A Brief History Of The Great Salt Lake By Richard Markosian
T
he Great Salt Lake was born Lake Bonneville — the massive inland sea
teaming with life 20,000 years ago. The ice-age lake was fed by permanent
that covered the entire area that is now the
glaciers, which resided in the Wasatch
Salt Lake Valley, Provo/Orem Valley, and
Mountains. The glaciers in Big and Little
well north of Ogden. The sea extended as far
Cottonwood Canyons were hundreds of feet
North as Idaho and South to Nevada. It was
thick. As the weight and pressure of these
150 miles from east to west and 250 miles
glaciers slowly moved and melted, they
from north to south.
carved granite canyons, leaving massive
Its shores extended high on the east “benches” and its waves lapped against the
granite boulders in their path. Snow in the Wasatch Range was abundant
rocky shores of Mount Olympus Cove. In
for at least eight months per year due to
the late Pleistocene era, megafauna such as
the massive sea acting as a sink for low-
the wooly mammoth, mastodon and giant
pressure weather to draw and evaporate
sloth roamed the area drinking from it’s
lake water and to feed clouds that would
fresh water. Giant turtles and alligators fed
subsequently dump plentiful snow. This
on the millions of shad and bass. Sea Lilies
has been a fundamental weather cycle that
and scalloped-shaped brachiopods and
provides such abundant streams, which have
even coral reefs made this a true inland sea
helped to carve out dozens of canyons along
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