Show 1 Communications tt 11 cat ons ne 1 T tt y THE PREHISTORIC ANCESTOR OF OUR SALINE SEA One w way y of learning the events of the past is is to study the thi things of the present For example ex ex- ample the study of the prints of the feet fed of a dog of a horse of a bear of a cow while the animal is standing walking running or leaping leap leap- ing ung ng and in every position and movement of the present will enable us to determine by observing observing ob ob- serving erving the preserved foot print the kinds and the characteristics of animals to a certain certai extent extent ex- ex ex- ex tent which lived in times agone In a similar way Tway we learn many things of the past of which we e otherwise would know nought This is the way in the main we have learned the story of she dhe ancient lake Bonneville Although the immediate ancestor of Great Salt Lake Lake Bonneville was no means the 04 oldest body of water within the Great Basin there being at least four separate a and d distinct groups of lake-beds lake clearly distinguished The first lay in the south-eastern south part of the basin and existed in the early E Eocene e epoch of the Tertiary Period while the waters of Bonneville Bonne- Bonne Ville V ville washed shed its shores during the Qt Period This E Eocene eM lake lay almost entirely 4 outside of Bonneville's mes e area and perhaps existed ex- ex existed isted wh when n the greater part of that area was only ionly dry land The second stretched westward west west- ward ard far beyond the drainage of Salt Lakes Lake's and perchance but slightly overlapped confines of the subject of our sketch The waters washed its sandy shores during the epoch of of the middle Eocene The third and fourth lakes encroached upon the drainage of af the Columbia River Their waves played over over the pebbles when hen the palms the cypress and sand the magnolia trees grew in coldest colde t Canada Greenland and Iceland and the elephant th the thed d the hippopotamus and the tapir o othe of f the tropics flourished under the sun of Lap Lap- bland Iland and the Arctic They were lakes of the Miocene and Pliocene epochs of the Tertiary Period l' l None one of these however can properly be called the parent o of Bonneville for none were confined t to area of the later basin barbin Lake Bonneville was named b by y Dr Gilbert t. rafter t r tafter after Captain Bonneville who explored this region region region re- re gion in W 18 3 I think it was The lakes lake's outline ou at its highest stage was very intricate and was and was indented with high promontories and deep bays was beset with islands and its general shape was that of a pear with its stem towards the south A straggling series of islands and promontories divided it into two principal bodies of which the northern and larger part covered Great Greit Salt Lake Desert and the the- the southern southern south south- ern part the Sevier Desert The long southward southward south south- ward bay representing the stem of the pear occupied the Escalante Desert The main body was joined to the Sevier body by three straits of which the deepest and broadest lay between Simpson mountain and McDowall mountain the west in the on region known as th the Old River Bed Cache V Valley alley formed a bay and contained contained several islands among which were Franklin Cache and Battle Creek buttes The canons of Logan Cub and Blacksmiths Blacksmith's Fork formed inlets into the bay Malade l and Park Valleys formed bays bas the latter of which was separated from the main waters by a group of islands Little ittle Mountain near the city of Corinne was wasa a small island Stansbury and Antelope were islands then as now but very much smaller while Fremont Island barely bared the apex of its hi highest hest peak above the water line The eastern shore ran along the Wasatch Mountains Mountains Mountains Moun Moun- with Box Elder Web Weber r and Ogden canons canons canons can can- ons as inlets while the western shore running along the base of Go inte range in Nevada contained but one estuary and this ran sou south h a a r little ways into Deep Cr Creek ek Valley Th The surface of Lake Bonneville contained square miles including that region of of country commencing in the north near Oxford i Idaho to where Cache Bay reached running i along south to the head of of Escalante Bay miles and extending from the mouth of Spanish Fork Canon to a point on Shoshone Range near Dondon Pass 1 6 miles J The lake h had d a very irregular shore so broken broken bro bro- ken that its length was sufficient to surround I five times its water had it been encompassed i y yby by an even circular shore dad Had the surface been circular its circumference would have been miles but the actual length of the coast line exclusive of islands was 2550 miles Miles- The area of Lake Bonneville was vas about ten times that of Great Salt Lake and the water of the