Facts about the Great Salt Lake. Great Salt Lake and Salt Lake City, USA Sports and entertainment

The largest endorheic area in North America. It ranks 6th in area among US lakes.

Big Salt Lake


English Great Salt Lake

Satellite image of the Great Salt Lake

Morphometry

Absolute altitude	1280 m

Dimensions	120 × 45 km

Square	2500-6000 km²

Volume	18.92 km³


Greatest depth	15 m

Average depth	4.5-7.5 m





Pool

Pool area	55,685 km²

Flowing rivers	Baer, Weber, Jordan



Location

41°09′ N. w. 112°36′W d. HGIOL

A country

State	Utah








Media files on Wikimedia Commons

Story

The ancient predecessor of the lake was a large fresh lake Bonneville, which never had a drainage into the ocean. The size of the predecessor of the Great Salt Lake can be judged from sediments in the area of the modern lake. Before the arrival of the Mormons in 1848, the shores of the lake were a desolate desert. With the help of artificial irrigation, the surroundings of the lake became suitable for Agriculture; Salt Lake City, now the capital of Utah, was founded by Mormons on the Jordan River. largest settlement lakeside (another lakeside city is Ogden).

Description

The water level in the Great Salt Lake, being strongly dependent on precipitation, is not constant from year to year and, accordingly, the area of the lake also undergoes changes (for example, around 1850, the area of the lake was 4.6 thousand km², and just a few years later, in 1873 - already 5.7 thousand km²). By the beginning of the 20th century, the Great Salt Lake had almost dried up, but already in 1925 its area was approaching 5 thousand km².

The salinity of the water in the lake varies depending on its area; in some years it reached 300 ‰ (the lowest recorded salinity was 137 ‰). The average depth of the lake is 4.5-7.5 m, the greatest is 15 m (the amplitude of level fluctuations over the century was about 5 m). The height above sea level is 1280 m. It has no drainage; Small rivers flow into the lake - Ber (the largest),

As the translation of the name suggests, this city is located near the Great Salt Lake - an amazing natural phenomenon North America. The city itself is also, in a certain sense, a phenomenon. Founded as the capital of the Mormons in the 19th century, Salt Lake City became the most important transit point on the route of the first settlers from the east of the United States to the west. The city became rich by building wagons for them and supplying them with food. Today's Salt Lake City is one of the most comfortable cities in America.

The capital of Utah is located in the Great Salt Lake Valley, at the foot of mountain range Wasatch. In the 19th century adherents of the Mormon religion moved here, deciding to turn the city into a new Jerusalem.

CITY BY SALT LAKE

In 1846-1847 a group of followers of the teachings of Joseph Smith (1805-1844), under the leadership of his successor Brigham Young (1801-1877), set out on a long journey from the banks of Missouri to the west to find the Promised Land and build a New Jerusalem for all the Mormons of the world.

Salt Lake City is the capital and largest city by population in the US state of Utah. The city got its name from the nearby Great Salt Lake, the largest continental salt body of water in the Western Hemisphere. This lake is also one of the saltiest in the world: depending on the amount of precipitation, the salinity of its water varies greatly, from 137% to 300%. For comparison: the average salinity of the World Ocean is 35%o (i.e. 3.5%). Behind medicinal properties it is also called the “Dead Sea of America”.

The Jordan River (English: Jordan) flows through the Mormon city (the first name is New Jerusalem): here it receives several tributaries and flows into the Great Salt Lake.

Salt Lake City's climate is characterized by hot, dry summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall, which is surprising for such low latitudes, especially considering that the neighboring Great Salt Desert

The Lakes are the driest place in Utah, with annual precipitation of less than 127 mm. The explanation lies in the “snow effect” of the Great Salt Lake: cold wind from the mountains, moving over the warm water of the lake, is saturated with water vapor and falls in the form of “dry snow” even in warm winters. Over the winter, up to one and a half meters of snow can fall.

