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Show Editorials SALT FLAT NEWS, V AUGUST-SEPTEMBE- R, 1971 5 ON PAPER WORDS Proposals like automobiles have a tendency to run dry every so often. The formula to keep a proposal going until the objective is reached is first to clearly define the objective and then prepare a working guideline defining what the specific tasks are. to attain the objective desired. Automobiles, it should be noted, need not have a specific destination in order to start up, whereas a proposal gone dry needs a complete overhaul of its intended objective. A year ago Burke LeSage, public relations director of Bonneville Nationals Incorporated, proposed the formulation of a speed museum in Wendover. Cars were pledged and words were glorified in the twilight of many an errant conversation quite common in the aristocracy of a bureaucrat. Today, like the many todays past, has yet to sell the reality of this idea to the general public, simply because the words, both paper and verbal, still have not answered the proper questions. Examples are such basic questions as where the museum would be located, specifically upon whose land, exactly what cars have been pledged, what will be the cost of building the museum, or for that matter in drawing the plans? ' Newspapers are made of paper words and this one is no exception. A year ago the News put this particular concept on paper. May the words of that editorial not rest in peace but serve to obtain some specific answers to the questions posed in getting a speed museum for Wendover. The News stands on record as being in favor of a museum where the youngsters of our great nation can relive the saltine glories officially proclaimed as Speed Week. ATTEMPTING TO BREAK THE S.OUNP BARRIER LETTERS TO THE EDITOR LONG ARMED BANDITS Reno may be famQus for the quickie divorce, but Wendover is rapidly gaining a reputation for the quickie arrest. The instant one crosses the state line from Nevada into Utah he forfeits even the slim odds of a gambler. Waiting to take his money are not the one armed bandits but the two armed variety, or rather, the long armed type the highway patrol roadblock. A common complaint of the pinched tourist is that Wendover makes it hard being arrested in for him to return for his day in court. Well, that problem has been solved by the addition of a judges chambers to the truck weighing station. The scales of justice may be a bit weighted, but nonetheless, the defendant gets as fair a hearing as the average truck. Guilty or not guilty, demands justice of thepeace Roy Bean, and if the victim must be on his way he might as well be guilty. Next comes the fine; the traveler can either fork over the cash or pay by check, payable to his honor, Roy Bean. Back on the road again, he begins to wonder at the marvellous way his money has vanished. He wonders where it goes, especially when he arrives at a road construction zone near Grantsville, where private vehicles are being employed as steamrollers to pack down a fresh macadam surface. At the end of the run, windshield and headlamps smashed, out of money, tarred and gravelled, he cant but wonder that frontier injustice has survived to this day. Too many rules and regulations to suit me, said Deputy Dump of the Utah side of his town. A hectic day across the border, and one comes to realize the good sense in that simple observation, and the beauty of a garbage dump. out-of-the-w- ay NEED RACING HALL OF FAME Despite having the only salt flats of its kind in the world, Wendover is hardly recognized as hosting the annual Speed Week ahd periodic land speed records. Travelers often ask Wendover residehts where the salt flats are and news accounts locate the speedway as a certain distance from Salt Lake City. But Wendoverites, we feel, are not the only ones slighted in this respect. With them are the drivers, mechanics and loyal wives many of whom use their vacation time to participate at Bonneville, with costs covered by savings from the preceding year. THE SALT FLAT NEWS proposed a Racing Hall of Fame to honor the record holders, from the renowned Craig Breedlove to the members of the 200 MPH Club. If achieved, the Racing Hall of Fame would be located at Wendover home of the salt flats as a tribute to the hardy breed who race and the beautiful residents of Wendover who look forward each year to the drivers arrival, offering the finest hospitality while sometimes knowing -- . . . see it) way back in August, 1970, after having seen a copy of the issue of July 4, 1970. In fact, I paid you cash money in advance and Wyoming. Why so much flat for two subscriptions, one