Lake Bonneville: The Ghost Lake of Western Utah

Lake Bonneville is one of those places where everyone has heard about or seen something related to it, only a few know exactly what it is, and nobody has ever seen the actual thing.  

Yeah, this place was once the mighty Lake Bonneville

The truth is, that most of the actual thing today is a plain desert made of salt. Remember Davy Jones’ Locker in The Pirates of the Caribbean? Yes, that’s where Lake Bonneville is and where that scene was filmed.  The lake was once a gigantic body of water that covered the area that’s almost half of the entire Great Basin. Its size could even be compared to the Great Lakes. If the lake were still here today, places like Salt Lake City and West Wendover would be somewhere at the bottom of the lake.  

Davy Jones' Locker

Unfortunately, no one recalls when the last time somebody saw the actual lake was, at least it wasn’t on any forms of record. But the eerie landscape Lake Bonneville has left behind is something people today can still appreciate. The salt flat is so vast that when people are driving on the Interstate 80, they feel like they are in the middle of a white ocean.  

Wild grass and the Antelope Island

The white surface area shown in the pictures are pure salt

Because Lake Bonneville was so huge, its enormous lake bed, now pretty much salt, provides endless opportunities for……… you may have guessed it, car racing.  The Bonneville International Speedway is where world records are being set. During its annual racing event this is the place where you can find cars going over 400 miles per hour. What if you missed the event or your car can’t go that fast? You can still drive your own vehicle onto the speedway and drive as fast as your own car can go – for free.

A man getting ready for a ride on the speedway

A great car, a skillful driver, and a fabulous open road to freedom

What else can a salt desert do other than racing and sightseeing? I don’t even know why I’m even asking this question as this might be a stupid question which the answer is too obvious: Salt production. Along the Interstate 80 train tracks were laid for the purpose of transporting salt, and salt mining sites are visible from Utah to Nevada. In fact, the salt industry was one of the first enterprises in the state of Utah, providing that  in its very early days the state of Utah presumably had nothing other than, well…salt. We can safely argue that maybe salt mining no longer contributes a huge chunk to Utah’s economy, but it is definitely where Utah started.

Utah is considered as one of the industrial heartland of Western United States

Maybe Lake Bonneville was gone, but it’s not completely gone, at least not yet. The Great Salt Lake, America’s largest lake west of the Mississippi is one of many remaining water bodies of the gigantic lake. The lake water, like its name suggests, is salty. Very salty that no fish or aquatic animals are found in the lake except brine shrimps. When people jump into the lake, they will find themselves floating on the surface of the water.  Because of that, many call the Great Salt Lake “America’s Dead Sea”. 

The Great Salt Lake

The Great Salt Lake

There was actually a tourist industry for the Great Salt Lake once upon the time. Over the years several Saltair Pavilions were built to accommodate vacation goers from all over the country. However because of the harsh environment and the area’s remoteness from other American major cities,  the fire of passion for the Great Salt Lake died out. The current Pavilion, Saltair III, is being used as a concert venue sitting in isolation on the shore of the Great Salt Lake. In its immediate area, you will find industrial chimneys instead of tourist shops or restaurants, like the ones you can find in another city in another desert called Las Vegas. 

The Saltair Pavillion III, now a concert venue

Lake Bonneville is both a curse and a bless. Its disappearance left a gigantic empty land devoid of life with nothing but hills and salt. However, because of its disappearance, a unique landscape was formed and provided people opportunities in making profits in selling the what’s remaining of Lake Bonneville, no matter it’s the salt or some Hollywood hits that were filmed there. Why did I even bother to write about a lake that doesn’t exist anymore? The point is, there are too many things, and too many people who have contributed so much, but received little or absolutely no credits for their great efforts. I hope when people look at the salt mines and the Salt Lake, as well as that scene of Mars they see in some big shot’s newest movie, they can remember the Ghost Lake that was lost not long ago. I hope when people look at the newest technology they just bought from the market, they look at it with appreciation of those who invented them and those who built them (very likely to be some folks from overseas, nowadays). I hope when people look at the peaceful and free lives they are enjoying right now, they remember those who sacrificed their own peace, freedom, and lives for ours.

Metaphor: The Tree of Utah, a sculpture that symbolizes hope located in the middle of the Great Salt Lake Desert