SALT LAKE CITY — A boat used by Southern Pacific to help build its route across the Great Salt Lake has resurfaced as a result of the lake’s shrinking water level.
KTVX-TV reports the W.E. Marsh No. 4, which first set sail on the lake in 1902, has reappeared as the lake’s water level reaches historic lows — about half of its former size in terms of surface area.
Great Salt Lake State Park Manager Dave Shearer told the station the 40-foot boat’s unique shape made it possible to determine its history. It was used as part of the project to build the Lucin Cutoff trestle in 1902 and dredged the lake in 1936 in a successful effort to find a plane that had crashed the previous year. It was later gifted to the Sea Scouts program; Shearer says there are no records of when or how it sank.
The park will offer a guided hike on Jan. 1 featuring a look at the boat as well as details of its history, along with the history of the lake. More information on that hike is available here.
This is a photo from the Billings Gazette of the boat afloat.
https://billingsgazette.com/lifestyles/recreation/low-water-of-great-salt-lake-reveals-ghosts-of-the-past/article_115c225c-ae0d-51a3-88a3-56efac3cc1d3.html
That’s pretty cool. Must have been cool to see it when it was still a float