THE GREAT SALT LAKE DISTRICT.
This district has already become famous in the history of western agriculture, for here the Latter Day Saints first made “a home in the valleys among the mountains”.
The rivers and creeks bring the waters down from the Wasatch Mountains on the east. The high valleys among the mountains have to some extent been cultivated, and will hereafter be used more than at present for meadow purposes. In general the people have selected their lands low down, in order to obtain a more genial climate. Yet the irrigable lands are not very far from the mountains, as a glance at the map will reveal. Utah Lake constitutes a fine natural reservoir and discharges its waters into Salt Lake by the Jordan, and from its channel the waters may be conducted over a large area of country. The waters of the Weber and Bear Rivers, now flowing idly into the lake, will soon be spread over extensive valleys, and the area of agricultural lands be greatly increased. Westward the influence of the mountains in the precipitation of moisture is soon lost, and beyond the lake an irreclaimable desert is found.
Near to the mountains the grass lands are fair but they have been overpastured and greatly injured. Out among the Basin Ranges little grass land of value is found.
The amount of irrigable land in this district is estimated at 837,660 acres.
The lofty zone of mountains and table lands with arms stretching eastward, with its culminating points among summer frosts and winter storms, is the central region about which the human interests of the country gather. The timber, the water, the agricultural lands, the pasturage lands, to a large extent the coal and iron mines, and to some extent the silver mines, are all found in these higher regions or clinging closely to them.