Utah Photo Archives - LIFE

The Vanishing Great Salt Lake in More Buoyant Times

Bill Syken — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 14:26:20 +0000

The Great Salt Lake in Utah is not what it used to be—not thousands of years ago, when it was a vast inland sea, and not 70 years ago either, when LIFE magazine devoted a large feature to this unique element of the American landscape.

It is still the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and it attracts more than 200,000 visitors annually. But a couple years ago water loss had researchers warning that the Great Salt Lake could soon dry up entirely. A report from BYU scientists published in January 2023 painted a grim picture of the future and raised the possibility of the lake disappearing entirely by 2028. Recent wet winters in Utah have given the lake a reprieve, but increased water use in the region as well as climate change remain threats to its survival.

In 1948, when LIFE took its readers on a journey to the Great Salt Lake, water loss was a part of the story even back then. The headline announced “Great Salt Lake: It Is Only a Shriveled Vestige of a Prehistoric Inland Sea,” and some of the images by staff photographer Fritz Goro demonstrated that the shriveling was ongoing. Witness the train tracks which had been built into the water by a lakefront resort. The train tracks were needed because the lake’s water level had dropped so much since the resort’s construction that visitors needed to be transported to a place where the water was deep enough for them to swim.

Although some of Goro’s photos portrayed the Great Salt Lake as a playground, the text made clear that even in its heyday, no one would be mistake it for Miami Beach. Oddities abounded.

Near the lake one may park a car on seemingly hard ground, only to return later and find it hub-deep because the sun has softened the mud. The very water of the lake is bizarre; it is so buoyant swimming in it is an experience. It is also so heavy and hard a newcomer may stun himself by jumping into it from a moderate height and will come up with salt-scalded eyes and mouth if he does not keep them shut. This is one reason the lake has not attracted a larger summer colony than it has.

The last words of the LIFE magazine article, like that recent BYU study, discussed the lake’s eventual disappearance, though it made clear that the timeline was ambigious. “Geologists began predicting the ultimate death of the lake by evaporation decades ago,” LIFE wrote. “But although the level varies cyclically and it has lost 400 square miles in the last 79 years, it has refused to die, and today few geologists care to venture a guess as to when it will.”

Visitors to Great Salt Lake in Utah, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Visitors standing near a warning sign at Great Salt Lake, Utah, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

High school student Shauna Wood floated in the Great Salt Lake, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Women floated at the Great Salt Lake, Utah, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At Great Salt Lake in 1948, the tracks carried visitors to the resort in the background out to deeper waters. The visibility of the resort’s pilings give a sense of how much the lake had evaporated since the building’s construction in 1893.

Fritz Goro/Life PIcture Collection/Shutterstock

At Great Salt Lake in 1948, the tracks carried visitors to the resort in the background out to deeper waters. The visibility of the resort’s pilings give a sense of how much the lake had evaporated since the building’s construction in 1893.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Great Salt Lake in Utah, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

People played in the shallow water of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Great Salt Lake in Utah, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Near the Great Salt Lake in 1948, a man examined wagon wheel tracks left by the doomed Donner party 102 years prior.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Signage attempted to discourage racing across the salt flats near the Great Salt Lake, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A woman shopped for souvenirs at Great Salt Lake in Utah, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A rock formation at Great Salt Lake, Utah, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Signage at a gas station at Pocono, Utah, near Great Salt Lake, warned of scarce water, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Image of a grassy plain in Utah, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Salt encrustations surrounded the Great Salt Lake, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

MISSING IMAGE, PLEASE MAKE SURE TO SET ALL REQUIRED ITEMS IN BLOCK SETTINGS!

The post The Vanishing Great Salt Lake in More Buoyant Times appeared first on LIFE.

The Greatest Motorcycle Photo Ever

Bill Syken — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 13:57:04 +0000

Not only did Rollie Free set the world speed record for a motorcycle back in 1948—he looked darn good doing it.

The key to setting the record for Free was cutting down on wind resistance. So when the 47-year-old accelerated his Vincent HRD Black Shadow, he positioned his body to be as horizontal as it could. Also, he wore only swim trunks as he whipped across the hard pack of the Bonneville Salt Flats. His plan worked to perfection, setting a record of 150.313 miles per hour.

The AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame calls the picture of Free’s record-setting ride “one of the most famous photos in the history of the sport.” LIFE staff photographer Peter Stackpole’s image of Free is also one of the most popular prints in the LIFE photo store.

In LIFE’s coverage of the event the magazine actually used a different photo, taken from a wider angle. That shot is majestic in its own right, giving more emphasis to the Utah landscape and also the black line that had been painted on the ground for Free to use as a guide.

