Show 60 existence of this lake had circulated for more than a century before its actual discovery Father Escalante traveling from Santa Fe in hopes of finding a shorter route between that city and Monterey arrived at the shores of Utah Lake September 23 1776° the Indians of a much larger lake lying about one day’s journey to the north whose waters were bitter However Escalante evidently not considering it worthwhile to prolong his journey by an unnecessary side expedition did not visit the lake But he did mention it in his journal The writer considers it not at all improb--ab- le and very highly possible that later Spanish expeditions into Colorado-Uta- h regions might well have discovered the Great Salt Lake although no record of such a discovery has as yet been found It is known that Spanish Indian-slav- e traders made numerous forays into the Utah country in search of slaves6 But it is not likely that these traders would make reports of geographical features discovered while engaged in this illegal business On a map drawn and engraved for Guthrie’s New System of Geography 1811 a large lake is shown in the vicinity of Vhile there XI he learned from 5 "Father 1943 64 Escalante’s Journal' Utah Historical Quarterly Joseph J HillNew "Spanish and Mexican Exploration and Mexico in the Great Basin" Utah Trade Northwest from Historical Quarterly January 1930 6 1-- 23 |