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Show Editorials SfefLir SALT FLAT NEWS, JULY 4th, 1970 PtLM MBTO INQUIRING PHOTOGRAPHER Wemkver. 3 POINT ON A MAP Wendover could be compared day morning woman who in spite to that proverbial Monof giant hair curlers and her mascara running from the boredom of the past weekend parties, still manages to retain an image that only a THE SALT FLAT NEWS is published twelve times a year woman could maintain amidst the pulling back, of the by the Salt Flat Publishing Company, a Utah corporation. drapes of dawn. It is in the afternoon that her metamorNews Photos by B. Record phosis has found a perfect balance and now it is all downhill awaiting the magnetism that night brings on. Editor Richard Nahum Goldberger THE QUESTION Wendover is a magic town in that it should exist at all, Secretary Treasurer Marlon Udell Stones Feature Editor Richard Menzies World War Bob II, During but, however, it does. Ironically, there are found no borUtah visited to Wendover, Hope ing people in Wendover which may be the understateEditorial Office: Box 345, Wendover, Utah Wenentertain at servicemen the ment of this decade, give or take a year. Business Office: Box 11717, Salt Lake City, Utah dover Air Force Base. Leftover ? i - THE ORIGINAL DULLSVILLE Starting the Salt Flat news, we guess, is a little like William James explanation of a theorys career. When two students at the University of Utah first proached a potential financial backer with a proposal for a newspaper about the Salt Flats, dedicated to nothing and nowhere, that estimable gent nearly split a lip laughing. As James put it: First it is attacked as absurd, then it is admitted to be true but obvious and insignificant, finally it is seen to be so important that its adversaries claim that they them- Facetiously the masterful Mr. Hope, quickly brought smiles to the thousands of troubled faces by suggesting that a more appropriate name for Wendover might be Leftover. Would Leftover be a better name for the town? WHERE ASKED Wendover, Utah Wendover, Nevada & THE ANSWERS n. . NOTHING And the wonderful People who live there! Better get your subscription back to us today. perhaps-wit- h the expractical purposes is ception of an aged woman, who sporting owlish glasses, gives a Bronx Cheer to some protestor or some freckled urchins trying to sneak in the back door of a show. Set in a vast sea of salty space, Wendover is a magnet for this reality of the real the type Mr. Sayoran wrote about in non-existe- nt, the 1940s. Wendover is beyond the horizon; be it east or west as horizons generally move more toward the horizontal rather than the vertical. In the age of Manifest Destiny, not to be construed with the age of Aquarius, persons went west, and north was just another way of going west; only a touch more colder. No more fitting a place to watch television whether it be The Secret Storm or the Vietnam War by Cron-kitWendover is all but a point on a map inhabited by good people who know the old adage a hard days work equals an honest days pay. selves discovered it. In the age of atomic energy, nerve gas, detention camps and testing ranges for new and more marvellous weapons which need trying out without the slightest possibility that anybody in his rijht mind would have wandered into the area by accident, the western half of Utah pops right to mind. When you leave Salt Lake City and the spectacular Wasatch Range and pass the Great Salt Lake you roll 100 miles before you come to our town, Wendover. There are no side roads, except a few military and jeep trails which seldom are traversed. The Rand McNally Road Map shows The Great Salt Lake Desert. This is our news area. Its distinctive characteristic is a division, the Nevada state line. On one side is Wendover Utah, peopled by staid folks generally small town Mor-moOn Hie other side of the line is a swinging gambling joint with craps, roulette, blackjack and slots. At Dugway, Utah, an army base to test nerve gas exists, made famous a few years back when they accidentally zapped a few thousand sheep when the wind changed. Up north is the Tule concentration camp where the Nisei from the West Coast were impounded in a frenzy of national panic following Pearl Harbor. Given a good stiff west wind the dust rises up for miles, blows over the Salt Lake and deposits itself over the greenery of Salt Lake. Each year some madmen from all over the country pile into Wendover for the racing season at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Tourists going from east to west or vice versa give them a fair run in their air conditioned sedans as they traverse U. S. 80, the only road through the country. The Salt flats race course burst into action a couple of months a year, then subsides into nothingness. During the winter the whole race speedway is under water. For awhile an air base at Wendover was in operation but that folded. In the North forty occasionally some jet fly boys from Hill Air Force Base near Ogden fly across the lake and zap a few targets. As one officer put it any casual wanderer out there would be in great danger unless, of course, we were trying to hit him. Yet, over this 10,000 square mile area with a population of less than 4,000, theres news news about nothingness. There are possibly minerals, yet untapped, which lure the hopeful. Rock hounds love the place. Spring on the desert draws bird watchers and naturalists. Residents get their kicljs driving up on a butte and watching the daily freight train go through. Jet trails slice the bluest Hamn sky you ever saw in your life. The summer runs 100 degrees temperature and 10 percent humidity. Even the Indians have moved off the reservation in Skull Valley. They work for Litton Industry or LTV in Salt Lake City, or in the Kennecott Mine at Bingham. Which leaves nothing. No college students burning down the ROTC building. No Communists No John Birchers No female liberation movement No pornography No real estate developments. William Saroyan, in his novel THE HUMAN COMEDY, touched upon a way of Americana that for all e, Mr. John Susich, Mayor and businessman of Wendover: If I had Bob Hopes money, I sure wouldnt live here either. But no, Wendover is a' good town. Weve raised our children here and we like it. So, I feel that Leftover is not a suitable name for Wendover, definitely not. Its a good community. Its small, a little over seven hundred people. We all get along well, and work well together. Everybody knows one another, and thats about it. Mr. Richard Dixon, owner of the S & D Super Market, Wendover, Utah: No sir, I dont feel that it would be at all. I believe there are as many opportunities in Wendover as there are anywhere in the country. Maybe the living conditions arent what they might be somewheres else, but I love Wendover and it has been real good to me. Mr. Dan Mathews, a family man and resident of Wendover for seven years. He works for Western Pacific Railroad, and the American Oil Service Station part-timWell, if youre accustomed to large towns, then you wont like it here. But most people who have lived here awhile, even if they once move, seem to come back. So the town must have some kind of attraction, and would not be classified as a leftover town. I didn't like Wendover for about a year, but its my home now. e: Mr. John Lloyd, a college student from Brigham Young University, working in Wendover for the summer months: I really dont think that it is Leftover. It is an interesting town and a tough town competitively. You can see this by all the service stations and small businesses. Also the people are kind of different here; a wide variety of individuals from all walks of life and cultural backgrounds. I speak Spanish, and I find a lot of people with whom to converse with in Spanish. So as far as the town is concerned, I it should be redont feel-thas to Leftover. ferred at INQUIRING PHOTOGRAPHER The NEWS will pay $5.00 to person whose question is used. Mrs. . Dorthy Vucinich, wife of Professor Alexander Vucinich, University of Illinois: Well, I guess there is something fitting about the suggested name. However, our experience in Wendover for the short time weve been here, which has been just one full day while waiting for our car to be repaired, has been a little different than the average tourist. We have really gotten to know some of the people. They seem helpful and courteous. And it seems to me, the town should expand some due to the tremendous traffic that passes through. Miss Cindy Shrzypiec, Chicago, Illinois. She and her sisters passed through Wendover on their way to San Bernardino, California for a visit: Well, we really havent had much time to see Wendover. I dont knbw if it is r. It seems to be small I guess all the towns out. and far around here seem that way to me. I believe Wendover has a rather unique quality however, and does not typify the major small towns in the United States. left-ove- |