The Bonneville Salt Flats: Decline of the Fastest Place on Earth

this episode is brought to you by curiositystream a subscription streaming service that offers thousands of documentaries and non-fiction titles unlimited access starting at just 299 a month and 30 days for free if you sign up through the link below and use the channel code geographics more on them in a bit you've seen them in films like independence day pirates of the caribbean at world's end as well as shows like knight rider and top gear the place has been a favorite spot for racing enthusiasts and archers looking to challenge their abilities as well as daring trespassers eager to take a dip in the picturesque and privately owned industrial canals but the bureau for land management racing enthusiasts and environmentally conscious geologists have been attempting to figure out why they're vanishing we're talking about the bonneville salt flats a 30 000 acre expanse of land with a most unique characteristic the salt flats were at one point 13 miles long five miles wide and composed of a hard white crust which is almost 90 percent composed of common table salt the salt flats are famous for being one of the flattest places on earth they're also an absolute sight to behold miles upon miles of salt-covered land boxed in by picturesque rocky mountains boasting a brilliant crimson hue and marked by man-made canals flowing with crystal blue waters it's easy to see why bonneville became an immense hub for tourists and why those that frequent them are crying out for someone to restore them to their former glory the bonneville salt flats were formed at the tail end of the pleistocene ice age when the waters of lake bonneville evaporated the prehistoric lake was fed by the seasonal melting of glaciers once covered one third of utah and featured a maximum depth of a thousand feet with the melting of the glaciers and the ending of the ice age lake bonneville eventually vanished scores of mineral deposits were left in its wake forming the watershed for the salt flats the most common mineral composing the crust of the sulfates is a common table salt but others include gypsum potassium and magnesium although the last two were in much smaller concentrations near the center of the crust the salt is nearly five feet thick in certain places now groundwater slowly travels into the salt flats from the watershed depositing minerals along the surface these minerals slowly percolate on the surface via a shallow brine aquifer with the coming of summer and the temperature spikes that come with it the saltwater rapidly evaporates leaving the minerals behind to reinforce the salt crust but in the cooler months this evaporation slows to a crawl leaving a moat of water inches deep throughout the basin in total the bonneville salt flats held more than 147 million tons of salt in its prime in 1833 a fur trapper trader and explorer named joseph r walker explored and mapped the area surrounding the bonneville salt flats he did this while working for a fur trading company owned by one captain benjamin l e bonneville where the salt flats get their namesake in the 1820s and 1830s it was quite common for fur trappers to name the landmarks they discovered after their employers thinking that such a gesture might lead to better wages in the future funnily enough there is no historical evidence to show that benjamin bonneville ever visited the soul flats joseph walker was not the first white man to cross the salt flats however nearly a decade earlier fellow trapper and frontiersman jedediah smith did so during his first expedition out of california before the time of the trappist however native americans of the area knew the terrain well and informed the settling white men of what was out there in 1845 john c freeman and a group of u.s government-sponsored explorers ventured through the center of the bonneville salt flats hoping to find a shorter route to the california coast in 1846 the route taken by fremont and his men would become known as the hastings cut-off route and later it would become part of the famous california trail although lansford hastings promoted the hastings cut-off as a faster route to california the donna reed party found their wagons stuck in a layer of mud just beneath the salty crust of the region and as a result of the setbacks encountered in the area they suffered heavy losses to their party of the 81 people making up their pioneer train only about 45 survived and they made their way into the silver island mountain range many of the donnereed party were children under the age of 18 and several were infants the rescue effort took nearly two months and only two families survived lansford hastings is seen as something of a grifter by some historians but it's important to note that the donna reed party did not depart missouri until may the 12th and this left them very little margin for error other historians note that it was likely unknown how the wetter seasons affected the bonneville salt flats and if the donna reed party had arrived during the dry months there would have been no mud for them to get stuck in to this day visitors can still find wagon wheels and tracks preserved from the donnereed parties scattered throughout the salt flats and the mountain range which contains them the salt flats can at times appear deceptively safe as many tourists visiting them on the off season can attest when water collects on the surface of the salt crust it acts almost like a mirror to the mountains which contain them modern motorists often dig deep trenches in the salt flats attempting to become unstuck the bonneville salt flats are now part of the federally preserved california national historic trail the potash production canals are a series of man-made canals located east of the bonneville salt flats and are primarily used for mining and industrial purposes in the early 1900s the area was established as a valuable source of potash a fertilizer and potassium chloride and played an important role in the development of that industry in the u.s the canals are a stunning site with rich clear blue waters which stretch for miles across clean salt sands like an oasis photos of swimmers and kayakers make the canals a hot spot for trespassers hoping to soak their bodies in the crystal blue waters highway patrol has been forced