Try To Sink: Modern and Historical Photos of the Great Salt Lake

18/01/2026

It’s a beautiful day at the Great Salt Lake!

20/05/2020

Windy but pretty on the lakeshore tonight.

24/04/2020

Rozel Bay, North Arm.

04/09/2019

The from Saltair, taken tonight at 7:45 pm. The fire has burned over 500 acres on the Tooele side of the Oquirrhs and crested over the ridge this afternoon.

28/07/2019

Chanced upon this street sign last week in Eastern Australia. Almost certainly a coincidence, but it makes me wonder how many times the term “Salt Air” has been combined into a single word like this— and if they have a common origin.

22/02/2018

Does the entrance to this park look familiar? Pixar Pier, a new "land" in Disney's California Adventure park, is set to open on June 23 of this year. Disney California Adventure (DCA) opened in 2001. It's design and theming draws heavily on the history of recreation in California-- especially amusement parks.

Was Saltair's architecture an influence in this new land's theming? Probably not, but it was likely inspired by the same early east coast amusement parks that inspired Saltair architect Richard Kletting. Kletting’s goal with Saltair was to overwhelm visitors and transport them to a world of “escape and pleasure.”

To that end, Kletting designed a multilevel pavilion with a bizarre Moorish-Victorian appearance. Saltair was billed as the "Coney Island of the West", and for good reason. The iconic New York theme park boasted the same Moorish architecture. Most Western amusement parks of the day drew on the concept of Orientalism, or the depiction of Eastern cultures in art and architecture for the purposes of creating an exotic, otherworldly feel.

In researching orientalism in early amusement parks for the 2015 BYU documentary "Great Salt Lake: Utah’s Sanctuary", I concluded that both Coney Island and Saltair feature Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture, which incorporates Mughal style finials, onion domes, and arches.

Saltair I was Indo-Saracenic, but with a distinct Victorian flourish. The 1926 post-fire rebuild of the resort largely abandoned the Victorian and emphasized the Oriental, coming to resemble St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, both in design and color.

The concept art for Pixar Pier clearly depicts classic orientalism in the same Indo-Saracenic style of Saltair. The domes, lined and draped with amusement park lights, bear a canny resemblance to our own Lady of the Lake in her heyday. Saltair may not have directly influenced Disney's new land, but older Utahns who enter beneath the bedazzled banner might feel like they're coming home.

17/11/2017

Watch as a salt storm completely engulfs Saltair this afternoon.

16/11/2017

My son has a YouTube channel. He just published a short video about Saltair.

Wherein our hero brings light to the long-darkened “ghost resort”of Saltair.

26/10/2017

Halloween is almost upon us! Please enjoy a few haunting photos of old Saltair.

17/10/2017

Over half a century ago, my grandfather twisted several lightbulbs from the facade of the abandoned Saltair resort. Last weekend I trekked out to the old site to see if they still worked...

23/07/2017

Sand Pebble Beach - 7/21/2017. Photos by Meadow N Clint Thomsen

22/04/2017

Good morning! Black Rock from Sunset Beach. Photo by Meadow N Clint Thomsen