Show F tried draining great salt lake froin the files odthe of the utah writers n project ajeet it has always been held a possibility bill by h scientist that a change in climate might at t some time so swell great sat abt lake as to inundate the cities along the wasatch oasis since the outlet to the abe great salt lake ba aln at a red roch pass in cache valley lies lit at a point some feet above tile the presen tevel ot of the lake the only thing lacking js Is the water waier to fillat up in affect ancient i aake L ake would be resurrected ted a phen phenomenon emo n i which happened at least once in tho th east past according to grave K kari arl gilbert and other ta Wo ibave made studies of bonneville it was obvious to early observers that ii a large body ot water once occupied the re region glon tor for the wave ter races I 1 were were there along the foothills for eve everyone ryong to see in 1876 however little scientific data had been gaihl gathered ed and nd a rising lake level through thron gio a period of 0 wot wet years caused concern least the ilia lake was on I tsway up over salt lake city through tile the summer and on oil into the fall the lake continued to rise an encroach inch by inch upon the land by september 1876 the lake had reached a point where tt it backed up the jordan river swelling that body over its banks for miles alarmed residents ot of tho the region whose farms now lay under a flood of brine rushed to salt lake city and predicted that the lake would soon be bound on the east by main street in answer to td the clamor of the citizenry the county co 1 anty court now commissioners ners launched an investigation to determine the possibility of draining the lake very little was known at that time concerning the altitudes of the basin and tt it was gener generally allF believed that an opening ng or a series ot of canals might be made somewhere along tho the west shore thereby draining a a few billion gallons of witter water out into th alib e salt bait desert country Accord lilly on september 8 ille the 11 a small p calling al ling vessel captained by D L I 1 lewis was called into servi service e to make the investigation included edthe in the creif crow ot 0 live five was chariei charles W nardi hardle a a 1 civil engineer for nearly a week this group cruised along the vest Nest coas of the lake making frequent treks westward into th desert debertin dei ertIn in an effort to ito find a low place they found the desert to be everywhere borde redby rising hills bills and M on the west weft and the flats themselves rising westward ard from the lake lna in a degree of about six inches ito th the a mile the log of the a copy of chichas on fi alle lewith with the utah arlt eral ers project states the conclusion forced upon tile the party this condition of things effectually ly disposed of the idea of an outlet tor for the surplus waters of the take lake even though we had decided that it was impossible to make an outlet tor for the lake on the desert we determined to make assurance assurance doubly sure and again took observations with the same disappointing results the report of the crew of the waterwitch Water witch was made to judge ellas elias smith of the county court and the project was abandoned after reaching one of its all time highs the lake gradually gia dually receded and the ithe populace was enabled to lay aside its fears |