The harsh climate did not scare away the Indian tribes of the Shoshone, Paiute, Goshute and Ute (the name of the tribe later gave the name to the entire state), but the first expeditions of Europeans did not immediately lead to the mass migration of whites to these deserted spaces: in 1540, the territory Spanish soldiers Francisco de Coronado (1510-1554) penetrated the state in search of treasures of the Seven Cities of Sivola; in 1776 they passed through in search of convenient route two Franciscan missionaries, Silvestre de Escalante and Francisco Dominguez, went to California, but the same route turned out to be tragic for 44 of the 91 American pioneers from the Donner detachment in the winter of 1846-1847. Looking for fur in Rocky Mountains Many "mountains" (hunters, pioneers, and fur traders) visited. For a long time, none of the whites laid claim to lands unsuitable for farming. This required special people with special ideas.

Such people turned out to be the “Latter Day Saints”, led by the second president of the sect, Brigham Young (the first was, naturally, its founder and author of the Book of Mormon (1830), John Smith), who fled from persecution by the authorities in order to live in solitude and safe place to establish his own theocratic Mormon state (similar to Ancient Israel). Initially, the city was called New Jerusalem, but later the name Salt Lake City was fixed in official documents. Nowadays, the name in everyday life is often shortened to Salt Lake and to the abbreviation SLC.

Mormon immigrants from many countries of the world came to the city; they still make up more than half of the population. Hardworking and enterprising Mormons began irrigating the area around the lake and made the desert and swamps suitable for agriculture. Population growth was greatly facilitated by the California Gold Rush of 1848-1855: Salt Lake City was an important transit point on the route of prospectors from the east to the west of the United States.

With the development of the mining and construction industries railways in the 1860-1870s. Salt Lake City got big shopping center in the Western USA. Its importance increased even more when in 1856 the city became the capital of the Utah Territory, and since 1896 the capital of the state of Utah.

Today, the city has not lost its importance as a major economic and transport center of the country.

Salt Lake City is located in the north of Utah on a high plateau (1300 m above sea level), 30 km to the northwest lies a lake, surrounded on the other sides by mountains: Wasatch (up to 3502 m near the city limits), Traverse Mountain (1830 m) and Oquirr (3237 m). On the map, the Mormon "ideal city" is represented by rectangular blocks separated by wide streets and large parks.

AT THE CROSSROADS

Salt Lake City stands at the intersection of the most important transport routes that have connected the east and west of the United States since the time of the first settlers.

The Mormons built Salt Lake City according to the plan of their religious leader Joseph Smith, who envisioned building the ideal “City of Zion.” The ideal in the minds of the Mormons turned out to be a city with a strict rectangular street layout and blocks (blocks) of the same area. Most of the streets run from north to south and from east to west. The streets are quite wide.

This was a specific requirement of Brigham Young, who insisted that the street be wide enough to accommodate a wagonload of settlers "without resorting to blasphemous language." As the city grew, the layout became more and more free, not bound by Mormon canons and more adapted to the needs of the population of different faiths.

The international headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Saints is located in Salt Lake City. last days, whose followers founded the city. But the number of Mormons in the city has been steadily declining, and now only about half of the residents are Mormons. However, Americans traditionally consider Salt Lake City the capital of the Mormons and have given it the nickname " Holy City saints."

Salt Lake City is not only big religious center, but also the heart of a large mining region. Enterprises of the military-industrial complex, including those producing missiles and shells, are concentrated around the city. The largest copper smelter in the United States was built in the suburb of Garfield. The city has retained its status as the “Crossroads of the West” due to its profitable geographical location in the central western United States. The highways passing through the city are the main transport corridor on the East-West route and back, and the entire district is built up with giant buildings of transit and transshipment warehouses.

Tourism plays an increasingly important role in the city's economy. In particular, Salt Lake City has become one of the largest American centers winter species sports In 2002, the 19th Winter Olympic Games were held here.

The city is filled with buildings reminiscent of Salt Lake City's Mormon past and present.

In the center of the city stands the Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (second half of the 19th century) - the largest and most famous temple of the Mormon denomination in the world. Its construction lasted for 40 years, it covers an area of more than 40 thousand m2, its height is 68 m. The temple includes the residence of the Mormon Church, the Mormon Tabernacle (meeting hall, second half of the 19th century), and the Conference Center (late 20th - beginning of the 21st century), as well as a large gallery of sculptural religious compositions. Visitors are admitted selectively.

Nearby are the Museum of Church History and Art, as well as the Family History Library with the largest genealogical collection in the world. A few blocks from the temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Capitol building (early 20th century) rises: its shiny copper dome is visible from afar.

