Bonneville Salt Flats Special Recreation Management Area (SRMA) | Utah

The Bureau of Land Management, Reilly Industries, Inc. (1991 to 2004), Intrepid Wendover Potash, LLC (2004 to present), and the Bonneville racing community (represented by the "Save the Salt" foundation) are concerned about potential deterioration of the Bonneville Salt Flats, and through cooperative agreements are attempting to replenish salt to the Salt Flats via the Salt Laydown Project. Over the winter, Intrepid produces high quality brine in its holding ponds by mixing water with the sodium chloride or salt that is left as a by-product of the potash mining operation at Bonneville. When the brine has reached an optimum concentration in early spring, it is pumped to the north side of Interstate 80 via canals and discharged onto the southern section of the Bonneville Salt Flats near the access road. When temperatures rise in late spring and the salt flats begin to dry out, this salt laydown brine is added to the natural salt crust layers at Bonneville.

The potential for racing at Bonneville was first recognized in 1896 by W.D. Rishel, who was scouting a bicycle race course from New York to San Francisco. Rishel returned and convinced daredevil Teddy Tezlaff to attempt an automobile speed record on the flats. Tezlaff drove his Blitzen Benz 141.73 m.p.h. to set an unofficial record in 1914. Further attempts to promote automobile racing on the Salt Flats failed until the 1930s when Ab Jenkins, a Utah native driving a Studebaker dubbed the Mormon Meteor, began setting endurance speed records at Bonneville. Jenkins was later instrumental in promoting land speed racing and luring British racing legend Sir Malcolm Campbell to the Salt Flats in 1935. By 1949, the raceway on the Bonneville Salt Flats was the standard course for world land speed records. On this natural straightaway, the 300, 400, 500, and 600 mile-per-hour land speed barriers were broken.

Managed by the BLM as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern and Special Recreation Management Area, the Bonneville Salt Flats are a 30,000 acre expanse of hard, white salt crust on the western edge of the Great Salt Lake basin in Utah. "Bonneville" is also on the National Register of Historic Landmarks because of its contribution to land speed racing. The salt flats are about 12 miles long and 5 miles wide with total area coverage of just over 46 square miles. Near the center of the salt, the crust is almost 5 feet thick in places, with the depth tapering off to less than 1 inch as you get to the edges. Total salt crust volume has been estimated at 147 million tons or 99 million cubic yards of salt! The Bonneville Salt Flats are comprised of approximately 90% common table salt.