The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-08-01
Great Salt Lake.

The fame of this large body Of "nox-
ious and extremely SALT water pene-
trated southwark to the early Spanish
explorers, and the French from the
Northwest got near enough to it a CEN
fury ago to hear of its magnitude and
peculiarities. 1t is put down, therefore,
in maps made toward the end OF the
last century as much by guess as maps
of twenty years ago contained the lakes
of Central Africa in problematic posi-
tons. When the trappers of the fur
companies began to overrun the Rocky
Mountains, Utah was invaded, and the
beautiful valleys of the northern Wah-
satch became favorite wintering places.
From any of these peaks the lake would
be visible, but it is not known that be-
fore 1925 any white man had reached
its shore. 1t was not until Captain
Bonneville had come back from obliv-
ion to the eyes Of surprised world,
and Washington Irving had written his
travels, in 1897, that we knew anything
definitely about this inland salt sea, and
could place it on a map correctly. 1t
is a great pity that the good and proper
name Lake Bonneville has been lost in
the prosaic name it now bears, and will
probably forever retain; but just at
tempt to restore it has been made BY
Major Powelrs survey. The present
lake is only remnant of a more ancient
and larger body of water, whose bounds
can now be easily traced in the hori-
zontal benches along the base of the
mountains.
Stimulated by lrving's. book, emigra-
ton Immediately began overland to
Oregon. In 1912 and 1S43, General
Fremont piloted his celebrated expedi-
fion through the mountains and made
boat trip on the lake, although at
that time it was not the property of
the United States, but belonged to
Mexico.
Utah and its lake were well known to
geographers when the Mormon Church,
expelled from Illinois, driven out of
Missouri, and prosecuted to the point
of death in Iowa, decided to abandon
their beautiful Nauvoo, and betake
themselves not only to the far West,
but outside of the lines of a country
whose people and Government they
hated.
Days counted themselves into weeks,
and weeks made months, and months
followed one another from early spring
into midsummer, and still the emf
grants. likenipg themselves to Israel in
the wilderness, kept their faces west
ward. On the Gath of July, 1917. the
head of the advance train, winding its
way down through the last tortuous
little ravine in the western foothills of
the Wahsatch, looked out on that great
basin-miles of sage-green velvety
slopes sweeping down on every side
from the bristling mountain rim to the
azure surface of the tossing salt sea.
Brigham Young, their leader, told
them that here the Lord commanded a
halt, and directed that His tabernacle
should be set up. This sounded well,
and perhaps the majority believed; but
Young knew we'll enough that beyond
lay the lifeless alkali deserts. and that
this spot was the very last upon which
his band of faithful emigrants could be
colonized with any hope for the future.
But the camp was not made on the
borders of the Great Salt Lake, nor is
the present city in proximity to it 1t is
almost twenty miles away in straight
line, and Just at the base of the range.
Indeed, it is only from the ''bench' that
the lake can be seen at all from within
the city limits, and then it appears only
as line of distinct color between the
dusty olive of the hither plain and the
vague blue of the further hills.-Ernest
IngersOI, in HGrper'S Magazine.