“The Beehive House” or “Bee House” (mid-19th century) is what residents of Salt Lake City call the building of the museum and the former official residence of the head of the Mormons and the first governor of Utah, Brigham Young. The bee is a symbol of Mormon hard work, and an image of a beehive is on the roof of the building.

Another reminder of the heroism of the Mormons who built the desert city is Place Heritage Park: a historic park with a monument dedicated to the Mormon settlers.

FUN FACTS

■ Every July 24th, Salt Lake City celebrates Pioneer Day, which marks the date of the Mormons' arrival in Utah.

■ The streets of Salt Lake City have both official names(for example, State Street), and memorial ones, in honor of famous citizens and US citizens (for example, Martin Luther King Street). These names appear on street signs, but only those street numbers appear in mailing addresses (for example, 300th South).

■ Americans consider the residents of Salt Lake City to be the most vain and narcissistic in the country. This opinion is based on the fact that here greatest number plastic surgeons per 100 thousand people. and the population spends more on beauty products than residents of any other similar American city.

■ Deseret is a territory declared a “Mormon State” by Mormon settlers in Salt Lake City led by Brigham Young in the mid-19th century. Mormons even created a special Deseret alphabet. The state of Deseret was never recognized by the US federal government, which created the state of Utah in 1850.

■ Bacterial activity in the swampy area separating Salt Lake City from the Great Salt Lake creates a rather unpleasant natural phenomenon: two or three times a year, wind blows off the lake and the city is filled with the smell of rotten eggs, which lasts for several hours.

■ Brigham Young, second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was married to 55 women; 16 of them gave birth to 56 children. Mormons officially abandoned the practice of polygamy in the 1890s.

ATTRACTIONS

■ Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (second half of the 19th century) with the seat of the Mormon Church;
■ Mormon Tabernacle (meeting hall, second half of the 19th century);
■ Conference Center (late 20th - early 21st century);
■ Grave of Brigham Young (Mormon leader and city founder);
■ Mormon Church History Museum, Church History and Art Museum; Memorial Museum pioneers, Museum fine arts, Natural History Museum, Fort Douglas Military Museum;
■ Family History Library;
■ Capitol (early 20th century);
■ “House-Hive”, or “Bee House” (mid-19th century);
■ Concert hall Ebrevanel Hall;
■ Madeleine Catholic Cathedral (early 20th century);
■ Clark Planetarium;
■ Historic District Marmalade Districts (residential buildings late XIX V.); Gateway District;
■ Trolley Square ( art galleries in old depot buildings);
■ City parks: Place Heritage Park (historic park with a monument to the Mormon settlers), Liberty Park, Red Butte Gardens, Sugar Park House (site of city celebrations), Memory Grove Memorial Grove (memorial honoring Utah veterans ); Hogle Zoo.
■ Ski resorts: Alta, Snowbird, Solitude, Brighton, Donut Falls.

Atlas. The whole world is in your hands No. 150

One of the saltiest lakes on the planet is located in the west of the North American continent, in the state of Utah (USA). Its water is jelly-like due to the very high concentration of salt. Due to the salinity of the reservoir, the water is thick and heavy. Even a strong wind is not able to raise real waves on this lake.

This place was named without much imagination - the Great Salt Lake. But the name accurately reflects the characteristics of the reservoir. However, for real big lake This territory was located several thousand years ago: we are talking about the prehistoric Lake Bonneville. This lake, the remnants of which is Bolshoye Solenoye, was formed by melting glaciers. Glacier melt water is fresh and clean. So once upon a time, in the same place where thick waters now slowly sway, there lay a huge fresh lake. How did it become salty?

Geologists have answered this question. After the Ice Age, there was so much water melted by the sun in what is now Utah that it filled a large area, forming large body of water, similar in size to a small sea. But there were no rivers that could feed Bonneville in this area. The lake, formed by glaciers, turned out to be drainless - in other words, it turned out to be a giant puddle.

Over the course of thousands of years, Lake Bonneville evaporated. Since the volume of water did not increase, it gradually dried out. The percentage of salt, which was initially quite insignificant, steadily increased. This is how, in place of a freshwater giant, a lake arose in which only certain types of shrimp can live. And around - endless salt fields, Bonneville Salt Flats.

