When the S.L. to Layton driving record was 2 hours

  I-15 in Layton today.

DRIVING from Salt Lake City to Layton takes approximately 30 minutes or less today on I-15.

Back in the fall of 1895, the new record for that 26-mile drive was 2 hours flat in a “wheel” (one of the early automobiles).

According to the Salt Lake Tribune of Oct. 13, 1895, S.P. Durrant of Salt Lake City set multiple records on Oct. 9 when the traveled 100 miles in northern Utah in seven hours and thirty-two minutes. This broke the previous “century record” by 34 minutes.

When Durrant raced back to Layton, his pace was slower and he made the return trip in two hours and 15 minutes.

Durrant made the trip to Sandy in 45 minutes. He is a Salt Lake businessman and also well-known for driving on some mountain roads, where others are straddling a donkey for travel there.

The 100-mile record could have been broken a week earlier, but the chain on Durrant’s vehicle broke during that failed attempt, according to the Tribune story.