown Alcohol 57tbird »

Offline Wester

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I met Ab, live two blocks from his home.
« Reply #5 on: February 01, 2009, 03:31:11 PM »
Knew the man who wrote the book I quoted.  Spent hours with his son who restored the Mormon Meteor III.  And you?

Blown Alcohol 57tbird

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Re: I met Ab, live two blocks from his home.
« Reply #6 on: February 01, 2009, 04:09:17 PM »
Knew the man who wrote the book I quoted.  Spent hours with his son who restored the Mormon Meteor III.  And you?



I got mine from Kevin B. Hallaran

It was double checked with other Bonneville historians but I am with you on this  :cheers:
« Last Edit: February 01, 2009, 04:11:18 PM by Blown Alcohol 57tbird »

Offline Glen

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Re: Bonneville the begining of legend for LSR (Benjamin Bonneville)
« Reply #7 on: February 01, 2009, 04:11:33 PM »
And the late Marvin Jenkins was a neighbor of mine. Wester is correct.  There are several on and off this site that know a lot of LSR history and we don't publish it daily as most interesed will do their own google search or contact someone direct.
Glen
Crew on Turbinator II

South West, Utah

Offline Wester

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Hallaran didn't check his facts very well.
« Reply #8 on: February 01, 2009, 05:03:12 PM »
Just because it's published doesn't mean it's accurate.  He is vague and inaccurate on some of his claims.  For accuracy read Gordon Eliot White's book on Ab and Marv Jenkins.

Offline Robert Rampton

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Re: Bonneville the begining of legend for LSR (Benjamin Bonneville)
« Reply #9 on: February 01, 2009, 10:00:38 PM »
All -
I rarely post, just lurk and read and enjoy and sometimes laugh, but I feel I can chime in on this topic.  As Wester has mentioned, there are several good sources of reference about the very early days at Bonneville, only they weren't called the Bonneville Salt Flats at that time, but Salduro or the Salduro Beds.  Here are the sources for some of the most recent published information:

Salt of the Earth by Ab Jenkins and Wendell J. Ashton, published by Clymer Motors, 1939, 1945.  Jenkins family has reprinted in recent years, I believe.

Speed on Salt by George Eyston and W. F. Bradley, published by Scribner's, London, 1936.

The Incredible Blitzen Benz by Karl Ludvigsen, published by Dalton Watson, 2006

Ab & Marvin Jenkins, The Studebaker Connection and the Mormon Meteors, by Gordon Eliot White, published by Iconographics, 2006

Most of the above texts are accurate taken as a whole, with some minor mishaps.  I, myself, have spent the last 10 years or so heavily researching this very early time in LSR/Bonneville history and I can state that most of what is found on the internet is not accurate.  I have a completed manuscript in the can and am finally finishing original illustrations for a book I hope to publish this year.  Oh, and by the way, Bill Rishel might have claimed to have driven the first car in Utah, but research has shown he did not, just one of the first, a Locomobile Steamer in 1899.  Down and dirty research is the key to really finding out the history. 
Thanks.
Robert Rampton
Salt Lake City
Happily afflicted with salt fever since 1988.

Offline Robert Rampton

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Re: Bonneville the begining of legend for LSR (Benjamin Bonneville)
« Reply #10 on: February 01, 2009, 10:08:46 PM »
All -
The Gods of Speed forgive me, I forgot to mention:

Bonneville Salt Flats by "Lanspeed" Louise Ann Noeth, published by MBI Printing, 1999 and later reprints.

Whew!
Robert
Happily afflicted with salt fever since 1988.

Blown Alcohol 57tbird

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Re: Bonneville the begining of legend for LSR (Benjamin Bonneville)
« Reply #11 on: February 01, 2009, 10:46:16 PM »
All -
The Gods of Speed forgive me, I forgot to mention:

Bonneville Salt Flats by "Lanspeed" Louise Ann Noeth, published by MBI Printing, 1999 and later reprints.

Whew!
Robert



"Lanspeed" Louise Ann Noeth

I talked with her at Black Rock very head strong lady and very knowlegable in ALSR and LSR she covers a lot great work