About the Book
Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 24. Chapters: Albion Mountains, Bear River (Utah), Black Pine Mountains, Blue Creek Valley, Box Elder Canyon, Bull Mountain (Utah), Curlew Valley, Cutler Reservoir, Goose Creek Mountains, Great Salt Lake, Great Salt Lake Desert, Gunnison Island, Hansel Mountains, Hogup Mountains, Lakeside Mountains, Malad River (Utah), Newfoundland Mountains, Pilot Range, Promontory Mountains, Promontory Point, Utah, Raft River Mountains, Silver Island Range, Sublett Range, Wellsville Mountains, West Hills (Box Elder County), Willard Bay. Excerpt: The Great Salt Lake, located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah, is the largest salt water lake in the Western Hemisphere, and the fourth-largest terminal lake in the world. In an average year the lake covers an area of around 1,700 square miles (4,400 km), but the lake's size fluctuates substantially due to its shallowness. For instance, in 1963 it reached its lowest recorded level at 950 square miles (2,460 km ), but in 1988 the surface area was at the historic high of 3,300 square miles (8,500 km). In terms of surface area, it is the largest lake in the United States that is not part of the Great Lakes region. The lake is the largest remnant of Lake Bonneville, a prehistoric pluvial lake that once covered much of western Utah. The three major tributaries to the lake, the Jordan, Weber, and Bear rivers together deposit around 1.1 million tons of minerals in the lake each year. As it is endorheic (has no outlet besides evaporation), it has very high salinity, far saltier than sea water, and its mineral content is constantly increasing. Its shallow, warm waters cause frequent, sometimes heavy lake-effect snows from late fall through spring. Although it has been called "America's Dead Sea," the lake provides habitat for millions of native birds, brine shrimp, shorebirds, and waterfowl, including the largest staging population of Wilson's Phalarope in the world. The Great Salt Lake is a remnant of a much larger prehistoric lake called Lake Bonneville. At its greatest extent, Lake Bonneville spanned 22,400 square miles (58,000 km), nearly as large as present-day Lake Michigan, and roughly ten times the area of the Great Salt Lake today. Bonneville reached 923 ft (281 m) at its deepest point, and covered much of present-day Utah and small portions of Idaho and Nevada during the ice ages of the Pleistocene Epoch. Lake Bonneville existed until about 16,800 years ago, when a large portion of the lake was released through the Red Rock Pass in Idaho. With the war