All the shots in this gallery have their charm. The ones of Free’s friends giving him a push as he started out are pretty classic. The details in Stackpole’s photos are evocative of their era, from Free’s everyman physique to the media coverage of the speed record being dominated by still photography.

Free’s record has long since been broken. The current mark of 376.363 miles per hour was set in 2010 by Rocky Robinson—once again in Bonneville. While in 1948 Free rode a conventional-looking motorcycle, Robinson set his mark in a vehicle that looks more like a two-wheeled car, down to its encased cockpit. This meant that Robinson had no need to strip down to a bathing suit and position his body at an exotic angle, or do anything else that would result in a photo for the ages.

Rollie Free getting ready to break the motorcycle speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, 1948.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Rollie Free getting ready to break the motorcycle world’s speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, 1948.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Rollie Free accelerated as he readied to break the motorcycle world’s speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, 1948.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Photographers captured Rollie Free breaking the motorcycle world’s speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, 1948.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Rollie Free, laying horizontally on his bike to reduce wind resistance, broke the world’s speed record for a motorcycle at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, September 13, 1948.

eter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Rollie Free breaking the motorcycle world’s speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, 1948.

Peter StackpoleLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Rollie Free on the day he broke the motorcycle world’s speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, 1948.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post The Greatest Motorcycle Photo Ever appeared first on LIFE.

The Special Beauty of the Utah Desert in the 1940s

Thu, 23 Apr 2015 08:00:27 +0000

Utah’s national parks and monuments were established a century ago, in the teens and 1920s, but it wasn’t until the mid- 20th century construction of the Interstate Highway System that station wagons began to snake their way through the American West in droves. In 1947, when LIFE dispatched Loomis Dean to photograph the people and animals that called the desert home, it seemed there were still more sheep in the roads than cars.

Dean’s photos, never published in the magazine, capture the future tourist mecca with nary a track in the sand save for the sheep, the shepherds who herded them and the Native Americans who lived there. Though the images are in black and white, it’s hard not to see the rocks as red and the sky, stretching on forever, as blue. There is something quiet about the photos—you can see the wind in the hair of two children on a mule and the blinding sun on a man’s weathered face, but the noise of traffic and industry is miles away.

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.

Utah Desert, 1947

Loomis Dean The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post The Special Beauty of the Utah Desert in the 1940s appeared first on LIFE.

Road Trip! U.S. Route 30 in 1948

Thu, 29 May 2014 21:36:47 +0000

In the summer of 1948, LIFE photographer Allan Grant set out on a trip from Omaha, Neb., toward Salt Lake City, Utah, traveling west through Nebraska and Wyoming along one of the most storied stretches in America: Route 30, part of the early transcontinental Lincoln Highway.

For reasons lost to time, none of Grant’s marvelous photos from that epic post-war road trip were published in LIFE. Now LIFE offers a series of Grant’s pictures from Nebraska and Wyoming made more than seven decades ago, in tribute to the human desire to get up and go.

Not published in LIFE. Route 30 Nebraska, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Route 30 in Nebraska, 1948." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-01-1024x794.jpg" alt="Route 30 Nebraska, USA, 1948." />

Route 30 in Nebraska, 1948.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Route 30, Wyoming, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Route 30 in Wyoming, 1948" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-02-1024x687.jpg" alt="Route 30, Wyoming, USA, 1948." />

Route 30 in Wyoming, 1948

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Route 30, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Route 30, 1948" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-03.jpg" alt="Route 30, USA, 1948." />

Route 30, 1948

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Motel along Route 30, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Motel along Route 30, 1948." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-041.jpg" alt="Route 30, USA, 1948." />

Motel along Route 30, 1948.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Scene along Route 30, Nebraska, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Route 30 in Nebraska, 1948" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-05-1024x842.jpg" alt="Scene along Route 30, Nebraska, USA, 1948." />

Route 30 in Nebraska, 1948

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Family sleeping outside by a billboard alongside Route 30, Wyoming, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Family sleeping outside by a billboard alongside Route 30 in Wyoming, 1948." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-06-1024x840.jpg" alt="Family sleeping outside by a billboard alongside Route 30, Wyoming, 1948." />

Family sleeping outside by a billboard alongside Route 30 in Wyoming, 1948.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Route 30, 1948" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-07-1024x687.jpg" alt="Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." />

Route 30, 1948

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Scene along Route 30, 1948." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-08.jpg" alt="Scene along Route 30, 1948." />

Scene along Route 30, 1948.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Route 30, 1948" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-09.jpg" alt="Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." />

Route 30, 1948

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Route 30, 1948" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-10.jpg" alt="Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." />

