Popular lecture on salt flats repeated
Utah State University associate professor of English Ron Shook offered a popular lecture last year as part of the Friends of Utah State University Libraries lecture series -so popular, in fact, that he has been invited back to share his insights again in the summer series.
Auto racing is in the spotlight when Shook presents “How the British Invented the Bonneville Salt Flats” in a free lecture Wednesday, June 30, at 4 p.m. in the Eccles Science Learning Center, room 046. The building is located south of the Taggart Student Center and the room is on the lower level. Space is limited (140 seats) and an early arrival is recommended.
Response to Shook’s previous lecture was enthusiastic, said John Elsweiler, series coordinator and associate director of public services of University Libraries at Utah State.
“Since everyone enjoyed the earlier lecture we thought we should share the topic with our summer visitors,” Elsweiler said. “The lecture is informative and very entertaining.”
Shook said he plans some modifications in the lecture that takes a look at automobile racing on the Bonneville Salt Flats. The evening promises a lecture with pictures of “cool, old cars, ” Shook said.
The lecturer said he began attending race meets on the Salt Flats in the early 1990s, when he took a volunteer position as a course watcher on the nine-mile-long speed course.
“I was at the very end of the track and not too many cars made it that far,” he said. “It was pretty lonely.”
Later, he worked in the timing booth and eventually served as an announcer on the public address system.
A self-confessed car nut, Shook has worked his love of racing into his professional life. Working with Jessie Embry, associate director of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University, Shook has published a paper in the “Utah Historical Quarterly” that has been twice reprinted in anthologies, and he has presented the results of his historical research at various conferences.
Shook and Embry have researched the history of the Bonneville Salt Flats for nearly 10 years, traveling to automobile museums around the country and in Great Britain. The British have a great admiration for the Salt Flats.
“They feel about Bonneville the same way we feel about Stonehenge: it’s exciting, mysterious, and they’re not sure exactly where it is,” Shook said.
The Friends of the University Libraries, a support organization for the libraries at Utah State, sponsors a summer lecture series that is open to audiences of all ages. For information on the lectures or on the Friends organization, contact the library’s administrative office at (435) 797-2631.
The next lecture is July 14 and features Ken White with “Cloning – Everything You are Afraid to Ask Your Kids About.”