for areas where nothing moved out myself, and one for a friend of there? Why? mine. We stayed the nite at Order endosed. Well, anyway, along about A comment on the spaceport Wendover and I think I found the September, we each received a artides I pour over in your news- answer. In the motel room was a copy of the September issue. paper. copy of the Salt Flat News where BUT SINCE THEN, NEITHER I am keenly interested in the I read for the first time about the OF US HAS EVER RECEIVED space shuttle stuff, fascinated by space shuttle business. It made A SINGLE COPY, until this April whats been accomplished by the sense. Reflecting I no longer pon- issue arrived a few days ago. In one way I was glad to hear space program, and awed by dered the whys of all the devoid out a envision whats possible in the future. I could there. from space you, because it set to rest Salt on Great Flat the the a worries I had had about the of lot spaceport rapture seeing Imagine first shuttle craft daw its way up Desert Site. I could indeed. No you. Like how maybe your little from the floor of the Wendover-Grea- t other idea seemed more right to venture had gone bankrupt and Salt Lake Desert Site! blend with the natural you had had to give it up, or how I have traveled through that surroundings. maybe you had got lost out there I would rather see a space shut- on them Salt Flats and had died of area several times. Always my mind was stirred as to the whys of tle craft slicing through that brilthirst, or had maybe got bit by a vast stretches of desert, ridged liant blue than the desert webbed rattlesnake, or some other cataswith rock, and splashed by gor- with freeways bringing viels of trophe like that. I must also congeous sunsets. I wondered what murky smog. fess, although Im sort of ashamed to admit it now, that it the GREAT PLANNER had in Respectfully mind for such places a huge nacrossed by mind that maybe you Audrey J. Doty had just took all that money and tional park set aside for run off. There are people like BREATHING purposes when Gentlemen: I. received now the April, that, you know, and you have to buldgeoning civilization closed just in? A thought I surmized three 1971 issue of the Salt Flat News, admit it looked kind of bad from years ago . . . even put it in and you may find this strange, my angle. But Im real glad to . but I was real surprised to receive know that that aint the case. writing. Last summer returning from it Well, maybe you wont find it other Uiing that I thought about our vacation in the midwest via so strange when I tell you my was that maybe you thought, us the Wendover route, the same story, which Im fixing to do being so far away and all, that we dont really care much about questions spiraled in my mind as herewith. seemI in I over SFN first the subscribed traveled what happens out there on the (as my eyes call whenever Utah in I Salt Flats; but thats not true. of it ingly emptiness parts affectionately Were real interested. I surely will appreciate your giving this your personal attention, because I know how busy you must be out there keeping up with the news and getting the paper out each month. THE SALT FLAT NEWS is published twelve times a year Sincerely, by the Salt Flats Publishing Corporation, a Utah Corporation. Robert M. Stanton Editor: I wish to renew my subscription to the Salt Lake News-Mone-y , EDITOR Richard Nahum Goldberger Jess Green GENERAL MANAGER P.O. BOX 11717 SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 84111 - Madison, Wisconsin Editor's Note: We're real glad, too, that rattlesnakes ain't the case, and although thirst is always a problem out here, we stagger onward , bills may not be paid that week. The rapport between our uppermost ambition to keep town and driver surpasses most cities which host a single loyal readers in faraway Wisconsin informed and on annual event of national importance. on Salt the what's happening The Utah Travel Council indicates support of thejdea; Flats. The unfortunate hurricane tourists are in acceptance; and even the Salt Palaces pro- that swept out our offices last posed Sports Hall of Fame is in agreement. Directors of autumn apparently carried away the Salt Palace hall explained they were attempting to several important accounts, and will kindly norepresent all sporting areas but that every sport deserves if lostus,subscribers will we mail out immeditify more attention than they could give it. which those issues, missing ately We agree, particularly in salt flats racing. Lets get a we hope will remain as timeless as when first printed. Racing Hall of Fame for Wendover. Now! up-to-da- te |