Great Salt Lake
Great Salt Lake, the "Dead Sea of America," has been the victim of more yarns than any other body of water; among these we mention a few.
From: Unknown To: 1899 C.E.
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Salt Lake City by Marcus E. Jones, 1899.
Great Salt Lake, the "Dead Sea of America," has been the victim of more yarns than any other body of water; among these we mention a few. It has been said that "no bird can fly over its waters without falling dead," "it sleeps forever, no waves dance over it, no surf roar breaks the stillness about it, lifeless, dull and heavy," a California party is said to have "planted whales in it," "there is an underground outlet and a whirlpool that sucks in small boats;" "sea-serpents sport in its waters," etc.
In recent geological times the Lake covered most of western Utah: the mountain ranges were islands or peninsulas of great length; the water was fresh, 1,000 feet deep, and had an outlet through Red Rock Gap, where a large, deep, but gentle, river went to swell the great Columbia in its onward march to the ocean. The grandeur of this great sea (18,000 square miles in extent), as large as Lake Huron, with its icebergs floating off from the glaciers which plowed their way down the canyons, its tremendous waves, its great rivers, all set in a border of dense black forests, and lit up by long chains of lofty mountains, glistening almost to their bases with perpetual snow, can hardly be described or imagined.
The Lake teemed with fish and fowl of almost every variety, and the country with deer, elk, buffalo, mountain sheep, bear, foxes, wolves, etc. The beautiful columbine, the pride of Utah, with its white, pink and lavender blossoms, grew on every hill; the blue foxglove and larkspur in every valley; the open country was carpeted with luxuriant grass. But the climate was gradually changing: there were periods when the snow crept far down the slopes and into the valleys, and periods when it receded far up the mountains: but at the end of every cycle, it was found to be gradually disappearing; so the forests climbed the mountains, the valle}s opened out into magnificent parks, covered with grass and decked with multitudes of beautiful flowers, and enriched with clumps of firs and scattered pines and groves of deciduous trees. Still greater changes came over the beautiful land. The volcanoes were still in active operation, hurling ashes and lava into the Lake, belching out fire, and painting the sky with the ominous cypress tree cloud.
The river, the outlet, gradually wore away its lime-stone bed to a depth of 360 feet, draining large areas, and now the increasing warmth of the climate parched the land, dried up the little streams and contracted the large rivers till the water of the Lake no longer flowed from the outlet, and the mineral matter in it increased with the evaporation till the fish all died. The snow disappeared from the lofty mountains, the forests faded away in the valleys, leaving only cottonwoods and willows sprinkled along the streams. The Lake had dried up to one-tenth of its former size, being about 75 miles long by 50 wide, but the valleys were still covered with luxuriant grass the home of much game and the most pleasant spot between the mountains, when the Indians came and settled here. How long they were here no one knows, but it was a long time sufficient for a wide-spread opinion to get out that somewhere in the great West there was a strange salt sea and fertile valleys held by powerful Indian tribes. In 1689, Baron La Hontan wrote a confused account of a salt sea, powerful cities, bearded men, boats 130 feet long navigating the salt sea, cattle raising, etc., most of which referred to Mexico probably.
Somewhere near 1776, Father Escalante reached Utah lake, where the Indians told him of another lake to the north whose waters "are noxious and extremely salt" producing 'an itching sensation in the moistened parr;" it is uncertain whether he actually visited Great Salt Lake or not. Soon after the year 1800 trappers began to push their way all over the west in search of furs, and as Utah lake was, and still is one of the best places for trapping, it is probable that the first white man who ever saw the Great Salt Lake was one of those daring but nameless men, the courageous pioneers, who carried his life in his hands, perished by the arrow of a skulking Indian assassin, or died on the desert alone choked with thirst, whose bones the coyote picked, and whose glory will be sung only in the great hereafter. In 1820, Mr. Miller, belonging to the Astor party (which Washington Irving has immortalized), saw and visited the Lake. The same year Prevost trapped along it. In 1824 or 1825 Major James Bridger saw and perhaps visited it.
In 1826 four trappers sailed around it in canoes made of hide, in in search of beaver. In 1831 or 1832 Captain Bonneville examined the Lake and made a written account of it. The Lake was named "Bonneville" after him by Washington Irving, but Sublette, Fitzpatrick, Fontanelle, Deippe, Bridger and Campbell saw it before he did. When Fremont went through he gave it its present name. Fremont sailed on the Lake on September 9th, 1843; he was in a rubber boat, with Kit Carson and others. He sailed over to Fremont Island, found the elevation of the Lake to be 4,200 feet above the sea, which is correct within 10 feet, 4,210, and determined the latitude and longitude. In 1817 (July 24th) the Mormons, attracted by Fremont's report, arrived in the Valley, and soon afterwards visited the Lake. In 1849, Captain Stansbury surveyed, sounded and mapped the Lake. In 1869 the Government again surveyed it; since that time it has been the subject of much study.