to issue tickets to those who have parked along highway i-80 and trespassed into the canals for recreational purposes this isn't an example of police overreach however as the owners of the potash production canals urged would-be tourists to rethink swimming in the water as it might be hazardous to humans the canals are filled with concentrated naturally occurring brine solution which originates from the watershed of the bonneville salt flats the concentrated brine solution is meant to flow into evaporation ponds where they allow for faster precipitation of salt-bearing minerals and before we take a look at bonneville on the big screen let me thank today's sponsor curiosity stream curiosity stream is a subscription streaming service that offers thousands of documentaries and non-fiction titles from some of the world's best filmmakers including exclusive originals now if you're enjoying this one why not try out curiosity stream for free by the way and check out their docu-series called dynamic salt which explores the idea of salt as a renewable energy source instead of racing on top of all of that salt you could put it in the car as a clean power source maybe if you'd like to learn more about that and see how that one works please do check our curiosity stream is available on many platforms web app broker android xbox one smart tv ios chromecast amazon fire amazon kindle and apple tv that's a lot of places and it's available worldwide get unlimited access starting at just 2.99 a month and for you guys first 30 days are completely free just go to curiositystream.com forward slash geographics use promo code geographics during the sign up process great way to support the show and let's get back to it the unique landscape of the flats as well as utah's iconic geological features has made it a popular spot for filmmakers hollywood began using the bonneville salt flats as a shooting location as early as the 1960s and it was a popular spot for the filming of westerns but the most popular films made in the area are some you probably own in your movie collection films like forrest gump independence day pirates of the caribbean at world's end and even the famous crash landing in planet of the apes featured the bonneville salt flats shows knight rider and top gear have also filmed sequences there one of the most common visuals from these films is the combination of the salty desert crust with the striking backdrop of the silver island mountains on the horizon the coast of ancient lake bonneville can be clearly seen bordering the mountain range to the north west of the soulflands and makes for an iconic sight [Music] 1912 saw the first races held in the bonneville salt flats but the area did not become a favored spot for the sport until ab jenkins and sir malcolm campbell battled for the land speed record throughout the 1930s until 2019 the bonneville salt flats were used for a thrice annual meet-up to test experimental vehicles and attempt to push the land speed record even further scta's speed week was held in august usfra's world of speed in september and the world finals were held in october of each year bonneville speed records are categorized as long and short the long course is five miles long and features vehicles that exceed 175 miles per hour and the short course is a three mile track which only features cars whose max speed is under 175 miles an hour speed records recorded on the salt flats are compared to a qualifying run which equals a previous record racing isn't the only activity popular at bonneville however in the early 2010s archery competitions were held on the salt flats most archery competitions deal with accuracy but those who took part in the competitions on the salt flats have a different goal distance records one of the largest events took place in 2016 seeing 31 archers enter the competition though this form of archery wasn't very popular and some participants noted that watching other archers fetch their arrows was akin to watching paint dry it saw a brief increase in popularity thanks to the release of the hunger games films archers from all over the world entered these competitions displaying a variety of techniques these arches went so far as to back an initiative for the blm to grant them a deed to a small patch of land on the salt flats where they would be able to practice their sport for decades to come however the continued decline of the salt crust of the area has led to increasing portions of the bonneville salt flat being cordoned off and labeled unsafe for human use [Music] the iconic image of the silver island mountains outlined along the horizon of the bonneville salt flats can't be ignored they've been seen by hundreds of millions of people indirectly through popular films and media and were famously used by the survivors of the donna reed party when they left their wagons behind in the mud of the bonneville salt flats the mountains which are composed of limestone sediments were formed alongside the bonneville salt flats as the glaciers melted at the end of the last ice age this is how much of yosemite national park is thought to have formed the shoreline of ancient lake bonneville is clearly carved out along the base of the mountains once the limestone layers were raised high enough lava flows did the rest of the work covering much of the mountain and leaving geological markings similar to lepi pass and volcanic peak the wildlife of the silver island mountains is composed of coyotes reptiles small rodents and birds graham peak is the highest point in the silver island mountain range and is rarely climbed due to its rugged and dangerous terrain native americans thrived in both the mountains and the great salt lake for ten thousand years and fossils relating to their day-to-day lives can still be found today flooding of the lake in the 1980s revealed hundreds of villages campsites and human remains all dating back to the fremont period almost 900 years ago despite popular belief that fremont period is not named after the explorer john c fremont but rather after the fremont river the fremont period is categorized as a type of foraging and farming lifestyle using tools and farm animals such as ceramics and horses it is thought that the decline of the native american population in the great salt lake was due to the introduction of new