Show CHAPTER X£ TRANSPORTATION ON GREAT SALT LAKE Great Salt Lake has been an asset as well as a barrier relatively to transportation Shipping on the lake was a important activity during the second half of the 19th century and some rather grandiose schemes were created to capitalize on the possibilities of using it as a means of transportation for both freight and passengers However rapid development of railroads and decline of the lake level became combined forces which limited and almost eliminated lake boating as an economic enterprise The earliest boats known to have plied the lake waters were the bullboat in which Bridger discovered the lake and those of the four explorers who circumnavigated it in 1826 While it is highly probable that other trappers at times launched boats on the lake there is no record of such activities The next historical record of any sort of craft on the lake was that of rafts used by Indians to reach Antelope Island as recorded by Osborne Russell in 1841 ’iVhen Fremont and his party traveled to Fremont Island in 1843 they used an eighteen foot "India Rubber" boat Five years later the first Mormon craft the "Mud Hen" carried its crew to some of the lake islands 1850 saw Stansbury’s "Salicornia" launched on the lake This was the largest craft yet to appear |