The Long Road to Making the Salt Flats the Home for Speed

During the early 1800s, exploration of the Pacific Northwest was extensive and varied. Fur trappers, such as those who worked for the Pacific Fur Company, were the first to venture through the vast expanse. Trappers sought to establish trading posts, and while doing so, relayed their experiences. Based on these testimonies, the American government wished to establish trails to make it easier for settlers to make their way across the continent. Men and women braved the terrain and weather led by guides, such as Joseph Walker and Joseph Chiles.
Around the turn of the 19th century, the French-born Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville immigrated to America at the age of 7. He graduated from West Point in 1815, and quickly became a useful explorer and surveyor for the United States Army. In 1832, the Army granted Bonneville a one-year absence to explore the Pacific Northwest, specifically Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. This expedition was financially supported by Alfred Seton, who had been part of the Astor Expedition (named after John Jacob Astor, founder of the Pacific Fur Company). Joining Bonneville were 110 men, one of whom was Joseph Walker.
During this expedition, Bonneville divided his expeditionary group and sent emissaries into California and Utah. Walker was one of the leaders of these emissaries, and in 1833, he surveyed the Great Salt Lake area. The emissary expedition also surveyed and mapped the Salt Flats, which Walker named in Bonneville’s honor.
Although the Bartleson-Bidwell Party were forced to abandon their wagons in Nevada, they finally reached their destination. Chiles, who had left his children in Missouri, returned to bring them back with him. Other travelers soon joined him.
Well before that claim, Rishel had sung the praises of this lifeless place. He believed it was full of potential for the growing automobile industry. Rishe was competing with other cities, like Paris and Daytona (a city that also claims the moniker of the “birthplace of speed”), where drivers and speed enthusiasts of all stripes congregated and competed.
A few years earlier, at the age of 23, Jenkins purchased his first car. Racing soon became a hobby, and by 1923 he was driving for carmaker Studebaker. He was racing competitively, and not just against automobiles. His first big race came against a train.
In 1925, construction of a highway into the Bonneville Salt Flats was nearing completion. As part of the ceremonial festivities, Jenkins was asked if he would be willing to race the steam engine of the Union Pacific Railroad across a stretch of approximately 120 miles from Salt Lake City to Wendover, Utah. He accepted the challenge and defeated the train by about five minutes.
The following year, Jenkins put his Studebaker to the test again against another train. This time, the distance was much longer: New York City to San Francisco. Jenkins covered the distance in a coast-to-coast record of 86 hours and 20 minutes. Two years later he completed his first 24-hour race in Atlantic City.
In 1932, Jenkins sat inside the new, but stripped-down Pierce V-12 Roadster. His friends had designed a 10-mile circular course in the salt flats. The Utahn racer drove for 24 hours, covering 2,710 miles at an average speed of 112.96 miles per hour. He had surpassed his goal of 2,400 miles, but fell just shy of the world record. The following year, he broke the record. In fact, he broke 14 speed and endurance records, including the average speed record at 117.77 mph. Jenkins would later surpass that with 127.229 mph.
Two months later, Bonneville Salt Flats would experience arguably its most significant moment when Sir Malcolm Campbell arrived to beat his own land-speed record of 276.82 mph, which he had set earlier that year in Daytona. It was during this week in history, on Sept. 3, 1935, that Campbell set the new land-speed record at 301.13 mph. It was the first time any vehicle had achieved the 300-mph mark.
Bonneville Salt Flats was officially the world’s premier location for land-speed trials. Perhaps this was why Rishel believed he could now claim it as “The Birthplace of Speed.”
As for Jenkins, he reset the world endurance record the following year, covering 3,254 miles in 24 hours at an average speed of 153 mph, a record that remained until 2005, when it was broken by an eight-man team.
Every year, Bonneville Salt Flats hosts numerous speed events, including SpeedWeek, Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials, World of Speed, and the World Finals Event.
The Bonneville Salt Flats continue to draw visitors, tourists, and racing enthusiasts. One could understandably describe the area as Lt. John C. Frémont described it: “a region which for us possessed a strange and extraordinary interest.”