The New Student's Reference Work/Great Salt Lake

Great Salt Lake, in Utah, is over 80 miles long and from 20 to 32 wide, and is the outlet of the Bear, Ogden, Jordan and Weber Rivers. It lies at the base of the Wahsatch Mountains, 4,200 feet above the sea-level, and is very shallow. It has no outlet, except by evaporation of its waters, and contains a large quantity of salt — about 15 per cent. — in which no fishes thrive. Great Salt Lake or, as it has been called, Lake Bonneville was first mentioned by a Franciscan friar, Escalanta, in 1776, but was not explored until 1843, by Frémont. There are well-marked shore lines on the mountains around, reaching 1,000 feet higher than the present level, which show that the lake was once vastly larger. See H. H. Bancroft's Utah.