The salinity of the lake is unstable, as is its area. The fact is that the area of the Great Salt Lake varies from year to year depending on weather conditions. if the year turns out to be cool, the lake's area can reach 6,477 square kilometers, and its salinity drops to 137 ppm. And on hot days, the area of the lake is reduced to 2,590 square kilometers, and the salinity reaches 300 ppm!

These changes become understandable if we consider that the reserves of salt in the lake are constant (6 billion tons!), but the amount of water is not.

However, the shores of the Great Salt Lake are bustling with life. Many birds flock here. What attracts them, guess what? Of course, delicious shrimp! In the absence of other competitors, shrimp reproduce intensively, becoming prey for birds and humans who collect food for aquarium fish here.

The landscapes on the lake are somehow alien.

The ancient predecessor of the lake is the large freshwater Lake Bonneville, which never had a drainage into the ocean. The water level in the Great Salt Lake, being strongly dependent on precipitation, is not constant from year to year and, accordingly, the area of the lake also undergoes changes. Currently it fluctuates in the range of 2500-6000 km2. The salinity of the water in the lake varies depending on its area; in some years, salinity reached 300% (the lowest recorded salinity was 137%). The lake serves as a source of Glauber's salt and table salt; the total reserve of salts in the lake in the second half of the 20th century. was estimated at 6 billion tons.

There is poor infrastructure near the lake. And on the western side there is desert.

Parking for boats.

The parking lot is empty.

It was in October, there were practically no people on the lake. Maybe this is no longer the season or is it always like this?

However, the visitor center is open.

Vegetation is very sparse due to the salty soil.

Observation deck with information about the lake.

The Chevrolet Camaro came in handy in this industrial landscape.

And this, in my opinion, is some kind of famous sanatorium.

Now let's go to Salt Lake City. Within the city there is one of the largest hubs of Delta Airlines (this is their plane flying in the photo), which operates about 100 flights direct message in the USA, Mexico, Canada, as well as in Paris and Tokyo.

The suburbs are unremarkable and monotonous, like everywhere else in the USA. But it is worth noting the abundance of greenery.

This is a tram stop.

And here is the tram itself. The light rail transit system (TRAX) has 41 stations, 17 of which are within the city. Two sections of the road are underground. The first tram was launched in 1872, and electric traction appeared in 1889. Then, as throughout the country, cars replaced trams, and the last tram stopped running in 1945. Subsequently, rail transport resumed after the tram system built for the Olympic Games began operating in 1999.

One can only imagine what a hole there was here before the 2002 Olympic Games. But now it is a very beautiful, calm and comfortable city.

Apart from the name of the state and similar images, there are no special mentions of the Indians. But before Mormon settlements appeared in the Salt Lake Valley, the Shoshone, Utah and Paiute Indian tribes lived on these lands for thousands of years. At the time of the founding of Salt Lake City, the valley belonged to the territory of the Northwestern Shoshone tribe.

The central part of the city looks quite deserted. This is explained by the decentralization of the population: the bulk of citizens live not in the city, but in agglomerations. At the moment, the city's population continues to gradually decrease (although the agglomeration area continues to grow).

It is worth mentioning separately about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the following photos show their buildings - temples, administrative and public buildings). This religious organization Restorationist origins, the largest branch of Mormonism. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints considers itself the restored early Christian church established by Jesus Christ personally, which disappeared as a result of the great apostasy that followed shortly after the death of Christ's Apostles. Latter-day Saint members consider faith in Jesus Christ and the atonement the cornerstone of their religion. The doctrine was founded by Joseph Smith in 1830.

According to the Church's own estimates, the number of members worldwide has exceeded 13 million. At the same time, about 6.7 million live outside the United States. According to these statistics, it is the fourth largest religious organization in the United States. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is active in missionary work in 162 countries. Number of missionaries full day is almost 60 thousand people. 131 churches were built in many countries of the world (the last one, located in the city of Kyiv, Ukraine, was consecrated on August 29, 2010). By and large, this is a real missionary army, which is formed according to the principle of army conscription: all men aged 18 to 25 years, if their health allows, and retired married couples are invited to voluntarily serve as a missionary for two years. There were 2 young Mormons flying with us on the plane from San Francisco (they are easily distinguished by their black suits with badges), who, as it turned out, were returning home after their “watch.” Families were waiting for them at the airport with welcome signs.

