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Show SALT FLAT NEWS, JULY 4th, 1970 5 nia owners on behalf of the State Lake City. Legal counsel for the or State was Mr. Gary Frank, special offering them sold $12,800 for land by the assistant attorney general. settlement State, seven years earlier for The agreed-upo- n netted the Heyman partnership $4,480. The State again was refused. $9,920 over the $4,480 they paid To combat the trespass injuncten years earlier for the land. Or By P. S. Taylor Utah of the initiated State tion, put another way, the State paid The venerable American journalist Horace Greeley once said of the Great Salt Desert s in condemnation proceedings $14,400 to between Knolls and Wendover, Utah, If Uncle Sam should ever sell that tract for one cent of this the land ten of earlier May year through years they sold per acre, he will swindle the purchaser outrageously, Board of State Parks and Recreafor $1,600. Of course Greeleys visit to The great increase in worth of tion, to acquire the land in queswhat is now termed the Salt way is the private, it orthe land in the past ten years, say presume it (the land sale) was an tion through governmental powFlats was more than a century ganization in charge of adminiserror, I dont know, I wasnt with ers of eminent domain. experts, is due to mineral disago long before the valuable trating use of the speedway. An the land board at that time. Hancourtroom coveries and the natural increase During last Mays minerals of the injunction was issued six months sen became director of the power- litigation, it was thought by Back-ma- n in land prices. Commenting on flatlands were thought much of, later by the courts prohibiting the ful board three years ago. that Parks and Recreation the increase since the 1967 and before men decided to try racers from crossing the 640-acr- e Mr. Harold J. Tippets, director offer by the State, Koziols 1967 their luck at beating the speed of tract, thereby closing Bonneville of Utahs division of Parks and offer was damaging Tippets emphasized that sound in silvery-sleeracers. to speed hopefuls wanting to travwas a fair cost Recreation, the state government to the States case since with the $22.50-per-acr- e Since 1859, when Greeley el in excess of office now in possession of leases offer, the State as much as admitin view of the international imIncluded were all racers to the land, said recently, We are ted the land was worth at least portance and economy the speedsquinted across the parched landthat previously brought so much delighted that the Salt Flats have scape, the State of Utah has atBackman said that way represents for Utah. to some make to fame to Flats and been chalked Salt the and Had the settlement not been tempted monetary preserved, up if the letter had never been writsense of the flats, urging private Utah. the failure by the State to put the ten, the State could have obtainreached and litigation allowed to First reaction to the injuncland sold in the original Bonne- ed the land for somewhat less. continue, attorney general Frank capital to come in, see what minerals were there for the taking, tion was one of disbelief by offiville' Speedway leases to an inadTooele Commissioner Buzinais added, it is entirely possible that and take them. In the meantime, cials of the speedway and the vertent omission. disagrees, saying that based on the speedway would not have ' land speed records somehow beEfforts by the State to re- tax assessments and the going been available for speed trials this State. This was understandable, came a passion of the Land, and they say, considering no one purchase the 640-acrbegan price for similar land, the State year. Utahs mirror-fla- t Bonneville Baknew the land had ever been sold. long before its actual acquisition was forced to pay $22.50-per-acr(Editor's Note: The Bonneville sin scored again. this year. Tooele Commissioner Or did they? Speedway is again intact and racTooele County Commissioner Buzinais offered owners Condemnation was not exeIts racing that has brought the ing will take place at the Flats. In e for the quadrangle cuted by the State, however, the next issue we will presenta bit lions share of publicity to Utah. George Buzinais says otherwise. racers flash According to him, the State and in 1963. The offer was refused. since an settlement Yearly, of the past of the area, and discuss e alertarrow-truBonneville at were Another was in the made track down was reached during two days of future plans for the Bonneville attempt Speedway 