The Lake is 75 miles long by 50 wide in the widest place, and 350 miles around; area, 2,000 square miles; the average depth is now about 15 feet, though it varies greatly in different years: the greatest depth is now about 33 feet: the density is about 20 per cent, solid matter, it also varies greatly with the oscillations, being greatest when the Lake is shallowest; there are some 6,000,000,000 tons of salt in the Lake. The western side is very shallow. There are three rivers and several small streams emptying into it; on the eastern side these carry a large body of water but they only raise the surface about 14 inches in spring and it is all evaporated to the old level by the last of October. Since the rainfall and evaporation are not always equal, the surface of the Lake rises in some years and falls in others, the total oscillation has been about 12 feet within the last dozen years. It is on the downward march now and may continue for a time when it will rise again, 12 feet or more.
The water is a beautiful green and is so clear that objects can be seen distinctly at a depth of 15 feet and the bottom can be made out to a depth of 25 feet: it has a peculiarly clean appearance: the waves and swells roll in so lazily as though their great experience had taught them to take life easily; but when lashed by a gale they come with majestic grandeur, the spray flying in clouds, foaming, hissing, curling, till they break on the shore with deafening roar that can be heard for miles, shaking the earth and making everything tremble within their reach. A storm on the Lake is grand, awe-inspiring, and tries the mettle of the bravest; and yet the waves are slow to rise, and the Lake is not any more subject to storms than other bodies of water of its size. In winter the water is very cold, reaching a temperature of 18 degrees above zero before it freezes, and even then only a little scum forms on the surface.
There is more life in the water than in any body of its size, fresh or salt, but the species are few. There is an Alga (sea-weed) about the size and shape of buckshot, looking like a globule of green jelly, which abounds everywhere in countless numbers. Upon the Alga feeds a minute shrimp, from a quarter to half an inch long, which looks like a very small minnow with a feathery tail. There are billions of these—in every bucketful of water there are hundreds of them; these are beautiful and harmless little creatures. Upon the shrimps feeds a little worm, the larva of a small black fly. The shrimps and larvae hatch out in June, and the latter enter the pupa state in July, attaching themselves to the floating Algae like so many black oats, and there remain till they come out as greasy little black flies, when they sit on the water and enjoy themselves, till the sea gulls and other birds use them for other purposes.
Two mountain chains run north and south through the Lake leaving a train of islands in their wake. The Oquirrhs leave Antelope, several thousand feet high; Fremont, a low island; and a short distance from the latter the Promontory begins and runs far to the northward till it joins the north shore some thirty miles away, this is a lofty but narrow mountain range extending from the north end of the Lake nearly half way to the south shore. Some fifteen miles to the westward the Aqui mountains run into the Lake leaving Stansbury, Egg, Carrington and Hat Island.
The next range to the west leaves Strong's Knob, Gunnison and Dolphin Islands. Dropping these for the present let us turn to the Bathing and Lake Resorts.
The bathing season begins about June 1st and continues till October 15th. The temperature of the water at first is about 60 degrees, during August it goes up to 85 degrees and remains there for some weeks.
There are but two bathing resorts on the Lake that the people of Salt Lake patronize, one is at Garfield and the other at Lake Park.
Bathing in Great Salt Lake is one of the most delightful recreations possible, the water is so heavy (nearly 20 per cent, salt) that a person cannot sink in it. As one walks out into deep water he finds himself growing lighter and lighter, till when he is up to his arm-pits he ceases to weigh anything, his toes are helpless for locomotion in the ordinary way, and a little farther out he is lifted entirely off his feet and floats upright with his head, neck and tip of the shoulders out of the water without any exertion on his part. It is a strange sensation, one that he never experienced
before; the bather soon becomes conscious that his feet are lighter than his head and they are constantly seeking the surface, now they slowly tip him over in front, now sideways, now backwards, and thus with great deliberation he wobbles this way and that like an ill-balanced cork, but a slight stroke of the hand occasionally will keep him upright and thus he floats at ease in the water; when this becomes monotonous the bather can roll over and lie stretched out on his back floating with one-quarter of his body above the water without the slightest motion even so much as of a finger; or if he likes he can stick out both his hands and his feet and still float about, the sport of the current if there is any. If he attempts to swim he will find his feet constantly splashing the water like a child's just learning, till he gets accustomed to the dense water.
Swimming in the old way is very slow because of the heavy water, but by throwing the body high out and going hand over hand, as much or more speed can be obtained than in fresh water. A person must use caution and not allow the salt water to get into his lungs as it is very irritating and causes so much pain that he can- not remain in the water long after it, without inconvenience. When the waves are high it is great sport to battle with the breakers, and dangerous too, if he gets struck squarely by one of the high waves he is liable to get rolled, which will end that sport for him for the day, since his mouth, nose and eyes will be filled with oolitic sand and salt water, a not very palatable diet, though very "good for the catarrh. It often happens that a bather stays in the water an hour or more, and sometimes feels very chilly on coming out (because of staying in too long), but if he simply rubs himself dry and does not use the shower bath the salt will produce such a glow that in an hour he will feel as well or better than ever. The water has a marked effect on cutaneous diseases and catarrh, and is a remarkable general tonic. The preservative qualities of the water are such that timber never rots while under the surface, and meat can be quickly corned if left in it. Fully four times the whole population of Salt Lake City go out to the Lake every year.
Jones, Marcus E. Salt Lake City. 1889.
About TOTA
TOTA.world provides cultural information and sharing across the world to help you explore your Family’s Cultural History and create deep connections with the lives and cultures of your ancestors.
