Post 3 – Marina Lake Entry
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As you walk down the pathway next to the break wall, keep an eye out for cottontail rabbits, snakes, and birds. They are often spotted in this area of the park!
Many people use this unique inland sea for recreation. Sailboats can be seen serenely drifting along the water in all seasons, especially summer. Behind you is the Marina, where the “world’s saltiest sailors” store their sailboats. This is the home of the Great Salt Lake Yacht Club. Established in 1877, it is one of the oldest yacht clubs in America.
As you walk out closer toward the lake, imagine the area in the early 1900s. Before the rise of the automobile, people did not have the means to easily travel very far from home, and therefore, for many people living in land-locked states, the lake was the closest thing to visiting the ocean that they could experience. Extravagant resorts used to dot the shorelines of Great Salt Lake.
The most well-known of these resorts is Saltair, which opened in 1893 and was advertised as “The Coney Island of the West.” Investors from the Salt Lake and Los Angeles Railroad lines as well as the LDS Church backed the building of the resort, which rested on over 2,000 pylons driven into the lake. People could take a train from Salt Lake City to Saltair for activities ranging from sand sculpture contests and swimming during the day to concerts and dancing at night.
Sadly, the resort was destroyed by fire in 1925. Various investors resurrected the resort, but in 1971 an arson fire destroyed it once again. The concert venue known as Saltair that stands today on the edge of the lake is a tribute to the past and is actually an old airplane hangar shipped down from Hill Air Force Base.