| Show TO ISLAND BY LAND Trip Can beMade Practically Dry Shod I ROAD OF SALT AND SAND I With the Exception of Ono Harrow Strip of Very Shallow Water Antelope An-telope Island Ca Now b Beached from tho Eastern Lake Shore by Land Lako Bed is of Salt and Sand and Trip Can be Quickly Made A I Little Water to the North Situation Situa-tion on Island I Great Salt Lake has been known as the Dead Sea of America If 1 is not desid It certainly gives every evidence evi-dence of being In the throes of dissolution dissolu-tion I i Lon I I was a sad sight that met the eye of a Tribune representative yesterday who In company with William Brothers Broth-ers and Ray Savage mn ctllc trip from Salt Lake City to Antelope Island and return by team Standing at the old and dismantled Jeremy salt works on the eastern short of on what was not very long ago tho eastern shore of the Great Salt Lakr one sees nothing between the four miles that separate It from Antelope island but a wide expanse of glistening I salt save here and there a little sand that has ben made into a small bar and which stands out In bold relief to the whiteness all around I To the north the same view presents Itself for miles and from the point quoted a stranger would scarcely know that a lake hat over existed To life southwest south-west for miles the salty crystals are alone In evidence save for what seems like Ji few feet just before Saltair pavilion pa-vilion is shown on the horizon there is I a thin blue streak suggestive of water The scene Is depressing to him who has the future of the lake at heart SQUARE MILES OF SALT BEDS To bring It i home more closely to the reader it may be stated that for at least twelve square miles there is hard ly l more than as much water as Is usually found in one of the salt ponds while gathering Is going on in the fall In fact that area is simply a salt bed now save in that it does not carry as much salt as the average producer would wish The Incrustation Is from oneluilf to an Inch in thickness Some of this area Is yet soft and slushy to a considerable extent At other points the salt Is so dry and hard that one might walk upon it in patent leather shoes and never soil them I is one great scene of desolation where but n short time ago the dancing waters were deep enough to allow one lo goby go-by yacht from Garfield beach to Becks Hot Springs Its appearance is disheartening dis-heartening In the extreme Whlie there Is a welltraveled trail leading from the salt wor s to the inland and one follows tnt a he thinks as a mater of personal safety going over he does not necessarily do so on the return as he soon discovers that anywhere within couple of miles 01 more he will find a good a road a that which has lately been made One man who had made the trip along the shore said yesterday that t he would be I willing to wager that he could make the trip from the ranch house to Salt air ten miles away by 1 team with perfect I per-fect safety ROAD OF SALT AND SAND Leaving the salt works for the island one finds u very good road being composed com-posed partially of salt and sand A mile out there Is a little slush salt which has not thoroughly dried but which is doing so as quickly as possible A half mile further and the traveler sees a strip of water probably two rods wide that covers the felloe of his vehicle but no more Following this Is hard dry salt then a little sand over which the carriage goes as though on rubber wheels and an asphalt pavement Next there is a stretch of water for five rods which IH not more than three Inches deep at the most the bottom of which Is smooth and firm And so the drive continues Finally just before reaching tIe rocky slopes of the Island there Is encountered a i couple of rods of mud into which the vehicle sinks for six Inches or more and this ia caused by the fact Hint the I water on the western shore of the lake was the last to feel the effects of the I evaporation but this is rapidly I drying I up and unless rain falls very soon this too will bo as hard ns the proverbial board As an illustration of the stability of I I the lake bottom which Is now being traveled over by the curious and those I on business it may be stated that a I few days ago a teamster with forty I I bushels of wheat on a heavy wagon I made the entire distance of four miles I without the least Inconvenience and in I I about the same time an he would have taken t had he been doing the same kind of hauling on the streets of this city or a country town y TRIP QUICKLY MADE The Tribune representative I on returning re-turning made the distance between the salt WOks and the Island In thirty five minutes and this without urging the horses to any great extent Many it Is said have lately covered tho space In fifty to sixty minutes but that was before the water is as low as it now is 1 Is five miles from the landing on the Island to the ranch house of tho Island Improvement company to the north and west Hero several boals lie high and dry and one of them has not no been used for a Ions tme There Is some water there however but It has receded to such an extent as to make the floating of the boat a dimpult matter mat-ter A couple of miles further north the water is considerably deeper although al-though it Is necessary said one of the men at present living on the Island to go out Into the lake for n quarter of a mile when starting a boat from the island shore and then It is found necessary I neces-sary to abandon the craft when within one and a half miles of the Farming I ton side 1 CONDITIONS FURTHER NORTH I Further north It is said the water conditions are more favorable especially espe-cially In front of some portions of Fremont Fre-mont island but a party who tried to reach Syracuse tho other day consumed con-sumed several hours more than were necessary even last year owing tothe I I shifting of the small sandbars and the shallow water They were high and I dry several times Crescent bay which was once the pride of Fremont Island is about twice its original size owing I to the receding of the waters The space left dry by the receding I walers is anything but Inviting in its appearance Here and there are de caylig hulks o rowboats and sailboats boats several of which were once in use at Garfield beach years ago and there Is also a vast quantity of other wreckage sIt s-It would appear however to the observer ob-server that what Is commonly called the sandbar belwcen the salt works and Antelope Island is not a bar at all It is a sand flat and occupies the same relative position between the points mentioned as docs the mud flat in the lake and at the mouth of the Jordan river 1 LIFE ON THE ISLAND Life on the island seem to go on pleasantly enough I Is 1 little empire em-pire within ilself and thereon is raised all that is necessary for the inner man J W Walker the foreman who with his wife has lived bore fifteen years is now absent looking after the I stock interests for the coining fair i Those now there save a few who are In the hills engaged in prospecting are I Willianj Knobbs Horace Hess John Rossand Henry Hollis I The tree from which the Nimrods shot the alleged ferocious buffalo a few years ago Is still pointed to with pride by i theikeepers of the island and they even tell to this day how Hurry Edwards and others climbed into It walled for the animal to be driven underneath un-derneath and then heroically fired their guns But little wheat has been raised on the Islands this year The snowfall was very light a year ago and the island save for Its plenteous springs In as dry as Ihe rest of the country Cattle arc doing very well however and a good exhibit Is promised at the fair among which will be a Utah buffalo |
