Stories for Children Magazine

Pass the Salt

By: Courtney Rene

What started out as a body of water is now known as the fastest racecourse in the world. You may have heard of the “Salt Flats” and maybe you have seen the commercials of a car racing across a flat stretch of white sand. But did you know that in reality, it is not sand?  It is, in fact, salt.

Now known as the Bonneville Salt Flats, this area used to be Lake Bonneville which was once a vast body of salt water that covered a quarter of Utah, about 20,000 square miles. As the world’s climate changed and began to get warmer, the lake dried. As the water evaporated, the minerals in the water, including salt, were left behind. What was left after all the water evaporated was about 30,000 acres of hard salt crystals. 

This area has a very thin layer of surface water on it. The water holds the salt crystals together, which helps keep the wind from blowing away the salt. The surface water is also one of the reasons the area stays so flat and smooth. When the rain comes, it dissolves the salt on the surface. This dissolved salt water flows and puddles into the low areas in the flats. When the water warms and evaporates in the sun, the salt is again left behind. As time passes, the low areas are filled, which creates the flat surface. 

How, then, did this area become a raceway? It’s because of its flat, unbroken surface. It has been irresistible to drivers since 1896. The area has no roads, no trees, and no bushes. It is just an empty land of salt. There is no other place like it.

In 1896, W. D. Rishel recognized the potential of the salt flats as a racecourse. He was searching for a place to hold a bicycle race running from New York to San Francisco and came upon the flats. He returned home and convinced Teddy Tezlaff, a known daredevil of the times, to attempt to set a speed record in a Blitzen Benz automobile. Moving at a speed of 141.73 miles per hour, Teddy Tezlaff set an unofficial record in 1914.

The very first racecar driver to set an actual official world speed record in the flats was Malcolm Campbell of England. In 1935, his speed was clocked at 300 miles per hour! 

In 1940, Ab Jenkins, the mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah, raced his Studebaker automobile against a train and, surprisingly enough, he won. The land speed records went from 300 miles per hour all the way to the 600 miles per hour speed barrier. 

In the 1960s, jet-powered cars made their debut in the racing world. In the 1970s, a rocket-powered car named The Blue Flame was brought to the Salt Flats to see what it could do. 

If you want to race or if you want to try to break a speed record, the Bonneville Salt Flats is the place to go whether you race a car, a motorcycle, a go-kart, or even a grocery cart.