The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1875-08-26
THE GREAT SALT LAKE.

this ra1e neu atmosphere, THAT Tie Guy,
left eighteen miles behind us, seemed to
be only four or five miles distant, the
houses being distinctly visible. The
formation of the land contributes to this
deception, ridges of mountains running
north and south, and enclosing valleys
of a width of about 25 miles, with no in
tervening elevations. We drove for an
hour along the southern bank of Salt
Lake, famed by the breath of its sea air,
and looking over its waste of waters dot
ted with mountain islands. It required
but little imagination to transport our
selves to the shores of the Atlantic, for
extending as it does ninety miles to the
north, no land could be seen beyond the
line of the clearly defined horizon. Some
years ago a steamboat of three hundred
tons was built for freight and passenger
traffic, in connection with the Union and
Central Pacific roads but the fair pros
poets were ruined by the construction of
the Utah Central, and she now lies at the
wharf, her only value beng her aid in
making the imaginary ocean seem more
real. How this great basin of salt water
came to be deposited in the interior of
the continent has been q study for geog-
raphers and naturalists. The changes
that are taking place in its character at
the present day are observed with much
interest. It was first discovered by a
party of trappers long before the religi-
Gus discovery of Joseph Smith. When
they had tasted of its waters they sup
posed that it was an arm of the sea COM
ing in from the Gulf of California but
on their attempt to sail into the Pacific
by that route, they experienced the
same disappointment that fell upon the
Dutchmen in their exploration of the
North river, although they might have
been led to the same conclusions from
different tests.
The trappers should have realized that
the water was too salt, and the Dutch
men should have found that the water
was too fresh to Communicate with the
Pacific ocean. Salt making has been a
business of great Importance on the
banks OF the lake since the occupation of
this territory by the Mormons. The
water is SO densely saline that it is i'm
possible for body to find the bottom.
1t is u capital place to acquire the art
of swimming with perfect safety. In
former times three barrels of water left
to evaporate would produce one barrel
of salt; but the freshening within the
last twenty years has so weakened it that
now four barrels of it are required to OBJ
tain that quantity. 1t has become fresh
therefore, in a proportion of somewhat
more than one per cent. yearly. Hence it
years the name of Great Salt Lake
should be change d; for by this time
it will, like Mormonism, be cleared of
all its impurities. I have previously
noticed the regular water lines, called
benches, which are SO distinctly defined
on all the mountain ranges surrounding
these various valleys, and which afford
such nnmistakable evidence that in the
former days they enclosed vast inland
seas. The deep alkaline soil Of the bot
toms has led to the supposition that
these seas were of salt water, and that
all of them excepting this have been
completely evaporated, Salt Lake being
to dwindle to puddle and then to dry
up for ever. But the last part of this
theory is negatived by the evident in
tention of the lake to assume somewhat
of its original proportions while it is
becoming fresher, It is growing lager.
Within the twenty-seyen years that the
country around it has been settled, it
has encroached all along its low banks
nearly mile upon the land and deepen
ed five feet. Several fine farms are now
permanently under water, and the road
on which we travelled has been removed
far inward to accommodate its aggressive
ness. At the same time that this
change is going on, atmospheric causes
for part of if are apparent. The eli
mate IS becoming more mild although it
is still excessively dry. But each sue
ceeding season brings greater rainfall
This has doubled within twelve years.
The lake is fed by Bear river on the
north and Jordan ON the south, besides
some small rivulets that find their way
into it. Every year their volumes in
crease, and contribute to the filling up
of the great basin into which they pour
themselves. Notwithstanding this, the
increase of the lake cannot be thus
! accounted for, as they are still but in
significant streams. 1t must be true
! that new fresh water fountains have
burst out from the bottom, and are the
chief causes of the increase. A like
phenomenon has produced the lake near
which we afterward passed at Stockton
| where on the ground encamped by Conor s
army there is now body of water two
miles square and of considerable depth.
If these changes go on as they have
commenced. the Zion of Brigham Young
viii ere long become completely sub
merged, His enemies will say that a
second flood has been commissioned to
overflow the desert that he has reclaim
ed, because of the sins of the people,
and that like Sodom and Gomorrah
these modern cities of the plain have
been overwhelmed as punishment for
| their unnatural crimes. But those judg-
ments are yet affair off. Brigham teaches
that when Utah is destroyed all the
earth viii perish likewise, except that
favored spot, Jackson county, Missouri.