Tetzlaff Peak is a mountain
summit
A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topography, topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous.
The term (mountain top) is generally used ...
located in
Tooele County
Tooele County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Utah. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 58,218. Its county seat and largest city is Tooele. The county was created in 1850 and organized the following year.
Tooele County ...
,
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
, United States.
Description
Tetzlaff Peak is situated in the
Silver Island Mountains
Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical co ...
which are a subset of the
Great Basin Ranges, and it is set on land managed by the
Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...
. The community of
Wendover, Utah
Wendover is a city on the western edge of Tooele County, Utah, United States. The population was 1,115 at the 2020 census.
Description
Wendover is on the western border of Utah and is contiguous with West Wendover, Nevada. Interstate 80 runs j ...
, is 10 miles to the southwest and the
Bonneville Speedway
Bonneville Speedway (also known as the Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track) is an area of the Bonneville Salt Flats northeast of Wendover, Utah, that is marked out for motor sports. It is particularly noted as the venue for numerous land speed recor ...
is five miles to the southeast.
Topographic relief
Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin word ...
is significant as the summit rises above the
Bonneville Salt Flats
The Bonneville Salt Flats are a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County in northwestern Utah. A remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, it is the largest of many salt flats west of the Great Salt Lake. It is public land managed by the Bur ...
in one mile. This landform's toponym was officially adopted in 1960 by the
U.S. Board on Geographic Names
The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal govern ...
to honor American racecar driver
Teddy Tetzlaff
Theodore Herbert Tetzlaff (February 5, 1883 – December 8, 1929) was an American racecar driver active in the formative years of auto racing. He competed in the first four Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Ind ...
(1883–1929).
[Tony Huegel (2006), ''Utah Byways: 65 of Utah's Best Backcountry Drives'', Wilderness Press, , p. 26] On August 12, 1914, Tetzlaff set a
land speed record
The land speed record (or absolute land speed record) is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C ("Special Vehicles") flying start regula ...
by driving the
Blitzen Benz
The Blitzen Benz is a race car built by Benz & Cie in Mannheim, Germany, in 1909. In 1910 an enhanced model broke the world land speed record. It was one of six cars based on the Grand Prix car, but it had an enlarged engine, , inline-four, and ...
at the Bonneville Salt Flats (then known as
Salduro, Utah
Salduro (also Salduro Siding) is a ghost town located in Tooele County, Utah, United States.
Description
The name "Salduro" is a combination of Spanish words ''sal'' and ''duro'' and means "hard salt".
The settlement was located on the geologic ...
).
[Madeleine Osberger, Steve Cohen (1996), ''Adventure Guide to Utah'', Hunter Pub., , p. 47]
Climate
Tetzlaff Peak is set in the
Great Salt Lake Desert
The Great Salt Lake Desert (colloquially referred to as the West Desert) is a large dry lake in northern Utah, United States, between the Great Salt Lake and the Nevada border. It is a subregion of the larger Great Basin Desert, and noted for w ...
which has hot summers and cold winters.
The desert is an example of a
cold desert climate
The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...
as the desert's elevation makes temperatures cooler than lower elevation deserts. Due to the high elevation and aridity, temperatures
drop sharply after sunset. Summer nights are comfortably cool. Winter highs are generally above freezing, and winter nights are bitterly cold, with temperatures often dropping well below freezing.
Gallery
File:Tetzlaff Peak, Pilot Peak.jpg, Tetzlaff Peak (center), Pilot Peak (distant left) from Bonneville Salt Flats
File:Tetzlaff Peak sw.jpg, Southwest aspect
File:Rishel and Tetzlaff peaks.jpg, Rishel Peak (left) and Tetzlaff Peak (center) seen from Volcano Peak.
Further in the distance are Graham Peak and Jenkins Peak
Jenkins Peak is a mountain summit located in Tooele County, Utah, United States.
Description
Jenkins Peak is the third-highest summit in the Silver Island Mountains which are a subset of the Great Basin Ranges. It is set on land controlled by ...
.
File:Bonneville Salt Flats, Silver Island Range.jpg, Volcano Peak (left), Rishel Peak (left of center) and Tetzlaff Peak (right) from Bonneville Salt Flats
File:Tetzlaff Peak and Bonneville Salt Flats.jpg, South aspect
File:2015-09-29 08 56 39 View north-northwest from the end of the road to Bonneville Salt Flats International Speedway near Wendover, Utah, with calm waters covering the salt flats and reflecting the sky and mountains.jpg, Rishel Peak (left) and Tetzlaff Peak (right)
File:Tetzlaff and Salt Flats.jpg, Tetzlaff Peak and Bonneville Salt Flats
File:Tetzlaff Peak and Pilot Peak.jpg, Tetzlaff Peak (center), Pilot Peak (distant left) from Bonneville Salt Flats
See also
*
*
Jenkins Peak
Jenkins Peak is a mountain summit located in Tooele County, Utah, United States.
Description
Jenkins Peak is the third-highest summit in the Silver Island Mountains which are a subset of the Great Basin Ranges. It is set on land controlled by ...
*
List of mountain peaks of Utah
This article comprises three sortable tables of major mountain peaksThis article defines a significant summit as a summit with at least of topographic prominence, and a major summit as a summit with at least of topographic prominence. All ...
References
{{reflist
External links
*Tetzlaff Peak
weather forecast
Mountains of Utah
Mountains of Tooele County, Utah
North American 1000 m summits
Great Salt Lake Desert
Mountains of the Great Basin