Route 30, 1948

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Scene after driver fell asleep at the wheel on Route 30, Nebraska, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Scene after driver fell asleep at the wheel on Route 30, Nebraska, 1948." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-11-1024x810.jpg" alt="Scene after driver fell asleep at the wheel on Route 30, Nebraska, 1948." />

Scene after driver fell asleep at the wheel on Route 30, Nebraska, 1948.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Motel along Route 30, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Motel along Route 30, 1948." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-12.jpg" alt="Motel along Route 30, USA, 1948." />

Motel along Route 30, 1948.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Route 30, 1948" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-13-1024x797.jpg" alt="Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." />

Route 30, 1948

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Scene along Route 30, Nebraska, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Route 30, 1948" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-14.jpg" alt="Scene along Route 30, Nebraska, USA, 1948." />

Route 30, 1948

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Route 30, 1948" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-15.jpg" alt="Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." />

Route 30, 1948

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Route 30, 1948" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-16.jpg" alt="Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." />

Route 30, 1948

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Route 30, 1948" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-17.jpg" alt="Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." />

Route 30, 1948

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Cars pulling out of trailer camp onto Route 30, Nebraska, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cars pulling out of a trailer camp onto Route 30, Nebraska, 1948." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-18-1024x827.jpg" alt="Cars pulling out of trailer camp onto Route 30, Nebraska, 1948." />

Cars pulling out of a trailer camp onto Route 30, Nebraska, 1948.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. The 1733 Dance Hall -- reportedly 1,733 miles from both Boston and San Francisco -- in Kearney, Neb., 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="The 1733 Dance Hall—reportedly 1,733 miles from both Boston and San Francisco—in Kearney, Neb., 1948." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-19.jpg" alt="The 1733 Dance Hall -- reportedly 1,733 miles from both Boston and San Francisco -- in Kearney, Neb., 1948." />

The 1733 Dance Hall—reportedly 1,733 miles from both Boston and San Francisco—in Kearney, Neb., 1948.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Driver filling a water bag at a gas station alongside Route 30, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="A driver filling a water bag at a gas station alongside Route 30, 1948." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-20-1024x866.jpg" alt="Driver filling a water bag at a gas station alongside Route 30, 1948." />

A driver filling a water bag at a gas station alongside Route 30, 1948.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Scene along Route 30, Nebraska, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Route 30, Nebraska, 1948" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-21.jpg" alt="Scene along Route 30, Nebraska, USA, 1948." />

Route 30, Nebraska, 1948

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. A couple and their five-month-old daughter head back home to Cheyenne, Wyo., after a visit to Omaha, Neb., 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="A couple and their five-month-old daughter heading home to Cheyenne, Wyo., after a visit to Omaha, Neb., 1948." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-22.jpg" alt="A couple and their five-month-old daughter head back home to Cheyenne, Wyo., after a visit to Omaha, Neb., 1948." />

A couple and their five-month-old daughter heading home to Cheyenne, Wyo., after a visit to Omaha, Neb., 1948.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Motor lodge along Route 30, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Motor lodge along Route 30, 1948." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-23.jpg" alt="Motor lodge along Route 30, USA, 1948." />

Motor lodge along Route 30, 1948.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Route 30, 1948" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-24.jpg" alt="Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." />

Route 30, 1948

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Route 30, 1948" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-25.jpg" alt="Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." />

Route 30, 1948

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Route 30, 1948" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-26-1024x814.jpg" alt="Scene along Route 30, USA, 1948." />

Route 30, 1948

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Scene along Route 30, Nebraska, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Route 30, 1948" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-27.jpg" alt="Scene along Route 30, Nebraska, USA, 1948." />

Route 30, 1948

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Motor lodge along Route 30, USA, 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Motor lodge along Route 30, 1948." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-28.jpg" alt="Motor lodge along Route 30, USA, 1948." />

Motor lodge along Route 30, 1948.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Charles Corwin White, bicycling from Los Angeles to New York and speaking along the way on "Americanism" and the citizenry's participation in a democracy. Here he's photographed west of Rawlins, Wyo., in 1948." caption="Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Charles Corwin White, who bicycled from Los Angeles to New York in 1948, was photographed west of Rawlins, Wyo." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/05/140521-route-30-29.jpg" alt="Charles Corwin White, bicycling from Los Angeles to New York and speaking along the way on "Americanism" and citizen participation in a democracy. Here he's photographed west of Rawlins, Wyo., in 1948." />

Charles Corwin White, who bicycled from Los Angeles to New York in 1948, was photographed west of Rawlins, Wyo.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Road Trip! U.S. Route 30 in 1948 appeared first on LIFE.