Discovery 69 : The Great Salt Lake

[Music] this is the most unusual body of water in the united states the great salt lake in utah its water is seven times saltier than the ocean and so buoyant that it's impossible for anyone to sink in it although it's called america's dead sea it does have some remarkable forms of life and abundant natural resources we're going to find out more about this unique place today as discovery takes a close look at the great salt lake [Music] discovery 69 the award-winning program for young people with bill owen hi and welcome to discovery we're on the shore of the great salt lake in utah there's always been an air of mystery and fascination about this strange inland sea the subject of many myths and legends but its true history and geography are more surprising than any fiction it's the largest salt lake in the world covering an area of 1500 square miles like the dead sea in the middle east it's fed by fresh water and a river named the jordan its level changes from year to year depending on the amount of rainfall but its average depth is only 15 to 20 feet it lies at the foot of the wasatch mountain range in a landlocked basin with no outlet but its surface is 4 200 feet above sea level its water is so salty that no fish can live in it but there are strange forms of plant and animal life that thrive under the surface it has islands where buffalo and cattle graze where thousands of seagulls and pelicans make their nests hundreds of miles from the ocean it provides an abundance of natural resources and recreation with beaches boats and parks along its shoreline although it's large great salt lake is only one-tenth the size of its original ancestor a giant freshwater lake known as lake bonneville it was formed between fifty and a hundred thousand years ago by melting glaciers and heavy rainfall originally lake bonneville stretched over twenty thousand miles that would have covered most of utah and parts of idaho and nevada at one time it was over a thousand feet deep you can see how high the original lake was by looking up at the mountains that surround salt lake today the horizontal lines along the hills mark the water levels of the old lake there are actually several different levels or terraces that show where the lake dropped and diminished over thousands of years to its present size today great salt lake is 75 miles long and 50 miles wide it's extremely shallow but it's saltier than any ocean it's saline content is 25 percent that means there's one pound of salt in every four pounds of water this high salt content makes the water so buoyant and it's actually impossible for anybody to sink in great salt lake in fact when you're swimming it's so hard to keep your feet down that bathers in this area have a special joke about it they say the best life preserver is a 10 pound weight tied onto your feet to keep your head up the salt will actually crystallize around any object that's been left in the water for a while the parts of the lake for the salt concentration is heavy as this process can take place rapidly for instance the salt crystallized around this piece of wire and this rusty nail in just a couple of weeks where does all this salt come from the streams and rivers flowing down from the mountains all carry tiny amounts of salt and other minerals in solution most lakes have some form of outlet allowing the water and these minerals to flow out freely the flowing water keeps these legs fresh but great salt lake has no outlet the only way its water can escape is by evaporation which removes the water but leaves all the minerals behind for thousands of years this mineral deposit has been increasing building up the tremendous salt content today the lake is estimated to contain over 8 billion tons of salt [Music] this vast natural resource has provided one of the major industries of salt lake city for over four hundred thousand tons of salt are produced each year the processing plant of the morton salt company is located three miles from the edge of the lake here nature's method of solar evaporation is used as water from the lake is pumped onto huge mud flats called ponds as the action of the sun and wind evaporates the water a thick layer of salt is built up on the floor of the pond from 12 to 15 inches deep the pond we're on now covers almost 60 acres [Music] it's thick enough to support the weight of the harvesting equipment which is driven right onto the surface of the pond the harvester scoops up the top three to four inches of salt and deposits it into a truck [Music] mmm [Music] the trucks carry their load to an outdoor stockpile this mountain of salt represents just part of a single year's harvest salt has been a valuable commodity for man ever since the beginnings of recorded time in ancient day salt was even used as a form of money our english word salary comes from the latin word solarium which was the special ration of salt given to roman soldiers inside the plant the salt is washed to remove impurities and dried in big rotary gas ovens then it's screened and ground to make various grades of coarse and fine salt for everything from industrial use to the kitchen table some of the salt mixed with special additives is pressed into large blocks for feeding animals in addition to salt other valuable minerals are now being extracted from the waters of great salt lake new plants are being built for the processing of magnesium lithium and potash the potential value of all these natural resources has been estimated at more than a billion dollars [Music] although the high salt content of great salt lake makes it impossible for fish to live in it there are other forms of life that flourish in this area everything from birds to buffalo as well as the world's smallest sea monsters we'll find out what they look like in just a minute many years ago great salt lake had already become well known as a popular bathing beach recreation area that huge deserted building at the edge of the lake was at one time a busy resort called salt air was built in 1893 at a cost of a quarter of a million dollars it had a special railroad line that carried people out from salt lake city and it had dining rooms a dance pavilion and even a roller coaster but after 1930 as the waters of the lake receded salt air was left high and dry on shore and gradually it became abandoned in those old days there was a big paddle wheel steamboat that used to carry passengers around the lake today's lake visitors get to ride in a more modern vessel here at silver sands beach an amphibious landing craft drives out over the sand and wheels once it gets in the water the engine powers switched to a propeller at the back now off we go [Music] because it's so shallow you can see right down to the bottom where you find the first unusual kind of life there's a living reef formation on the floor of great salt lake if you break off a piece and bring it to the surface it feels as hard as rock but it's actually a type of plant life it's formed by a combination of tiny microscopic plants called algae and calcium carbonate one of the minerals in the water scientists think that this reef is actually growing very slowly about one inch every hundred years and this is one place where you can go fishing for your own sea monsters but they're so small you have to use a paper cup you dip it over the side and there they are these monsters are tiny brine shrimp less than a quarter of an inch long they thrive in the salty waters of the lake feeding on the microscopic algae they have prominent black eyes and five pairs of tiny legs that they use for swimming the female has a round egg sack at the base of its tail that holds about 150 of the eggs these eggs are so small