The Great Salt Lake in Utah is not what it used to be—not thousands of years ago, when it was a vast inland sea, and not 70 years ago either, when LIFE magazine devoted a large feature to this unique element of the American landscape.
It is still the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and it attracts more than 200,000 visitors annually. But a couple years ago water loss had researchers warning that the Great Salt Lake could soon dry up entirely. A report from BYU scientists published in January 2023 painted a grim picture of the future and raised the possibility of the lake disappearing entirely by 2028. Recent wet winters in Utah have given the lake a reprieve, but increased water use in the region as well as climate change remain threats to its survival.
In 1948, when LIFE took its readers on a journey to the Great Salt Lake, water loss was a part of the story even back then. The headline announced “Great Salt Lake: It Is Only a Shriveled Vestige of a Prehistoric Inland Sea,” and some of the images by staff photographer Fritz Goro demonstrated that the shriveling was ongoing. Witness the train tracks which had been built into the water by a lakefront resort. The train tracks were needed because the lake’s water level had dropped so much since the resort’s construction that visitors needed to be transported to a place where the water was deep enough for them to swim.
Although some of Goro’s photos portrayed the Great Salt Lake as a playground, the text made clear that even in its heyday, no one would be mistake it for Miami Beach. Oddities abounded.
Near the lake one may park a car on seemingly hard ground, only to return later and find it hub-deep because the sun has softened the mud. The very water of the lake is bizarre; it is so buoyant swimming in it is an experience. It is also so heavy and hard a newcomer may stun himself by jumping into it from a moderate height and will come up with salt-scalded eyes and mouth if he does not keep them shut. This is one reason the lake has not attracted a larger summer colony than it has.
The last words of the LIFE magazine article, like that recent BYU study, discussed the lake’s eventual disappearance, though it made clear that the timeline was ambigious. “Geologists began predicting the ultimate death of the lake by evaporation decades ago,” LIFE wrote. “But although the level varies cyclically and it has lost 400 square miles in the last 79 years, it has refused to die, and today few geologists care to venture a guess as to when it will.”
Visitors to Great Salt Lake in Utah, 1948.
Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Visitors standing near a warning sign at Great Salt Lake, Utah, 1948.
Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
High school student Shauna Wood floated in the Great Salt Lake, 1948.
Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Women floated at the Great Salt Lake, Utah, 1948.
Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
At Great Salt Lake in 1948, the tracks carried visitors to the resort in the background out to deeper waters. The visibility of the resort’s pilings give a sense of how much the lake had evaporated since the building’s construction in 1893.
Fritz Goro/Life PIcture Collection/Shutterstock
At Great Salt Lake in 1948, the tracks carried visitors to the resort in the background out to deeper waters. The visibility of the resort’s pilings give a sense of how much the lake had evaporated since the building’s construction in 1893.
Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The Great Salt Lake in Utah, 1948.
Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
People played in the shallow water of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, 1948.
Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The Great Salt Lake in Utah, 1948.
Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The Great Salt Lake in Utah, 1948.
Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Near the Great Salt Lake in 1948, a man examined wagon wheel tracks left by the doomed Donner party 102 years prior.
Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Signage attempted to discourage racing across the salt flats near the Great Salt Lake, 1948.
Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A woman shopped for souvenirs at Great Salt Lake in Utah, 1948.
Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A rock formation at Great Salt Lake, Utah, 1948.
Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Signage at a gas station at Pocono, Utah, near Great Salt Lake, warned of scarce water, 1948.
Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Image of a grassy plain in Utah, 1948.
Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Salt encrustations surrounded the Great Salt Lake, 1948.
Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
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