Interesting side trip

[Sumner]

Two years ago Celia found a 50 cal bullet in the middle of the pits. Thought that was an odd place to find it.

I wondered where I dropped that  , I'll pick it up when I come by for the T-shirt, thanks 

Sum

[SALTRACER]

I found it. This is a very humbling walk. To the south west of the grave you can See a debris field. A local told me that people will walk around, pick up the airplane parts and set them on the grave. Does any one know who this man was His last name was Vanley.

[bvillercr]

Talk to JoeAnne Carlson, her daughter inlaw found the dog tags this year at speed week. . I think they said the name on the grave sight was different than the dog tags?

[SPARKY]

Wow is this a great country or what!!!!!!!!!!!  I am going to have to spend some more time CRUISING THE AREA!!!!!!!!!  

[SALTRACER]

JoAnne is the red head who helps us at the SCTA traile? I'll see her at wf.

[jl222]

Talk to JoeAnne Carlson, her daughter inlaw found the dog tags this year at speed week. . I think they said the name on the grave sight was different than the dog tags?

 I'll be seeing Joey tomorrow and try to remember to ask what happened about the dog tags.

               JL222

[Freud]

There is a book that has fotos of the sites where the bombs were stored and also the location of the trench where the bomb was loaded

into the B-29's for practice. The bomb was too big to get it into the plane from underneath unless it was below ground level. The man

that flew the air ambulance for many years, Bill Wolfington, (sp?) had promised to take me out to those sites but we never did get there.

Vesco, on down time, drove all over those mountains. Located the wagon tracks of the people that crossed the salt flats, found caves

and anything else that used up time when the salt wasn't useable, when he waited for record runs. Rick Vesco may have gone with him

and if he didn't, Don's wife, Norma and Marcia Holley probably also experienced his "off road" excursions.

There's a lot to know about Wendover. I always wanted to have Gen. Tibbets, the commander of the group that bombed Hiroshima and

Nagasaki, speak at the B'ville NW Reunion and tell about Wendover in the 40's. I could never get close enough to him to ask about it. At the

time the banquet started, Tibet's was "insulated" by someone that did his booking and was only interested in big crowds and a guarantee

that Tibet's could sell his books after the lecture. So it didn't happen but there is a book, ENOLA GAY that covers all

the happenings related to Wendover and even the circumstances that were involved with the dropping of the two bombs.

There was also a jet fighter that crashed on the salt one time. I know very little about that but I'll bet that Dolan knows. I should have

asked him when I saw him today.

FREUD

[Glen]

My first trip in 1953 blew me away. The air base was all together as were many of the other points of interest around Wendover. I just wish I had taken pictures. I sure hope the group working to get funs to restore the B-29 hanger so the history can be shared. There are many stories from people that have explored the area and items found. Take time to visit the museum at the airport.

[RayTheRat]

I'll second the recommendation for Mike Crawford.  Real nice guy.  Long story but I know the lady who owned his red 66 Vette. 
http://www.chevyasylum.com/cruisin/Cruisin2009/20090327/1966%20Corvette%2001%2001_jpg.html

When the battery in my Burb died at BUB (or was it WoS?  They've all run together this year) I was fortunate to get a jump start from a guy camped near where I was.  Then I headed in (around 7 am) and found that Mike had opened up the store early.  He sold me a battery and loaned me the tools to install it as well as letting me sniff around the Corvettes in the back.  Very nice dude.

[jl222]

Talk to JoeAnne Carlson, her daughter inlaw found the dog tags this year at speed week. . I think they said the name on the grave sight was different than the dog tags?

 I'll be seeing Joey tomorrow and try to remember to ask what happened about the dog tags.

               JL222

  Inez Carlson found the tags and they match the site I hate to quote things to much but I was told his first name was Vanderly and that Hot Rod magazine was going to have an article about it in the next month or two.

                        JL222

[Robert Rampton]

I'm really enjoying this thread, so I thought I would throw out another interesting side trip. 

Instead of getting on the Interstate or heading into Wendover after leaving the salt, continue over the overpass to the frontage road.  Then turn left and head west.  This road is neglected and full of potholes, but is what's left of the original highway from Salt Lake.  Continue west until you arrive at the back side of the I-80 westbound rest stop.  Climb over the railroad grade (but be careful of the trains).  This is Salduro Siding.  To the south, what today looks like some sort of environmental disaster, 95 years ago was a salt flat that stretched for nearly 30 miles southward. 

A few hundred yards from the tracks was where the first measured mile on the salt was surveyed and scraped in 1914.  This is where Theodore Tetzlaff (a southern Californian) in a rather large Benz (a purpose built speed car) powered by gasoline and ether (a special fuel mixture) went after the standing flying mile time (an established record).  There were other cars also and several motorcycles.  There was a tow-car ( a Model T Ford Auto-Polo car).  There was a pit area.  There were spectators.  Salt got tracked everywhere.  The event lasted several days.  Everyone got sunburned.  A teen named Ab Jenkins was also there.  An idea was proposed to create a race course closer to Salt Lake City by flooding a plain west of the city with salt brine, annually, to build up a surface of salt.

Everything this forum and racing on salt has become, almost 100 years later, started at that spot.  The idea hasn't changed that much.  There should be a monument or something.
Bob.   

[754]

Is it just Me  or are you not going east after you cross the interstate and get to the T intersection?..if you turn left..


 and earlier on this thread they say go East as well but that the crash site is near port of entry (Is that not West of the T intersection?)

[Seldom Seen Slim]

754 has his directions correct - in both instances.

[Stan Back]

I got lost, too, and I wasn't even there.  What are the corrected directions?

Stan

[754]

Leave the  present race course, cross the Interstate, till you get to a T intersection ...aka The Frontage Road.
 turn left to get to the original track..Salduro Siding.

 Turn right to get to the crash site/saltmine/town.
 Now I am not sure sxactly where the crash site is but if it is near Port of entry it wont be that hard to find.. I plan on looking for it next time I am there..