they look like fine brown powder and you could fit all 150 of them on the head of a pin [Music] because they make excellent food for tropical fish the brine shrimp and their eggs are harvested from the lake and shipped all over the world the brine shrimp are also a source of food for some of the birds that live in the lake area especially the seagulls the seagull has a special place in the history of utah in 1848 millions of black crickets were destroying the crops which were so desperately needed by the first settlers suddenly as if in answer to their prayers huge flocks of gulls appeared and devoured the crickets and the crops were saved the grateful mormons erected this beautiful monument in the heart of salt lake city as a tribute to the seagull the state bird of utah it may seem strange to find seagulls living so far from the ocean but there are even more unusual seabirds that live in great salt lake in the northern part of the lake one of the islands is the summer nesting ground for thousands of white pelicans the american white pelican is one of our largest birds weighing up to 20 pounds and having a wing spread of nearly 10 feet and they spend a lot of their time in flight because there are no fish in salt lake they must collect all their food and water hundreds of miles from their nesting grounds and fly it back in their huge bills to feed their young [Applause] newly hatched pelicans are extremely helpless they have no feathers at all and must be protected constantly from temperature extremes the adult pelican first chews the food and then the young bird eats it out of its parents throat pouch [Music] along the western shore of the lake where the freshwater rivers flow in there are vast acres of marshland that have been set aside as wildlife preserves the great blue heron nests here in the marshes of the bear river refuge near great salt lake this stately bird reaches a height of over four feet and often stands for hours on its long legs in the shallow water waiting for the fish it preys on the yellow-headed black bird lives here too along with water birds such as coots the western greebs have some of the most unusual habits among the birds in this area their nest is a raft of vegetation which is floated on the water and anchored to some growing plants which keeps it from being destroyed as the water level changes the courtship of the grieb is a fascinating ritual a bow and bob and preen and then almost defying gravity a pair will suddenly stand and run along the surface of the water together [Music] [Applause] [Music] the area around great salt lake is home to many mammals as well there are jackrabbits and badgers that live here another animal often found here is the kit fox the area around the great salt lake has an abundance of wildlife in the deserts and the marshes the early settlers who came here were not aware of the tremendous value of the many natural resources in fact some of them chose to come here because they thought it was a place no one wanted we'll see what life was like in the pioneer days of the american west and we'll do that in just a minute the founder of the mormon church joseph smith was killed in illinois in 1844 near the mormon settlement at nauvoo to escape further persecution brigham young led a band of mormon pilgrims over the mountains to find new land where they could live in freedom their first glimpse of the great salt lake valley was seen from high up in the mountain canyons to commemorate the early pioneers and explorers this monument has been built on the very spot where brigham young is said to have stopped his wagon saying this is the place the mormons had heard of the salt lake valley from the reports of earlier explorers [Music] the first white men to have seen the lake were part of the spanish expedition led by father dominguez and friar escalante in 1776. later the trappers and fur traders idion praveau and peter skeen ogden explorers like john fremont and the famous scout jim bridger all provided information and descriptions of the valley which provided the mormon leaders with a goal for establishing their new colony in the far west [Music] the band of 500 wagons of mormons traveled through snow and mud to reach this goal there was much suffering and many of the group died along the way at last on july 19 1847 orson pratt and erastus snow an advanced party came through big mountain pass and first sighted salt lake valley brigham young wrote in a few days later thus ending the mormons historic trek across the plains of america what was it like to live here in those early days this pioneer village in salt lake city has been completely restored to show exactly what life was like in the late 1800s and the turn of the century you might have walked down a village street just like this one with an aux team bringing a wagon into town [Applause] you might have stopped at the pony express station to pick up mail and this is the shop where the blacksmith worked at his trade pounding iron and shoeing horses and you'd certainly want to stop it at the general store to see what brand new items were in stock there was hardly any limit to the types of goods you'd find in the general store a kerosene lamp a coffee grinder or your favorite brand of soap you could even buy spectacles in your choice of styles or something to wear such as this high button shoe with stacked heels this of course is a very old shoe but some people feel they're back in style again today if you were going to school in those days you would have gone to a tiny one-room schoolhouse like this outdoor clothing is hanging on the wall and sleds needed for winter travel to school propped alongside pictures of presidents are on the wall next to that early american flag the desk had a hole in the upper right corner called an inkwell [Music] and a place to keep a pen or a pencil each pupil had his own slate to write on a composition book and of course some textbooks like this one through days of struggle and hardship in the early west the pioneer villages grew and expanded the mormons who established salt lake city at the edge of the great lake envisioned it as the center of their new state today as the state capital of utah salt lake city has kept alive the memories of the early pioneers in the exact center of the city temple square marks the site of the mormon temple and tabernacle many of the actual houses where brigham young's people lived and worked are preserved alongside the modern symbols of industry that have grown from the resources along the lake [Applause] [Music] in the early days an exhibition hall called the salt palace was built in the city the building was made partially of salt today this large modern building designed to accommodate conventions exhibits and sporting events bears the same name the salt palace as a tribute to the riches that flow from the waters of this strange lake at the foot of the wasatch mountains it wasn't so very long ago just a little over a hundred years when a handful of people came here and thought that this great salty lake might be good for something after all we'll be back in just a minute [Music] we hope you've enjoyed today's visit to the great salt lake if you'd like to find out more about the history and heritage of this unusual region here's some books to ask for at your library the coming of the mormons by jim kelgard the first book of salt by olive burt and utah by alan carpenter be sure to be with us next week for another exciting adventure as discovery continues to discover the world bye bye the discovery production units domestic transportation and promotional consideration provided by united airlines thank you this has been a jules power production in association with abc news you