Emigrant Trail; Bonneville Salt Flats; a Big Salt Mound; the Golden Spike

We are traveling along I-80 at 63 mph. In this region, the Interstate follows the 19^th century Emigrant Trail from Missouri to California. I remember reading Bernard deVoto’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Across the Wide Missouri when I was young; he was the preeminent popular historian of the West at the time, and he captivated me with his descriptions of the pioneers and their travails. The Emigrant Trail wound through pretty inhospitable country and mountain passes; covered wagon trains only made about 2 miles an hour/20 miles per day during good weather. Most people actually walked to California, rather than riding a horse or wagon. The local residents were often less than happy to see the pioneers arrive, and Indians often found alternative uses for the settlers’ horses and oxen. One of the wagon trains, the Donner party, was caught by winter storms in the California Sierras and half of the party perished. It took a hardy family to endure the trip west with all its perils and hardships. On average, 10 percent of those attempting the journey west died enroute, mostly to diseases like cholera.

We spent a good hour today crossing the Bonneville Salt Flats, which is actually a huge lakebed; during the last Ice Age, Lake Bonneville was the size of Lake Michigan, and covered one-third of the current state of Utah.

Today, it is the site of Speed Week, where high performance vehicles have set several land speed records. In 1970, Gary Gabelich piloted the rocket-propelled Blue Flame to a record 622.443 mph; I'll bet that today the EPA would try to keep him from driving that fast because of his poor fuel mileage numbers.

Ever wonder where your salt comes from? We passed this Morton Salt facility just off I-80 west of Salt Lake City. There was a pile of salt about 100 feet high with a long line of waiting railroad cars and one Wal-Mart truck.

We have just arrived in Ogden, Utah, at the Hill Air Force Base Family Campground. It’s 92F, but dry. We will be here for 4 days, resting up after our long drive from California and doing some more work on The Bus. Ogden is very close to Promontory Point, where the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in May, 1869. The Golden Spike was actually a presentation piece; it would not have lasted long in a remote railroad tie. The last spike was to have been driven home into the tie by railroad dignitaries, Central Pacific's President Leland Stanford missed the spike and hit the tie; Union Pacific's Vice President Thomas Durant. Stanford missed the spike and the tie. Both were evidently suffering from hangovers from the celebratory party the night before here in Ogden. A railroad worker then drove home the last spike. "So much for management." (This photo is from a reenactment in 2000).