diseases brought by white settlers [Music] although a 2003 borehole study of the thickness of the salt crust found little to no change in the density of salt throughout the bonneville salt flats environmental concerns centering around the depletion of salt in the area have persisted since the 1970s racing enthusiasts maintained that the salt flats were depleting and that they knew who was responsible for the degradation assault however is changing and a vicious battle is being waged for the future and restoration of the area since the early 1900s the blm has made deals with mining companies to allow for the harvesting of potassium chloride and potash and some people think it's this activity which has seen a decline in the salt crust at bonneville the utah salt flats racing association claimed that the salt was once five feet thick and now has declined to mere inches across most areas the blm claims that the crustal package has seen a 7 decline over the last decade and a half and their president has gone on record claiming that the usfra is exaggerating the damage done to bonneville however university of utah geologist brenda bowen who studied the area extensively for two years says that a combination of mining racing activity government management and climate change are all playing significant roles in the decline of the bonneville salt flats though originally drawn to the area following the outcry against mining activities by racing enthusiasts bowen is convinced that the area is more sensitive to human activity than previously theorized she believes that racing activity is probably playing some role in the decline though the link between these interactions is also unclear racing enthusiasts belonging to the save the salt foundation maintain that while it's absolutely reasonable to assume that racing on the salt flats has continued to the damage done to bonneville that damage wouldn't have been possible if the area hadn't been consistently weakened by industrial mining activities since the start of the 20th century in the early 1900s the area measured nearly 13 miles long but with the decline of the crust it has shrunk to a mere seven miles in length but the leader of the save the salt foundation also doesn't blame intrepid potash the company who owns the canals everyone's so fond of floating in but the bureau of land management instead save the salt went on to state that if the blm had been better stewards then perhaps bonneville wouldn't be in the shape it is today and families and racing fans could enjoy it for decades to come however according to bowen the majority of the damage may be due to climate change it would be more surprising if it weren't changing she stated in an interview with salt lake tribune later going on to say that the geological systems at play in the area are extremely complex and require further study but the save the soul foundation has taken matters into their own hands asking people who drive on the salt flats to scrape their tyres of salt and redeposit it back onto the crust they've gone so far as to ask intrepid potash to increase its flow of salt the canal's primary waste products into the crust as a means of helping to replenish it though they've reached out to intrepid potash communications efforts have had varying levels of success save the salt has gone on record stating that if this resurfacing is successful they won't need someone like brenda bowen to come in and analyze the area they'll be able to use a combination of their own two eyes and common sense despite these claims brenda bowen maintains that there's no scientific evidence to show that such a resurfacing effort would even have an impact on bonneville stating that nature is never static and if they want a more stable salt layer they should build a stadium instead as of 2018 the bureau of land management has zero plans to change its methods in preserving bonneville and we're waiting for the completion of brenda bowen's study which has yet to come out [Music] on november 22 2019 the bloodhound land speed record car made news as it broke 600 miles per hour unlike previous records this one wasn't made on the bonneville salt flats but in south africa instead that same day the new york times reported on the continued decline of the bonneville salt flats the article cites an incident in 2018 when two utah residents tore the salt flats up with their modified ford crown victoria the two were doing donuts on the crust during the off season and created deep gashes in the area as a result the article goes on to mention that while significant damage was done to bonneville the incident helped to reignite concerns over the salt crust's decline and fuel preservation efforts though surface mining of the brine has largely stopped it's still being pumped through the canals owned by intrepid potash and racing enthusiasts claim that this is keeping the brine from coming to the surface of the salt flats and percolating making natural restoration nearly impossible the save the soul foundation sent more than a thousand missives to utah state legislators demanding that a serious restoration effort be made mandatory and leading to the foundation of the bonneville restoration project the legislation appropriated 5 million though an additional 45 million dollars will be required in order to bring the project to fruition save the salt expects automotive and racing companies to provide some support but also things the blm and mining industry should pay for the bulk of the restoration project's monetary needs the restoration project if successful might see the return of 1.5 million tons of brine or more with each passing year with the final goal being the return of the 13-mile long racecourse time will tell if the effort is successful and if the children of racing enthusiasts get to see race cars rocketing across the salt flats at earth-shattering speeds again or if the region will continue to decline fading into the annals of history so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below also please do check out our fantastic sponsor curiosity stream link to them below and thank you for watching

Channel: Geographics

Views: 389,002

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Id: 12Tr-LkDh1U

Length: 17min 43sec (1063 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 04 2020