Mormon influence in the state is still very strong. This is expressed in various restrictions, for example, on the sale of alcohol. It cannot be bought in supermarkets; for this you need to go to a separate store.

That's all for today. See you live!

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New Big city on my journey there are new impressions and surprises. Salt Lake City amazed me with its not-so-American architecture, and perhaps even overtook Chicago in my ranking of ideal cities to live. Everything here is done with even greater care for people. I had a chance to visit the city library, which anyone would envy, look at a real comic book store (a very American phenomenon), accidentally see the training of city services (the city is preparing for a possible earthquake) and look into the camp of protesting defenders of some local Khimki forest. And of course, I took a ride along the shores of the famous Great Salt Lake. I tried it and it’s really salty, the Americans weren’t fooled :)

1. I will write in chronological order. It started raining early in the morning, the first serious bad weather in two weeks of travel. What to do if it's wet outside? Look for interesting things inside buildings. So I ended up in the Salt Lake City City Library, which is not a library at all, but a modern media center, and at the same time a free office space for city downshifters. A story about a library wouldn’t fit into travel notes, so we’ll come back to this later, okay?

2. There are many wonderful sculptures and a beautiful park around the library.

3. In the same park I found a camp with 10-15 tents. It looked like a homeless person's home, with pieces of paper, cigarette butts, leftover food scattered everywhere...

4. Handwritten posters made me understand that it was not homeless people who lived here, but some kind of protest participants like “Occupy Wall Street” or “Khimki Forest”. Unfortunately, the inhabitants showed no signs of life, and snoring could be heard from a couple of tents. I decided not to disturb the rebels and moved on.

5. Meanwhile, the weather began to improve. This beautiful English style castle is a courthouse.

6. Near the court there were a lot of police, ambulances, and for some reason fire trucks. Although nothing was burning.

7. At first I thought that a movie was being made. And to understand what was happening, I turned to two police officers. It turned out that city services were doing exercises here, where they were not practicing their skills in dealing with an earthquake.

8. There has never been an earthquake in this city, but scientists have calculated that it is possible.

9. Therefore, police officers, firefighters and doctors will study for several days how to act in the event of a natural disaster and how to avoid casualties and destruction.

10. The architecture itself in the city is not entirely American, as I already wrote. There are also skyscraper towers, but look at what houses they are adjacent to.

11. The construction of the city was strongly influenced by the culture of the Mormons - a religious denomination (some consider it a sect), polygamous Christians.

12. Unfortunately, I was not able to penetrate inside the Mormon movement and learn all their secrets (they are very closed to communicating with strangers on the topic of religion, but very kind and welcoming themselves), so there will be no sensations. And polygamy itself is prohibited in the USA, so now it is almost impossible to find a Mormon “sultan”. But they have a very beautiful complex of buildings and churches in the city center, the main thing, which is called the Castle. You can't go inside :(

13. Although Mormons are still the majority here, you can find other churches in the city.

14. The city is actually very convenient for living; they not only build useful things here, but also make them beautiful.

15. Who can guess what’s in this photo? Who knows for sure - keep quiet :)

16. After lunch I stopped by the post office to send a message to Moscow. Suddenly I heard the sound of breaking glass and a child crying. What exactly happened is still unclear, but the glass broke and part of the wall was damaged. Five seconds later, postal employees asked not to worry and take the children away from the scene of the emergency. Thirty seconds later a cleaner arrived with a huge bucket and a special device for collecting glass, and a minute later the police arrived. As I found out later, nothing criminal happened.

17. I decided to spend the evening on Antelope Island, which is 60 kilometers from the city center. An amazing combination - yachts and mountains, and the water is almost invisible.

18. Interesting road sign. If you meet a bison, stay on the road. They even asked - please.

19. Well, how to refuse when you are asked? Therefore, I did not go close to the beast.

20. Well, some photos of the lake :)

21.

22.

23. I met the night on one of the high hills that surround the city. Basically, I have a lot more interesting photos Salt Lake, if you want, I will publish it upon my return.

And tomorrow morning (today evening according to you) I’m going into the wilderness again, now in the states of Utah and Arizona, my next points are four national parks: Canyon Land, Monument Valley, Antelope Canyon and, of course, the Grand Canyon.

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