former in volume nearly tim tunes times j that that- that of the latter Ifs Its water was fresh or at least but slightly brackish as evidenced by the fossil fossil fossil fos fos- sil snails in the sediment connected with Avith the lake and from the fact that if a pint of water of the present lake were diluted times the mixtures of the salt and the fresh waters would be quite fresh Its greatest depth was 1050 feet Were Vere the water to rise again to its old mark more than towns and villages would be he submerged and more than people driven from their homes The Salt Lake Temple would stand in Soo feet of water and the Logan Temple would be covered nearly Soo feet deep Fort Douglas feet Ogden feet Provo feet and Kelton Box Elder County 1000 feet More than miles of railway would be immersed and transcontinental transcontinental transcontinental passengers would have to travel by bywater bywater water vater from Morgan City or Spanish Fork to some point near Toano Nevada a distance of miles from froth the northern and miles from the southern point The town of Fillmore would be more than one half submerged the state house being barely on dry land Mantua Paradise Morgan Minersville would be lake ports i Bingham Ophir Vernon and Frisco would be peninsular towns All over the I present lake level Jevel the depth of Bonneville was about fe feet t. t The Sevier body had a maximum of feet leet while while Escalante bay was 90 go feet deep Of the life that abode in the lake the remains of but nineteen species have been found i two species of shell bearing and seventeen species of an animals animals mals which have the foot attached to the abdomen a as is slugs or naked snails snails snails-of of which but one specie was a No mam mam- mallion remains have been found in lake bed proper but poorly preserved d bones of musk ox bison and reindeer bones were found in the alluvial deposits of deltas Elephantine bones and ivory were found in ina ina a rl post Bonneville e wash at Springville The conditions under which the lake bed proper were deposited were not favorable to the preservation pres of vertebrates plants or This ancient lake in n the first place was s small or smaller than Great Salt Lake but from time to time the lake extended its domain domain domain do do- main and increased its height until it reached an altitude very nearly approaching its great great- est It then commenced to diminish in both extent and altitude in time again reaching a J level Jevel below that of the present Great Salt Lake But the ancient lake would not remain constant for any lany great geological time It seems to have been restless so after falling to his low level it again began to rise being this second time more rapid in its ascent than during its first rise This second great rising of the lake brought it to its highest altitude and so high had its altitude become that the lake found its way to the Pacific ocean by an almost westerly direction from a point near Oxford in the North It passed out of Red RedRock RedRock RedRock Rock Pass at the north end of Cache Valley The outgoing river entered Marsh Creek Valley Valley Valley Val Val- ley and then joined by the Portneuf flowed through Portneuf Pass to the valley of the Snake river thence to Columbia river in whose channel they reached the ocean of deposit de de- posit I iThe iThe i t The waters of this mighty lake hewed down the channel of its outlet for feet and th thus s lowered the lake that much where it stood for some time but finally resuming its diminution it at last reached the level at which Great Salt Lake now is The rise and fall of Lake Bonneville le implies implies at first a diminution of w warmth th and afterward an accession of cold As the climate became cold the water rose but it lowered as the climate climate climate cli cli- mate grew warm A reason for believing this is the at atmosphere is not capable of holding so much water when cold as when warm causing thereby a difference in the evaporation Whenever Whenever When When- ever the evaporation ration was less than the amount of water running into the lake the lake rose and when it was in excess the lake fell There are evidences of g glaciers s in Little Cottonwood Dry and American Fork Canons the glacier in the former came near the thee mouth and dipped into the great lake The glaciers existed in a colder climate than now is prevalent lent and it is very probable that thIt the rise of Lake Bonneville then took place Volcanic eruption took place before during and after F Cake Bonneville basalt being the volcanic rock found in the greatest abundance Thus we see that though man may not be e. e present to write the story of bygone ages Nature Nature Nature Na Na- ture records them in Her works so written that it Tr is impossible P sible for the human hand hand to entirely obliterate literate it J I WM Wl D. 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