Lake City was a supply point for overland travel to California and was connected with the first transcontinental railroad by a line built in1869-70 by Brigham Young to Ogden. It is the seat of the University of Utah, Westminster College, and a campus of Brigham Young University. Of interest are the state capitol (1914), Brigham Young's home (the “Beehive House,” 1877), and the Brigham Young Monument (1897).
A combination of size and salt content makes Utah's Great Salt Lake unique among lakes in the western hemisphere. The current surface elevation of the Great Salt Lake is 4,203 feet. It is 75 miles long and 30 miles wide with a surface area of 1,500 square miles. To emphasize its size, the Great Salt Lake is the largest lake west of the Mississippi River, larger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware.
The greatest depth in the lake is 40 feet with the average depth being 14 feet. The historic low level of the lake has been 4,193 feet which occurred in 1963, and the historic high elevation is 4,212 recorded in 1987.
Antelope Island is the largest of the lake's ten islands. Other islands include: Fremont, Stansbury, Carrington, Cub, Gunnison, Dolphin, Badger, Egg and Bird Island. Antelope Island is famous for its wide variety of wildlife, including a large herd of buffalo.
Major water sources for the Great Salt Lake include the Bear River at 1,200,000 acre feet per year where precipitation is at 1,000,000 acre feet per year. Other sources are the Jordan and Weber Rivers at 400,000 acre feet per year each.
