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Great Salt Lake

The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere. It is located in the northern part of Utah, and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, particularly through lake-effect snow. It is a remnant of Lake Bonneville, a prehistoric body of water that covered much of western Utah.

The high salt content makes the lake itself uninhabitable for all but a few minor forms of life, such as brine shrimp. The marshes, mudflats, and islands, however, attract waterfowl, including pelicans, herons, cormorants, terns, and gulls, while Antelope Island has been made a refuge for bison.

It has a much greater salinity than the oceans, since natural evaporation exceeds the supply of water from rivers feeding the lake. This density causes swimming to feel like floating.

The lake receives water from numerous perennial and intermittent streams, including Bear, Weber, and Jordan rivers.

The lake has fluctuated greatly in size, depending on the rates of evaporation and the flow of the rivers that feed it.

Native American cultures used the freshwater marshes and streams around the lake for hunting and fishing.

The high salt content of the lake has restricted its use, but several resorts have existed on its shores from time to time, the most famous being Saltair.

In 2021, after years of sustained drought and increased water diversion upstream of the lake, it fell to its lowest recorded area at 950 sq. miles, falling below the previous low in 1963.

It has been called “America’s Dead Sea.”

The Shoshone, Ute, and Paiute have lived near the Great Salt Lake for thousands of years.

The Great Salt Lake lends its name to Salt Lake City, named by the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Brigham Young, who led a group of Mormon pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley southeast of the lake on July 24, 1847.

Read about Sambhar Lake, India’s largest salt lake on pg. 34