Wendover, UT

At Utah’s western edge, Wendover grew around a Western Pacific station in 1908, where the railroad crossed the Great Basin desert toward the Nevada line. The Tooele County city and West Wendover still sit side by side across the state border. Nearby Bonneville Salt Flats are a 30,000-acre sheet of salt, the site of land-speed racing since 1914. The Bureau of Land Management adjusts access during permitted racing and other events to protect the crust. Wendover is desert infrastructure in plain view: state line, railroad, salt, and a town built to keep travelers moving.