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Show STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM CONFRONTING STATE OF UTAH by PROFESSOR LEVI EDGAR YOUNG We who have lived in Salt Lake City and vicinity all our lives feel something of the beauty and grandeur of the Valley with its Wasatch Mountains on the east, and the Great Salt Lake to the west. We have seen the Lake in the soft haze of a summer's evening; we have seen the peaks and domes of the islands that lie within its waters. Few panoramas of the world surpass the view of the Valley from the eastern hills as it is kindled with the purple and golden hues of the sunset. Before the white man settled here, the valley of the Great Salt Lake was regarded as a strangely isolated land. There was a majesty and beauty of mountains and peaks surrounding the valley, and far to the west, barren hills lent a characteristic color to the landscape. Terraced hillsides around the valley gave evidence of a prehistoric lake, and while there were browns, and reds, and purples, the general color towards the west was gray with a bluish tinge. There was and is still something about the color of the land which gives it a solemn beauty all its own. Little wonder that the Indian tribes who roamed near the borders of the Lake peopled it with spirits, and heard the whisper of unseen voices in the silences and mystery of its waters. The Great Salt Lake has had a history, a geological history. A large part of the present area of the State of Utah once formed the bed of Lake Bonneville. The lake levels of the Bonneville shore line require no geological insight, but are one of Utah's most prominent features. There are various types of terraces which, viewed from certain positions with particular distribution of light and shadow, are frequently taken for shore terraces, but the highest of the shore lines, above which the whole aspect is that of dry land, marks the greatest expanse of the prehistoric and ancient lake named in honor of Captain Bonneville, an army officer, who, traveling through this country in 1833, took notes regarding interior drainage, which proved of great geological value to later students. One thousand feet above the present level of Great Salt Lake., a mile above the ocean, this great lake followed an intricate outline, generally pear- shaped, divided into two principal bodies, which were joined by three straits, the larger body covering what is now the Great Salt Lake desert and the southward portion covering the Sevier desert with a large bay reaching down into Escalante desert, covering almost the entire western half of the State of Utah, and reaching into Nevada and Idaho. The area of this lake was 20,000 square miles, measuring 350 miles long and 145 miles wide. The shore line, exclusive of islands, measured 3151 miles and the maximum depth was 1053 feet. This lake was of fresh water and had an outlet through Cache valley north through Red Rock pass in Oneida County, Idaho; then north to the Snake River. The terraces of Bonneville shore line are narrow as compared to the lower shore line and rarely exceed a few rods in width. It can be most easily observed along the west slope |