1967 when Mr. F. C. Koziol, then hearings held in Tooele. Counsel ed on at least two occasions speeds past that of sound. But unSpeedway , and the Salt Flats, and til May 5 of this year it looked once prior to the sale of the land director of the Parks and Recreafor the owners were Summer-hayhow these plans affect the area's like Utahs dominance in the rac- and once shortly after that a tion Division, wrote the Califor & Cohne, of Salt citizens.) Klingle ing field was to be a thing of the chunk of .the speedway was inpast. The Bonneville Speedway volved in the land sale. Both near Wendover stood served with times, he recalls, officials of the State Land Board assured him a trespass action which, if successotherwise. forced Americas ful, would have Buzinais said recently that priland speed trials to ' come to a to the 1960 land sale by the No more or halt. Mickey lurching Breedmore no State, he spoke with Mr. Max Craig Thompson, Ab racer Bonneville Pioneer love. Gardner, then director of the land Jenkins would have turned over board, and expressed concern in his grave. that part of the proposed sale inThe catastrophe was averted in cluded the speedway. Gardner May when the State of Utah said it wasnt, Buzinais added. Then in 1961, Tooele County, agreed to pay the whopping sum to a group of where the speedway lies found of $22.50-per-acr- e Californians in possession of when a tax assessment was aps of land lying athwart pealed by the owners that a por. the northern end of the almost tion of Hie land sale was indeed high speed straight part of the race track. Buzinais track. The parcel of land pur- again voiced his concern, only to chased by the State was originally be told by Mr. Gus Backman, of Bonne- then chairman of the Bonneville part of 20,000-acre- s sold land Basin ville by the State Speedway Corp., that his inquiries to the land board had assured before for only him no speedway land had been Just how the northern end of disposed of. I continually harpthe land speed trial track was ever ed at Gus Backman for three or sold in the first place still puzzles four years trying to convince him most officials in state government the land was part of the speedand interested onlookers. The way, Buzinais said. Mr. William Backman, director land wasnt sold intentionally, all of the Salt Lake Valley Convenwill at least agree on that. s were part of the tion and Visitors Bureau and now The land package purchased by head of the speedway, said up to giant the time of the trespass action in Mr. Maurice Grant, a Phoenix, Arizona land speculator, in early 1968, all concerned parties (the ALLEN & GAYLE JONES AT YOUR SERVICE 1960. Being a speculator, Grant State Land Board, Bonneville of WENDOVER'S ONLY AUTOMOTIVE PARTS HOUSE thought the land scattered inlt Speedway Corp., theandBureau mineral-rich Land in crazy-quichunks about the Flats Management, WE MAINTAIN A DRUM LATHE AND A PRESS Kaiser Gypsum Co., Inc.) asfashion, might have some potential. The State assured him sumed the State still had control ALSO TRUCK AND TRACTOR PARTS. this was true. Before the year was of the land parcel: He attributes out Grant had sold part of his Salt the mixup and resultant sale of Flats holdings, turning a tidy the land to governmental too many people over bureaucracy profit of $4.50-per-acr- e a part in the ownership what he paid. having The buyers were 14 southern and administration' of Salt Flats Californians represented by Mr. land. It was simply stupidity on Herbert Hey man, of Los Angeles. our part, he admitted. Between the years of 1960 and Echoing the statements of 1968, Heyman and his group of Buzinais and Backman are others investors looked over their pur- equally confused relative to how resanctioned jobber chase, attempting to find out ex- the speedway land was ever D. Mr. James State. leased the diverse where their by holdings actly lie.Then on October 28, 1968 the Moyle, chairman of the State said collect if need be (phone Heyman group quietly brought Parks and Recreation Board, missome was there trespass action against Bonneville simply that Likewise for Speedway Corporation, asking take somewhere. rent for use Mr. Charles R. Hansen, now direcfor of their land. Bonneville Speed tor of the land board, who said, I $20-per-acr- e, 640-acre- non-prof- salt-encrust- ed $20-per-ac- an re $20-per-ac- re k $20-per-acr- e. es e. $7.50-per-acr- out-of-cou- jet-power-ed rt s, 640-acre- 10-yea-rs $2.50-per-acr- e. f 640-acre- We're here 24 hours a day. AUTO PARTS 801-665230- $100-per-mon- th 4) |