Haunted place · Utah, United States

Great Salt Lake

Updated November 202612 sources How to visit

As seen on Ghost Adventures
7 archive documents

Utah's Great Salt Lake: water babies, a horse-headed monster, the whale hoax, Fremont Island's exiled grave robber and the Saltair resort ghost stories.

The story

The Great Salt Lake covers part of northern Utah, bordering Box Elder, Davis, Salt Lake, Tooele and Weber counties. No saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere is bigger, and among the world's terminal lakes it ranks eighth, meaning water leaves it only by evaporation. What remains today is a leftover of Lake Bonneville, an ancient lake that once spread over much of western Utah.

With an average depth of only about 16 feet (4.9 meters), the lake changes size dramatically. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates its historical average (1847-1986) at around 1,700 square miles. In the 1980s it reached a record high, about 2,300 square miles in 1986 according to the U.S. Geological Survey (Wikipedia gives 3,300), and the West Desert Pumping Project was built to push water out into the Great Salt Lake Desert and limit flooding. In 2021, after long drought and heavy upstream diversion, it fell to about 950 square miles, below the previous low of 1963, then dropped further to a record low level of 4,188.5 feet in November 2022, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The Jordan, Weber and Bear rivers bring in roughly 1.1 million tons of minerals a year, which concentrate as the water evaporates, so the lake is much saltier and denser than the ocean and swimmers float easily. Nicknamed "America's Dead Sea," it still feeds brine shrimp, nematodes and millions of birds, including the world's largest staging population of Wilson's phalarope. Landing on Hat, Gunnison and Cub islands is tightly controlled to shield nesting American white pelicans.

Silvestre Vélez de Escalante heard of the lake from Timpanogos Utes during the 1776 Domínguez-Escalante expedition, though it was neither named nor mapped then. Jim Bridger and Etienne Provost each saw it in 1824, and John C. Frémont led the first scientific expedition in 1843. His reports helped persuade Brigham Young and the Latter-day Saints to settle the valley in July 1847; Young visited the shore three days after arriving, and the lake was supplying salt within a month. Howard Stansbury completed the first full survey in 1850. From November 1895, the artist Alfred Lambourne spent about a year on Gunnison Island, alone until guano harvesters arrived in March, and wrote Our Inland Sea there.

On the south shore stood Saltair, the resort at the center of the lake's ghost stories. Saltair I, linked to the LDS Church and designed in Moorish Revival style by Richard Kletting, opened in 1893 and burned on April 22, 1925. Saltair II, which claimed the world's largest dance floor, closed in 1958 and was hit by arson fires in 1967 and 1970. Before that, key scenes of the 1962 cult horror film Carnival of Souls were filmed there, which did much for its eerie image. Saltair III, built in 1981 from an aircraft hangar, is now a concert venue.

The legend

The lake as a whole has no real ghost tradition. Its lore is mostly folklore, hoaxes and monster tales, with ghost claims tied to two spots, Saltair and Fremont Island, plus a Church Island tale debunked in 1895.

Among the stories are the "water babies" of Native American tradition: creatures that cry like infants near the shore, luring people to the water, where they are dragged under and never return. They belong to folklore rather than ghost lore. Monster stories followed settlement. In the 1840s a "Brother Bainbridge" described a dolphin-like animal near Antelope Island. In 1877 workers at the Barnes and Co. salt works, J.H. McNeil among them, said a creature with a crocodile's body and a horse's head bellowed and charged at them near Monument Point; some suspect it was a buffalo. A newspaper story of 1888 (some accounts say 1890) claimed whales released in 1875 by a British scientist named James Wickham lived in the lake. It was a hoax, and as the Deseret News pointed out, whales could not survive the salinity.

The lake's one ghost of any age belongs to Fremont Island. In 1862 Jean Baptiste, a Salt Lake City gravedigger, was found to have robbed as many as 300 graves. Amid public outrage he was banished to the island that spring and then disappeared, leaving signs that he had escaped on a raft. A skull that turned up in 1890, and in 1893 a shackled skeleton missing its head, were rumored to be his, although police denied he had ever been chained. In his 1947 history The Great Salt Lake, Dale L. Morgan described him as the lake's "only specter." Utah has owned the island since December 2020 and manages it for public recreation.

