Water Pilgrimage: Where the Rivers End

The idea of finding the endpoint of the rivers that flow into Great Salt Lake was started in 2023, when another artist and I met over coffee to discuss collaboration ideas. Looking back at the beginning of this pilgrimage, we were naive and had no idea what we were going to experience, but we were both passionate about the Great Salt Lake and wanted to find out more for ourselves as natives of Utah why our lake wasn’t doing very well. Local news kept telling us that our lake was doing great because of two years of wonderful snowfall, but that is not what we were witnessing. So, we decided to look at the rivers - the Jordan, Weber, and Bear, to see if they were flowing into our lake and exactly what they looked like at that point. But, after consulting Google Earth, we realized that this pilgrimage was going to be much more complicated than we realized. I consulted with scientists and people knowledgeable about our lake to try to find the beginning points of where each of the rivers met the Great Salt Lake, and thus began our journey.

We walked out to three different areas of the Jordan River and found our lake was four or miles out from where it should be, and the river was barely flowing into our lake. We walked through miles of mud and dirt, shallow deltas, small rivulets of water where once in a while the bottom would drop out, and our muck boots would fill with ice cold water. We walked out through miles of frozen cut Phragmites, and my quads were  burning from all of the high stepping. On that particular morning it was 18 degrees, and all of my warm clothes made it so I could barely move. We were shot at by a hunter, and we saw a lone Great Blue Heron standing in a landscape of dirt where the lake should have been. When we finally reached our lake, we were filled with joy, sadness, and exhaustion.

In the late 1800’s, the zero point of 4,196.85 was established. That is the point Great Salt Lake should be in order to maintain a healthy ecosystem, and it is currently 4,192.6’, which is 4’ lower than it should be.

I met with Erin Holmes, the former manager of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, and found out that the Bear River virtually ends at the observation tower before the auto loop starts. After that point, it turns into a series of canals. When I discussed with her what we wanted to do, she said she wouldn’t allow it. She said that Great Salt Lake was probably about 7 miles out from where it should be and the area was blocked by Phragmites, and the area was so thick with mud that we would get stuck and no one would be able to rescue us. We didn’t want to risk our lives or risk getting arrested.

Phragmites are tall plants that lower the river/lake levels because they use more water than native species, reduce access to food for wildlife, alter the soil levels, and take over natural grasslands and marshlands. There are an estimated 26,000 acres of phragmites on Great Salt Lake alone.

Recently I read a book that was written in 1948 by Dale Morgan that stated that in the late 1800s, the town of Corrine had tried to create an economically feasible city, and they wanted to use the Bear River. They bought a ferry to move people and goods up and down the Bear River. At that time, the Bear was 300 feet wide and 13 feet deep at our lake’s entrance, and if you’ve been to Bear River lately, you know that it is not even close to that size. It is diverted and dammed so many times upstream that it is not the same river.

That’s when I contacted an airboat owner. If we couldn’t physically walk out to the endpoints, perhaps we could get there by boat. The driver took us out to try to reach at least Bear River Bay; we made it to Weber Bay, but not Bear River. As Erin had stated the Phragmites were so thick that the airboat couldn’t safely get through the walls they created. We did see thousands of birds, thousands of White-Faced Ibis flying out of the Phragmites, tiny little nests on the shallow water, and a beautiful glistening Weber Bay.

This same driver took me out again via one of the Weber confluences to reach our lake. Again, the overgrowth of the Phragmites was so thick I didn’t think we were going to make it, but he was very knowledgeable about our lake and was able to maneuver us through a narrow passage. After about 7 miles on the airboat, we finally made it out to our cerulean blue lake, and again, there were thousands of migratory birds.

Over 12 million migratory birds rely upon the Great Salt Lake, but the Great Salt Lake is out much further than is healthy. The water was very shallow - ½’ to 1’ deep - perfect for the small migratory birds, but too far out.

Currently, there are 21 manufacturing companies surrounding Great Salt Lake that are using the brine shrimp and contributing to the demise of our lake. They are contributing to the toxins that are now in the exposed dirt bed and are airborne during wind-falling upon GSL and our Wasatch Mountains. There is currently 800 square miles of exposed dirt around GSL - the size of the Island of Maui. Those chemicals include, among other things, Arsenic, Copper, Iron, Manganese, Lithium, and Lead.

Great Salt Lake is declining for a multitude of reasons - Industries and manufacturing, and the Tamarisk and Phragmites plant species that were brought here and are using much more water than regional plants. In our valleys, we are also experiencing overdevelopment and unsustainable water practices, and all of those, coupled with climate change, are contributing to the lower-than-normal lake levels.

As a young girl, the shoreline of GSL was within a few feet from where my parents would park their car. My siblings and I would build sandcastles in the sand and float in the saline water with my siblings. Additionally, I remember real winters with lots of deep snow, which would make sense because our lake was full at that time. With a full body of water, evaporation, and precipitation will go hand in hand.

So, if we don’t take care of Great Salt Lake and we let our lake dry up, shame on us. Then, we have to consider what will happen next when our rivers dry up because of continued unsustainable water practices that go unchecked. Where will we get our water from for our continued population growth?

My journey brought me to all kinds of land - and waterscapes. I trudged countless miles, boots filled with cold water, swarms of bugs gnawing at my temples, and breath crystallizing on my hair, all to find the places where the rivers give themselves to the body of Great Salt Lake. Through miles observing the pilgrimage of water, I slowly became a pilgrim, densely decked in lenses, found objects, mud, and awe.