Back when the Great Salt Lake was its own ‘county’ and more history

                      The Great Salt Lake and Causeway to Antelope Island.

UTAH'S boundaries by county have evolved considerably over the decades.

For example, according to the Deseret News of July 27, 1989, it wasn't until 1880 that the waters of the Great Salt Lake were divided and proportioned out to five different counties – Tooele, Salt Lake, Davis, Weber and Box Elder counties.

Before that, and despite what early county maps show, the lake didn't specifically belong to any particular county or counties, and the dividing lines of counties ended at the lake's shores.

Essentially, before 1880, the GSL was sort of its own ‘county’.

However, according to the Davis County Clipper of Feb. 12, 1909, a key problem before 1880 was that Salt Lake County acted like the entire Great Salt Lake was within its boundaries.

The Clipper article stated that during an interview with a Bishop Barton of Kaysville revealed that he was a member of the territorial legislature in 1880 and that he drafted the bill to divide the GSL among the five counties.

“Prior to that,” Barton said, “The whole lake belonged to Salt Lake County. That division gave us (Davis County) Church Island (today’s Antelope Island.”

Barton also indicated that the lake division extended Salt Lake City’s limits more than 1,000 yards northward to include the hot springs.

MORE HISTORY:

-“Keep away from Ogden. Lake wrecked surveyors afraid of the newspaper reporters” was a Feb. 19, 1900 headline in the Deseret Evening News (and reprinted from the Davis County Clipper).

A crew of 23 from California were surveying the Great Salt Lake for the future Lucin railroad cutoff. One day their small steam powered boat approached Fremont Island (then often called “Millers Island) and they ran into an ice flow about ½ mile off shore, which disabled their boat.

They packed into row boats and tried to tow the main boat to shore, but evening darkness came and so they tied the larger boat off shore. During the night the ice cut the ropes and the boat drifted 10 miles away into shallow water.

The story stated, “The men were afraid to go to Ogden for fear the newspaper reporters would get a hold of their experience and make fun of them.”

                     The natural sandbar to Fremont Island.

-Not just boats traversed the Great Salt Lake. “Utahns claim first trip by team across lake to Fremont Island” was an Aug. 22, 1934 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram.

With the lake lowering in elevation, L.P. Rose, an airways mechanic and Frank Stoddard of Hooper drove a team of horses 14 miles over salt flats and briny water from the Davis County mainland to Fremont Island.

                                 Fremont Island.

The wagon’s wheels sunk up to eight inches in the first three miles of salt flats and then were underwater up to 22 inches in the brine.

The men noticed huge clusters of salt crystal during their ride. They made the trip to Fremont Island to replace the acetylene gas in a blinker light system there.

-“Calendars prove nothing in Utah” Was a June 17, 1939 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram.

The story stated how for only the fifth time in the 20^th Century, snow fell in Salt Lake City during June.

“Citizens shivered as the mercury took a nosedive at 39 degrees, only seven above freezing, following abnormally high temperatures early in the week,” the story stated. Four days prior, the S.L. temperature had climbed to 96 degrees.

The foothills were white with snow. Snow had only fallen in June to date previously in the Century in the years of 1902, 1906, 1914 and 1937. And, it had only fallen once in June in the 19^th Century, since weather records were kept, starting in 1885.

                            Pineview Dam today.           Photo by Whitney Arave

-Pineview Reservoir was completed in June of 1937 and not one month later, the new dam had claimed its first fatality. “Ogden woman drowns in car dive,” was a July 15, 1937 Salt Lake Telegram headline. Edith Lightfoot, 28, drowned, when she sunk while another of the three passengers tried to tow her to shore. (The other three occupants of the vehicle could all swim and they all survived the accident.)

The vehicle had mistakenly followed the old, abandoned road, that led directly into the reservoir and without any barriers.