The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1902-11-20
THE PASSING OF
GREAT SALT LAKE,
Bed Of Salt viii in Time Replace the
Beautiful. Sparkling Sheet
of Water.
SALT LAKE CITY DISQUIETUDE
of Water.

SALl LANE LII DloVOlLlUuL'
Salt Lake City.-Great stretches
OF clustering white salt where once
were heavy pillows tell story Of the
shrinkage OF the worlds greatest in
land salt sea and of natures appar-
ent determination to fight the salt
trust.
slowly the Great Salt Lake is
shrinking and some there are who
think that in time a great desert OF
salt will take the place OF this mys-
FERROUS body of water.
For sixteen years he lake has been
steadily receding anda measurement
tax recently shows that the lowest
level within the memory OF man has
been Reached,
This measurement showed that the
lake had gone down four inches since
July Ii last and more than twelve
feet since the summer OF 1886.
Twelve feet would not be OF such
great Importance il the shores were
perpendicular and the depth uniform
but the southern aud western shores
are barely above the level of the wa
1er, and tie bottom there has slope
so long and gentle that it is almost
fat. The result Is that when the
water goes down few inches many
acres of land are lett above the lake
level
Several years ago the Great Salt
lake reached to he suburb OF Salt
Lake City, Now the nearest shore
HE Is dozen miles away.
Two years ago the only access to
Antelope island was by boat, now
teams 20 to and from the copper
mines and ranches on the island and
the mainland without ttriking even
puddle.
GREAT BEDS or SALT.
Their way for miles lies over i'm
lnynse oeds Of white salt that sparkle
and glstcn in the sunlight. This is
where nature takes a slap at the salt
trust. Tile trust has sent eonsidera-
bi, money buy ing up plants around
til. lake and getting control OF every
thiag in sight. Visitors to the lake
cua ser from the railroad the work of
the trust where the water is pumped
from the lake into immense shallow
reservoirs.
There it evaporates in the sun and
huge piles OF coarse salt are collected
and Slipped by the car load to the
gefneries.
Salt is not the only thing exposed
by the recession of the water. Skulls
and mummies have come to light.
The bones and bodies are mostly
those OF animals, but human re-
mains have been discovered. The
portions OF one skeleton found not
long ago recalls Il weird tragedy of
the early history of the Mormons in
Utah.
The bodies OF animals drowned in
She lake have been found as num-
mies. The water, which is one-fifth
salt, has thoroughly saturated the
flesh and preserved it. When the
--eedies have been left on land the dry
an OF this region has caused evapor-
atiSn without putrefcation.
L0Zg, even lines traced on the face
81 the Wasatch and Oquirrh noun
tains, hundreds OBJECT above the sites
OF Salk Lake and Ogden, show the
height TO which the lake once rose.
Biologists say that once Lake
Bonneville, of which the Great Salt
lake is a remnant, occupied the
greater part Of Utah and southern
Idaho, having an outlet to the sea
by means OF the Snake and Columbia
rivers.
Tbs body OF water was some three
hundred miles long, one hundred and
eighty miles wide and contained 49,
$50 spare miles.
The Great Salt lake Of the present
is seventy-fye miles long, has an av-
erage width Of fifty miles and an
approximate area of 1926 square
miles.
1t is asserted that the lake once
dropped to nearly its present level,
then rose again until it overfowed