Salduro, Utah facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Salduro
Ghost town
Western Pacific Railroad in Salduro, 1911
Salduro, Utah Location in Utah Show map of Utah Salduro, Utah Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Country	United States
State	Utah
County	Tooele
Elevation	4,219 ft (1,286 m)
Time zone	UTC-7 (Mountain (MST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-6 (MDT)
GNIS feature ID	1437674

Salduro (also called Salduro Siding) is a ghost town in Tooele County, Utah, United States. A ghost town is a place where people used to live, but now it is empty.

What's in a Name?

The name "Salduro" comes from two Spanish words. Sal means "salt" and duro means "hard". So, Salduro means "hard salt".

This settlement was built on the Salduro Salt Marsh. This area is also known as the famous Bonneville Salt Flats. The Bonneville Speedway, where people try to set land speed records, is only about 1 mile (1.6 km) north of Salduro.

Salduro's Past

An eastbound train crossing the Bonneville Salt Flats near Salduro around 1912.

Salduro started because of the Western Pacific Railroad. This railroad was finished in the early 1900s. Workers building the railroad found large amounts of salt nearby. Soon, people started claiming land to mine this salt.

At first, it was hard to make money from the salt. But then, the Capell Salt Company took over the claims. They built a small factory near Salduro to process the salt.

Around 1916, the Capell Salt Company joined with another company. This was the Solvay Process Company, which made potash. Potash is a type of salt used in fertilizers. The Solvay Process Company began taking potash from the salty water under the Salduro Salt Marsh. Their factory was built south of the railroad station.

A rest area on Interstate 80 now stands where Salduro once was. A sign there talks about the land speed records set on the Bonneville Salt Flats. (July 2014)

Salduro became more important in the 1930s and 1940s. During this time, a lot of potash and salt were mined there.

A Famous Stop for a Pilot

On June 23, 1924, a brave U.S. Army pilot named Russell Maughan made history. He flew his plane, a Curtiss P-1 Hawk, across the United States. He started at dawn and landed at dusk. Salduro was one of his five stops to refuel his plane!

Why Salduro Became a Ghost Town

In 1944, the potash factory in Salduro closed down. Not long after, a fire spread through the settlement. Because of these events, people left Salduro, and it became an abandoned ghost town.