The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-12-04
WATERS OF SALT LAKE
What They Contain Would Be
Worth Millions in New York.
ITS ANCIENT PLASHlNGS
Dead Sea of the Western Hemis sphere
It Was Once Larger Than Lake
Huron and 900 Feet
Deep.

The most wonderful feature Of all
this wonderful land. the mightiest mar
vel Of all marvellous Utah. an
ocean of majestic mystery, clad In
beauty divine. is great Salt Lake. the
American Dead Sea. Among earth's
weird wonders in water 1t has but n
rival or peer-the miracle-made sea
whose waves of doom and oblivion roll
over Sodom and Gomorrah, the Chicagos
of forty centuries ago.. Think of a lake
from $500 to 5000 square miles In area.
lying 1000 miles inland. at an altitude
OF 1850 feet above the sea level, whose
waters are six times as salt as those
OF the ocean; and while IL has no put
let, four large rivers pouring their
ceaseless floods of fresh water into II.
without raising It's mysterious surface
a fraction Of an inch. or even dimin-
ishing. so far as chemical analysis can
determine. its indescribable saltlness.
Where does all the water 90? Where
does all the salt, that no streams can
freshen, come from? Where are the
vast saline magazines from which II
draws its everlasting supplies? one
may stand upon its shores and ask a
thousand such questions, but no an
swer comes from its mysterious depths.
amid which death and silence reign SUI
preme.
There is not n single fish or any lv-
ing thing in all the $500 or 5000 square
miles OF beautiful water, except the
yearly increasing swarms of summer
bathers. Not n shark or a stingaree to
scare the imid swimmer or fioater; not
n crab or crawfish to nip the toe of the
wader: not a minnow or a frog, n tad
pole or a pollywog-nothing that lives,
moves. crawls or wriggles.
Long before human beings a
this mysterious and beautiful region or
before the little band of Mormons.
after their long march from Illinois
and month"; of ear travel across the
barren plains and ove towering noun
tain ranges pitched their tents in the
picturesque valley adjoining Salt Lake.
This wonderful body of water was
larger than Lake Huron and 1000 feet
deep. Its ancient plashings are stil
plainly visible on the mountain benches
and r. as easily traceable as though
they were written but yesterday.
IL Is now about 100 miles long. with
an average width of from % to 30 miles.
1t Is from so to so miles wide I'm some
places and it's greatest depth Is about
so feet. Its waters contain about Is
per cent. OF solid matter. mostly salt
and soda. with small proportions Of sui
phur. magnesia. calcium, bromide. po-
tassium. lithia and boracic acid. The
Asiatic Dead Sea water contains % rcr
cent. OF solids. including less salt and
soda and much more magnesia, calcium
and potassium than Salt Lake. Atlantic
ocean water holds but 3.5 per cent. of
solid material. Of which salt constitutes
2.6 per cent. Hundreds Of thousands
of tons OF salt are made by natural
evaporation along the shores of the
lake. and at one place near Salt Lake
City a windy night never fails to pile
up many tons Of soda, eliminated by
the movement of the waves.
Compared with this vast liquid treas
ure house of riches. the greatest bo-
nanza mines of Utah or of the United
States dwindle to beggars' penny box
es. Take out your pencil and do a Mt
tie figure. Figures. IL is said. will not
lie. and you will soon find yourself
dumbfounded before your own mathe-
NAUTICAL truths.
Say Salt Lake Is 100 miles and has
an average width of % miles; that gives
an area of 100 square miles. There are
27.S7S. 400 square feet in a mile; so The
lake has an area of 1921, $50. 900 squar
feet. Take 20 feet as an average depth:
then 20 times 1921. $50. 900 will give us
1.5O5. 433, 900, 900 cubic feet as the con-
tents of the lake. Now, 16 2-3 per
cent. or one-sixth of this. according 10
the analyses of eminent chemists, Is
salt and sulphate of soda.
That is. h lake contains $50. 905. 600. :
600 cubic feet OF salt N sulphate Of
soda. or this mass one-eighth is sui
phate of soda and seven-eighths COM
mon salt. A cubic foot of sulphate of
soda weighs 50 pounds, and a cubic
foot Of common salt so pounds: so We
have as the contents, in part, OF TINS
unparalleled reservoir OF wealth 1.56S,-
160.0 600. 900 pounds. or 7s4. ESQ., 900 tons OF
~sulphate of soda, and IL, $50, 33s. 200, OOC
pounds. or $3.50. 169, 600 tons of salt. Al
lowing 10 tons to a carload. that would
he s.40s. 600 cars of soda N S7S.016.-
800 ears Of salt. Taking 80 feet as ,he
total length of a freight car and its
couplings. we would have a train OF
soda 445. 500 miles long, or nearly "a
the moon and back. and a train oi
salt 4.9SS, $50 miles in length, or long
enough to reach 1876 times around the
earth and leave an 5000 mile string of
ears over on a side track. Running y
miles an hour and never stopping, night
or day. 1t would take the salt-lader
train 2S years five months and 2S days
to pass a station.
Carry the computation one step more
The ordinary valuation OF ~sulphate of
soda is N cent per pound, or $40 pei
ton. Common salt at low estimate Is
worth y cent per pound, or $40 per ton,
a~ggregating for the salt and soda con
tanned I'm this great body OF water q
value OF slO3. is3. 2s6. 900.
The irregular picturesque banks
painted glistening snowy white by
heavy deposits Of salt. extend mile:
from the waters edge. marking with
unmistakable evidence the old bed Of
the present lake. out of the motionless
emerald water giant mountains rise tc
an elevation Of 5000 feet. In the sum
mer they are covered with veniur,
and abound in exquisite scenery. Near
the tops many springs send forth pur,