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Blake Bailey

Geography 1000

Jon Allred

August 6, 2017

Lake Bonneville

Topic Sentence: My Eportfolio explores the discovery, details, and ending of the prehistoric

Lake Bonneville.

Introduction:

Living in this great state of Utah, we know of the large

saltwater lake known as the Great Salt Lake. Some may not

know that as big as the Great Salt Lake is today, it had a much

larger prehistoric lake called Lake Bonneville that was mostly

a freshwater lake as opposed to the Great Salt Lake.

Discovery:
Modern Day Great Salt Lake (Walton).

While no humans saw the lake in its

prime, explorers in the 1800s like John C. Fremont

could see the evidences of the lake (Atwood, par. 3).

G.K. Gilbert would conduct the first survey and name

Captain the lake after Captain Bonneville. Captain Bonneville John C. Fremont (John
Bonneville Charles Fremont
(Temple Square) was an earlier explorer and fur trapper born in France. History).
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Dimensions and water type:

G.K. Gilbert could determine that the lake had a maximum

depth of 1000 feet and covered 20,000 square miles (Atwood Par.

4). According to wildlife.gov we learn that lake Bonneville was

predominantly a freshwater lake.

Wildlife:

Wildlife in and around the area included deer, mammoths,

Map of Lake Bonneville (Fox).
sloths, bears, oxen, bison, sheep, fish, frogs, lizards, and many

more.

Mammoth (BBC). Ground Sloth (BBC).

The End of Lake Bonneville:

The Lake would begin to decline following a flood that would drop the lake over 300

feet when the lake washed away a natural dam. The flood lasted over a year. A rapidly changing

climate would cause the lake to decrease to what we now know as the Great Salt Lake.
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Modern Day Great Salt Lake

The remnant of Lake Bonneville is the Great Salt Lake. According to Utah.com, the Great

Salt Lake is the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi river and one of the saltiest lakes in

the world. The cause of the Saltiness is the fact that when Lake Bonneville dried up it cut off the

Great Salt Lake from any outlets. The water is so salty that only brine shrimp and algae can

survive the conditions. Over the years the Great Salt Lake has varied 20 feet depending on time

of year and current climate conditions. The changing shorelines allows for birds and other

wildlife to utilize the formed wetlands. On Antelope Island, there are beaches with a type of

sand that is formed from calcium carbonate. An interesting thing about the Great Salt Lake is

that the water is so salty you can float effortlessly if you dare swim in the salty lake. The salt

industry and other mineral industries utilizes the lake to produce their product and brings in

over $1 billion dollars to the Utah economy and thousands of jobs (Standard Examiner, par. 24).

It is safe to say that the industry involved and the interesting geographic facts about the lake

put the Great Salt Lake on the national and international stage.

Work Cited:

Atwood, Genevieve. Lake Bonneville. State of Utah, 2017. Web. 18 June 2017.

http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/the_land/lakebonneville.html>.

" Bonneville Shoreline Trail." Bonneville Shoreline Trail. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 June 2017.

<http://www.bonnevilleshorelinetrail.org/geology/geology.html>.
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"Columbian Mammoth Videos, News and Facts." BBC Nature. BBC, n.d. Web. 23 July 2017.

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Columbian_Mammoth>.

DeGrey, Laura, Myles Miller, and Paul Link. "Lake Bonneville Flood." Digital Geology of Idaho -

Lake Bonneville Flood. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 June 2017.

<http://geology.isu.edu/Digital_Geology_Idaho/Module14/mod14.htm>.

Fox, Douglas. "Utah's Ancient Lake Bonneville Holds Clues to the West's Changing Climate."High

Country News. N.p., 7 Nov. 2011. Web. 23 July 2017.

<http://www.hcn.org/issues/43.18/utahs-ancient-lake-bonneville-holds-clues-to-the-

wests-changing-climate/lake-bonneville/@@images/ba988587-3e1c-4cfd-8fd4-

1beaaa6f0063.jpeg>.

"History." Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Program. N.p., 2017. Web. 18 June 2017.

<https://wildlife.utah.gov/gsl/history/>.

"Giant Ground Sloths Videos, News and Facts." BBC Nature. BBC, n.d. Web. 23 July 2017.

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Megatheriidae>.

"Great Salt Lake Facts and Information." Utah.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Aug. 2017.

<https://utah.com/great-salt-lake-state-park/facts>.

"John Charles Fremont, Explorer !" John Charles Fremont History ! N.p., n.d. Web. 18 June 2017.

<http://www.robertwynn.com/Fremont.htm>.
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"Lake Bonneville and the Bonneville Flood." Bonneville Flood-Lake Bonneville Red Rock Pass

Snake River Canyon. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 June 2017.

<http://hugefloods.com/Bonneville.html>.

Standard-Examiner. "Car Parts, Crops and Countless Products' Prices Depend on the Great Salt

Lake." Standard-Examiner. N.p., 30 Apr. 2016. Web. 06 Aug. 2017.

<http://www.standard.net/Environment/2016/05/01/Great-Salt-Lake-provides-

significant-portion-of-national-global-commodities>.

The Editors of Encyclopdia Britannica. "Lake Bonneville." Encyclopdia Britannica.

Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc., n.d. Web. 18 June 2017.

<https://www.britannica.com/place/Lake-Bonneville>.

"The History of the JSMB Banquet Rooms." Temple Square. N.p., 28 June 2017. Web. 06 Aug.

2017. <https://www.templesquare.com/blog/the-history-of-the-jsmb-banquet-

rooms/>.

Walton, Sarah. "Great Salt Lake, Utah." USGS Utah Water Science Center: Great Salt Lake. N.p.,

n.d. Web. 18 June 2017. <https://ut.water.usgs.gov/greatsaltlake/>.