His legend was already growing in 1895. That November a story put the same Jean Baptiste, a sexton banished for robbing the dead, on Church Island as a wild man, and called the island haunted. The Morning News of Savannah printed it on November 10. The Salt Lake Herald reprinted it from a Chicago paper on November 14, 1895, under the headline "FACT AND FICTION MIXED," and dismissed his life on the island and the idea that it was haunted as "purely imaginary writing." It is the oldest report we found of a haunted island in the lake.

The best-known modern story concerns Saltair. In the fall of 2000, duck hunters found the partly decomposed body of a woman near the resort. Locals called her "Saltair Sally" until DNA testing in 2012 identified her as a 20-year-old mother; police treat her death as a homicide, and it is unresolved. Many locals now say her spirit haunts the Saltair property, with vague reports of sightings and voices. She was a real, recent victim with a living family.

Television amplified the Saltair stories. Ghost Adventures opened season 23 with "The Great Saltair Curse" (episode 1, aired July 22, 2021), reporting physical symptoms, disembodied voices and unexplained figures, and suggesting the land was cursed. In season 27, episode 2, "Ghost Island" (October 18, 2023), the crew fought a blizzard to reach a deserted ranch on one of the lake's islands, describing an aggressive presence, unmarked graves and talk of a curse; the episode summary does not name the island. No skeptical study is known, but most Saltair claims date from after 2000 and are driven by TV. Utah Stories (2021) and, earlier, the Deseret News (Lynn Arave, 1999) have both published surveys of the lake's legends.

What remains today

The lake itself is a shifting expanse of brine, ranging in recent decades from a record high of about 2,300 square miles (U.S. Geological Survey) or 3,300 (Wikipedia) to less than 1,000. Historic photographs from the 1870s to the 1890s show bathers and a pavilion on the shore. Of the Saltair resorts, only the third, built in 1981, still stands as a working concert venue; the earlier two were destroyed by fire. Fremont Island is state land managed for public recreation.

Visiting

No ghost tours of the lake exist. Saltair III operates as a concert venue, so it can be seen when it hosts events. Check current rules with the Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands before going to Fremont Island. Do not land on the protected bird islands (Hat, Gunnison and Cub) without authorization, and respect closures for nesting birds. Water levels change a great deal, so check current conditions before planning a trip to the shore. The Saltair Sally story is about a real unsolved murder; treat it with the respect owed to her family.

The ghosts

Prisoner

Jean Baptiste, the exiled grave robber

Said to be Jean (or John) Baptiste, Salt Lake City gravedigger exiled to Fremont Island in 1862

After robbing up to 300 graves he was banished to Fremont Island in 1862 and vanished, apparently on a raft. Bones found in 1890 and 1893 were rumored to be his. Historian Dale Morgan called him the lake's 'only specter'.

First reported: 1947 (Dale L. Morgan calls him the lake's only specter). Reported by: Dale L. Morgan, The Great Salt Lake (1947); Deseret News (1999)

Ghostly lady

Saltair Sally

Said to be A 20-year-old murder victim found near Saltair in 2000, identified by DNA in 2012 (not named here)

After her body was found near Saltair, locals began saying her spirit haunts the Saltair property. Reports are vague mentions of sightings and voices. She was a real, recent victim.

Apparitions
Voices

First reported: 2000s. Reported by: Local legend; Utah Stories (2021); Wikipedia

Spirit

The Ghost Island presence

On a deserted island ranch, never named in the episode summary, the Ghost Adventures crew described a hostile invisible force, with unmarked graves and curse rumors adding to the mood.

First reported: 2023. Reported by: Ghost Adventures S27E02 (2023)

Spirit

The Saltair curse

At Saltair the Ghost Adventures crew described bodily symptoms, voices with no source and figures they could not explain, and floated the idea of a curse on the land.

Voices
Apparitions

First reported: 2021. Reported by: Ghost Adventures S23E01 (2021)

Child ghost

The water babies

Said to be Creatures of Native American folklore

Native American stories describe infant-like cries near the shore that lure people to the water, where they are dragged under. Folklore rather than a ghost tradition.