stands on. so the only thing that's remaining now of the heart of japan town are the japanese church of christ and the salt lake buddhist temple. losing japan town was devastating to these families, because it wasn't only their homes, it was their livelihood. they had spend their lives building and raising their children there in the area. and many of them were too old to start new businesses. so only a few of them were able to relocate. so there was never again a concentrated japan town any more. the japanese american archives here in the special collections department at the j. willard marriott library is so important because it will document and preserve the stories of these immigrants who came from japan, sacrificing their lives, leaving their families behind, some never ever seeing their parents

again. working the farmses, working the railroads, working the mines. starting businesses, and then losing them again during the war, and then building back up. it's so important for these later generations to know where nay came from. what price was paid for their freedom and for their comfort that they enjoy now. >> all weekend long american history tv is featuring the history of salt lake city, utah, founded in 1847 by brigham young, isaac morally and several other mormon leaders. hosted by our comcast cable partners c-span's local content vehicles recently visited many sites exploring the city's history. learn more about salt lake city all this weekend on american history tv.

>> more than giving salt lake city its name, the lake had been en 2009ed in the city's history and remains integral to the history of the state, to its culture, economy. great salt lake is one of the many things that makes utah and salt lake city a very special place. >> we are at the north end of antelope island, looking at the great salt lake. the lake itself is a living remains of lake bondville, the historic lake that existed during about 16,000 years ago and then began to recede after the north end of the lake up near the border collapsed. this is essentially a very shallow pan. what i mean by that is that the

depth of the lake is never very great. if you want to look this way we can look to the west, actually, and that low dome is carrington island. the deepest part of great salt lake is about halfway between us and that point and now at medium to low lake levels it's probably around 30 feet or less deep. the lake itself averages only 15 or 16 feet in-depth. looking a little bit down into the left over here at bridger bay, can you see the effect of that and that is that with a very minimal change in lake levels, the surface area and therefore the shoreline can change very quickly. >> the first inhabitants of this area were native people. and native people lived here as long ago, at least 10,000 years. if we look back over this way

the prime resource for anyone living around great salt lake were the wetlands along the eastern shore of the lake. the culture that was associated with this, when it reached its highest population was known ohs the freemont culture, that reached its peak about the same time of ancestral put ebb land -- pueblan culture. the arc why logical evidence dates that the population of native people along the wasatch did fall precipitously after 1600 and probably due to the arrival of epidemic diseases brought by europeans that were transferred to other native people long before any european actually set foot here or saw great salt lake that the impact of those diseases was likely felt. the first euro americans to

arrive and see great salt lake is a matter of some dispute. we know that fathers do minute easy and escalante in 1776 when they were trying to find a route from santa fe to monterey on the california coast came as far north as utah lake, but never saw salt lake itself. that's 1776. after that expedition this is there is a competing claim on what euro american first saw great salt lake. in 1824 jim bridger claims to have been the first, riding down from the bear river valley to the north end of the lake. but there is also pretty good evidence that provo, a trapper was in salt lake earlier than that and may have been the first euro american to see the lake. out there now is freemont island, masked by the larger mountain range behind it.

but in the foreground it free month island, with the summit on the right side. freemont island was first explored in 1843 by john c. free month, the famous government ects morer. explorer. they wanted to get a look at the lake and they had a very hard time getting a decent look at the lake because of the flat pan phenomenon where you can't get very close to it in many places. so they finally attained a prominence over here by the modern city of ogden, and were able to see the entire lake. they had brought with them an india rubber boat, which they inflated and they paddled down the weaver riff and out into the lake in early september 1843. and paddled out towards the island. they spent a night on the lake, climbed up to that prominence where carson or one of the others carved a cross in the

rock at the top and that's still out there. name the island, disappointment island. and was not named free month island until the great -- freemont island until 1849, 1850. we're now at the south end of the lake, between the modern salt rare and the great salt lake state park marina. i'm going to talk a little about recreation. great salt lake has always been a curiosity and an attraction to touristses and it was no different in the 19th century. the original mormon pioneers made a reconnaisance out to the lake and bathed in the lake. it was famous as america's dead sea. concerted development of a tour is industry didn't begin until the 1870's. the most famous thing was the salt air, this is the modern

iteration of salt air. this billion wasn't built until the early 1980's. the original salt air would have been out here, it was bit on pilings, 2500 pilings that extended 4,000 feet out into the lake. a pavilion was built there with bathing facilities and people descended the stairs to a platform and then got into the water that way. it was built in this moorish revival style, they called it, that evoked sort of this exotic orient alism that was popular in the early 20th century. when visitors would arrive there were games, the midway, but it was really the lake that was the attract. the novelty of floating in great salt lake, the idea of being able to float like a cork that remained a really big draw. just like everything else, out

here, lake levels matter a lot. and over the years even the grand salt air, 4,000 feet out from shore, would be stranded high and dry by the 1930's. by the time of the great depression and world war ii, not as many people came out here and it finally closed in 1958. and was burned completely in an arson fire in 1970. the building behind us was developed as successor to that and it was opened in 1981. and it had about a two-year life span before it was swallowed by the lake. beginning in september of 1983, great salt lake went through one of the wettest cycles in history, lake levels started rising and peaked in 1986 and 1987 at about 4212 feet, a little below that above sea

level. by 1984 that building had five feet of water on the first floor, so the people who had rebuilt the place and it was destroyed almost immediately. the water eventually did come down and it was bout by early investors who in the 90's turned it into what it remains today which itself a concert venue great salt lake is the center of a great deal of industry and it's important economically to the state of utah. here at the south end of the lake you can see great evidence of that. we're looking at a smelter are copper. that is where the copper that was dug out of the behind -- dug out mines is processed. this, also salt extracts started very early in utah's history. they boiled lake water to get salt for their needs tosm the west of here is morton salt's

current operation, and there they produce salt that is used in commercial and industrial applications for water softeners, for other industrial applications for livestock, et cetera. many other minerals are taken from the brine of great salt lake and u.s. magnesium extracts magnesium chloride which is used to deice roads and construction sites. and chlorine itself, various other chemicals are ex-traghted from the lake. just as the rising the falling levels of the lake from posed problems to resorts like salt air and the others, the same thing is true of the mineral industry. a rising lake could flood or a dropping lake could leave the beaches high and dry or far out to the horizon.

the rise of the lake in the mid 1980's really endangered the mineral extracts because it flooded the evaporation pond to u.s. magnesium and others which relied on solar radiation evaporate water and therefore extract the minerals. dealing with the natural rise and fall of the lake is something that is just a constant part of the history of this place. there are re: concerns today that human impacts do make a difference. the evidence shows that the lake has risen and fallen. on the other hand, a lot of people who study the lake and know the lake the best today are very served about water issues and the fact that there is no water right that is inherent to great salt lake and there's no guarantee of a water supply to it to replenish it on an annual basis.