History Bonneville 1956: A Photo Treasure Trove

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Bonneville 1956: A Photo Treasure Trove

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Whats causing it to shrink?

 

Nice pics.

Blade58, the salt depletion is because of the mining of the salt. It is being taken away faster than it is replenished.

 

Wow, those are truly great images! It never fails to amaze me how shots like these can make the past look so alive. It's like it just took place.

 

Great pics ! I've gotta get my ass out there while I can .

 

Once seeing these images, as a photographer I wonder if what I have shot will be useful in the future, or will the next generation only know of Bonneville from the images of Instagram, Facebook, and the rest of the Social Media.
Where will the storage of 'real' photographers be? It is one thing to have a pile of prints and images, but electron are not 'real'.
And yes we are planning our 2016 trip to the Salt.....

 

Darn you @Jive-Bomber Jay! ... I was hoping to keep Bill's photographs somewhat of a secret for just awhile longer.

About 5 years ago, I discovered the "William Hewitt Photograph Collection" on the Stanford Revs Institute website ... and have been slowly sharing them on automotive related social media sites ... including a couple of threads right here on the H.A.M.B:

• The Markley Bros BELLY TANK: A Pictorial History
  
• Fremont Drag Strip / Boat Drags: Circa 1961 PICS!!!

NOTE:

Bill Hewitt was a friend of Bob Herda and the Markley Brothers (Bones & Charlie) ... and "photo documented" their car builds & runs at the salt throughout the '50s & '60s ... hence the hundreds of images of the Herda & Markely LSR cars found in the REVS Institute's "William Hewitt Photograph Collection" archive.

In 1956, Mr. Hewitt traveled (from the Bay Area to Bonneville) with the Herda & Marklley crews ... therefore the majority of the 299 photographs in his "Bonneville 1956" archive are of the Herda #999 streamliner and/or the DeAmond & Markley #106 roadster.​

 

Here's some more of Mr. Hewitt's wonderful images taken at Bonneville in 1956:

Glenn Volz & Justin "Jug" George's "SALEM SPEED SHOP" C-Modified Roadster
NOTE: Car was ARDUN-powered ... and was driven by Ernie Hall
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"The Denny Larsen / Bob Sorrell Special"
(a Sorrell SR-100 roadster fitted with a gullwing hardtop ... sans the front half of the body)





Fred Lavell's (Sorrell SR-100 bodied) J-2 Allard D-Sports Car
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#121 D-Modified Roadster
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Kenz & Leslie Streamliner


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Very cool pictures indeed. I have only been to Bonneville once back in 2003. There is no place like it and no event like Speedweek. These pictures come as close as any to being as good as being there.

 

These pictures are amazing. Thanks for sharing!

 

Love these old photos of Bonneville. Been making the trip to the salt for the last 6 years and sure hope all is not lost with the condition it is in at this time. Not sure it will ever recover in my life time.

 

What I love about old pics of Bonneville is that besides the cars in the background, and maybe some of the clothes worn, it looks exactly the same today as it did 60 years ago. Just salt and mountains and race cars.

 

Perfect clarity.

 

Wonderful photos! These are some of the most interesting images I have ever seen. The variety of cars is amazing (even to this day) and the perspective of some of the shots is great! Bomber, a big thanks for sharing and ya'll have a Merry Christmas.

 

Maybe the this part of history that needs to saved for future generations to be part ,Icool pictures jive Bomber ,pictures alone doese not do justice to the experiance of driving down the flats plus the testing down there, where else can you go ?

 

OK all you old school film photographers, did you noticed that, to me, he shot some images with different color filters to help highlight the vehicles colors and sky shade. The skys at Bonneville are either beautiful with clouds or a difficult plain gray.

 

Whenever I see that old Bonneville stuff I wonder who was the first guy to think it would be a good idea to get into an old gas tank with a V8? Those guys were crazy, but not as crazy as the guys who flew the planes the tanks came from.

 

I never knew that Salem Speed Shop produced a LSR roadster. That thing is bitchin!

Thanks for sharing a little bit of our precious history @Jive-Bomber! I never get tired of seeing these early images of Bonneville.

 

If you've never ben, it should be a thing to do when you can.

 

great to see the past so well preserved - will have to wait and see what the future holds for running at The Big Salt

 

FYI ...

Mr. Volz still has the ARDUN they ran in Jug's roadster! ...

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Be sure to checkout this 2009 HRM article by Pat (@pgan) Ganahl:

• 1950 Salem Speed Shop Glenn Volz - The Lost Speed Shop

... and this more recent STREET RODDER article by Chris Shelton:

• Salem Speed Shop - The Shop Time Forgot

 

SALT! Normally I'm the conservative on the side of corporate ventures trying to make a go on public lands. It's a big deal where we live in Nevada. But in this case, the trade off is; the public loses a national treasure in order for a mining company to make a few dollars?? Car guys and history buff's, we need to make some noise. Begin, like I did, by reading some of the articles here. Oh, and thanks to Jalopy Journal for the tip.

 

Money

On a side note, I wonder how fast the #808 was going with she lost the tire.

 

If its public land Im sure there is enough people to have a say so, how about "SAN"

 

I enjoy seeing the push vehicles too!

 

Here's a good article from Hemmings News to read up on @Blade58, about the concerns of Bonneville and what's currently being done to save it.

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/...may-be-dawning-for-the-bonneville-salt-flats/