Mem-o-ry (mem-uh-ree):

The ability to store, retain and recall information

This insightful description was recently used to illustrate the character of Great Salt Lake. My first memory of GSL was sitting along the south shore near black rock to take one last look at I-80 before it was swallowed by the lake. In the early 1900’s, black and white photographs memorialize the hundreds of people bathing and socializing on the shores of our inland sea. Even before that early explorers to this valley wrote about GSL and theorized about the location of the outlet that went to the sea. And who can forget the smell?

Great Salt Lake itself has memory. The memory of Lake Bonneville lives in the stratified layers of ancient shorelines we call ‘the benches’. Contrary to the thoughts of early explorers the lake has no outlet and over time has concentrated a memory of everything that has entered the GSL watershed. Don’t forget the millions of birds that instinctively remember where to come each year during their migration. For better and worse, Great Salt Lake stores, retains and recalls information. It has memory.

We would like to know your memories of Great Salt Lake! Tell us what you remember or would like to remember or what your grandpa remembers about the lake.