A Shallow Lake with Deep Layers

Utah Lake in Time, Place, and Care

Teri Harman — Utah Lake advocate and scholar — Instagram: @teriharman

All photos and text © Teri Harman

On the Surface: Utah Lake

UTAH LAKE IS THE CENTER OF UTAH VALLEY: PHYSICALLY, HISTORICALLY, AND ECOLOGICALLY. The largest freshwater lake in Utah and the third largest in the American West. The 145 square-mile body can hold 902,000 acre feet of water and spans about 24 miles north-south and 13 miles east-west (at widest point). THE LAKE'S AVERAGE DEPTH IS ONLY 9 FEET WITH A MAXIMUM OF 18 FEET. This is a natural feature that has existed since ancient Lake Bonneville drained about 14,000 years ago.

On the Surface: Cities + People

Utah Lake is framed by many rapidly growing cities. 14 of the 22 cities in Utah County have shoreline property. In 2023, the Utah County population hit 719,174. This offers a lot of amazing opportunities for residents to spend time in nature and recreate on/near the water. Locals can sail, fish, swim, boat, ice skate, bird watch, walk, bike, and many more incredible things. The views of lake + mountains in Utah Valley are also stunning.

Layer in Nature: An Oasis

Northern Utah is an oasis in the desert: THE WASATCH OASIS. The snow-based watershed of the Wasatch Mountains has sustained all forms of life—human and non-human—for thousands of years. Northern Utah is NOT a desert; it's an abundant natural system with a lot of water cycling through the interwoven watersheds. Historically, the lake was a wetlands refuge, center of biodiversity, and vibrant fishery.

Layer in Nature: In-Flow Rivers

Utah Lake is a naturally shallow, endorheic lake (no outlet to an ocean) filled by the snowmelt rivers of the Wasatch Front Mountains. Utah Lake has five main tributaries or in-flow rivers: American Fork River, Provo River, Hobble Creek, Spanish Fork River, and Currant Creek.

Layer in Nature: Jordan River Out-flow

The only natural out-flow for Utah Lake is the Jordan River, which leaves the lake at the Inlet in Saratoga Springs (north-west shore) and flows north across Salt Lake Valley to empty into Great Salt Lake.

Layer in Nature: Great Salt Lake

When ancient Lake Bonneville drained about 14,000 years ago, it left behind a natural watershed connection of fresh and salt water. Utah Lake is connected to Great Salt Lake through the Jordan River, a rare north flowing water. Utah Lake sends water to Great Salt Lake, a major tributary contribution.

Layer In Nature: Fish

The story of Utah Lake can't be told without including the saga of the fish.

Layer in Nature: Ice

Winter is an amazing time at the lake. When temperatures are cold enough, usually now in January and February, the lake freezes. There's nothing quite like walking on the frozen water and checking out the ice formations. Historically, residents ice skated on Goshen and Provo Bays, ice fished, and some also hunted coyote on the ice.

Layer in Time: Native Peoples

Utah Valley and Utah Lake are the ancestral homelands of the Timpanogos and Lake Utes. Before Mormon settlement in 1849, the area around Utah Lake was home to the largest Indigenous population in the Great Basin -- all because of the lake, rivers, and resources provided by the valley. Which, of course, is also why the pioneers chose to settle in Northern Utah. Settlement caused many conflicts, including the murder of Native residents on the lakeshore, winter ice, and eventual removal from the valley.

Layer in Time: An Archaic Man and His Dog

Near the remnants of Mosida, an orchard town abandoned in 1924, is a 5500 year-old burial site of a man and his dog. Many identified prehistoric sites exist across Utah Valley, but this is a rare Archaic Period find. The middle-aged man’s body tells the story of a long, healthy life; the same for his dog. Anthropologists from Brigham Young University and University of Utah highlighted that “the Mosida Burial is the first controlled and reported case of a dog being included in a human burial in the Great Basin and the early date places it among the earliest human-dog burials in North America.”

Layer in Time: Rock Imagery

The western shores and Lake Mountain are home to a rich collection of stunning rock imagery. The Smith Family Archeological Preserve protects hundreds of these. Public tours are held in the spring and fall. Sadly, many more examples were lost to unregulated target shooting in the hills of Lake Mountain before large areas were closed in 2018.

Layer in Time: Monsters

A 60-foot long serpent, deep yellow in color with the head of a greyhound and black eyes. A creature the size of a toddler, with long black hair, and the cry of an infant meant to lure swimmers to their death. A strange swimming beast with four legs and a head similar to an alligator that roars like a lion.

Layer in Nature: Hot and Cold Springs

Utah Lake includes several natural springs. Hot springs exist in Saratoga Springs, on the north-west shores, including one open to the public at Inlet Park. BUT THERE ARE ALSO MANY COLD SPRINGS INSIDE THE LAKE. The underwater cold springs are part of an intricate groundwater system. Utah Lake is much more than the water we see on the surface, which is one reason why dredging the lake (as is often suggested for various development projects) would be devastating to the system.

Layer in Nature: Trees

On May 25, 1844, John C. Frémont and his survey company traveled down Spanish Fork Canyon and arrived in Utah Valley. Thrilled to see a lush, idyllic landscape, Frémont recorded Utah Lake as “a lake of note in this country.” He also wrote, “The lake is bordered by a plain, where the soil is generally good, and in greater part fertile; watered by a delta of prettily timbered streams."

Layer in Damage: Water Quality Part 1

The story of Utah Lake's water quality is a long and complicated one still evolving today. Water quality issues began almost immediately after Mormon settlement of the Provo area in 1849 and within fifty years major ecological disablement occurred.

Layer in Damage: Water Quality Part 2

Dumping practices took a glaring turn in 1944 when the massive Geneva Steel plant opened on the shores of the lake in Vineyard (Orem). The company, initially tasked with supporting the mechanical efforts of World War II, “failed to initiate significant environmental control practices until the early 1990s” and so contaminated the lake with hazardous materials for nearly 50 years. Geneva Steel also worsened air quality as the smokestacks belched emissions, including microscopic particulates known as PM2.5, which human and animal lungs cannot filter out. Residents breathed in the toxins and the pollution settled on the surface of the lake from wind, rain, and snow.

Layer in Care: Restoration

Thanks to hundreds of restoration projects that began in the 1980s, Utah Lake water quality, habitat, and wildlife are now thriving. Inputs like untreated sewage are treated or removed, native plants replanted after invasive ones such as phragmites removed, uplands and wetlands restored, water returned, habitat restored, and more.

Layer in Care: North Shore Wetlands

One of the best examples of healing restoration on Utah Lake is the North Shore Wetlands property in Saratoga Springs. Accessed by walking the Utah Lake Parkway, an extension of the Jordan River Parkway, this 80-acre area is an active site with over ten years of careful restoration work by Utah Forestry, Fire, and State Lands. The uplands and wetlands are home to an impressive range of biodiversity in plants and wildlife. In a few minutes of walking on a summer day, you can see a dozen species of birds, a marmot family, monarch butterflies drinking from milkweed or beeplant, a tangle of garter snakes, maybe a few deer, and listen to the wind in the Fremont cottonwoods.

Layer in Time: Present + Future

The local collective memory around the lake is slow to adjust to new truths and often doesn't include all the layers. Because of this many residents are missing out on a connection to this incredible place and a chance to participate in protecting it.

Layer in Care: Know the Lake

How do YOU fit into the Utah Lake story? There are so many ways to engage. But most of all, please help share the updated truth about the lake: That it is a healthy, thriving, essential place we can all enjoy, protect, and conserve.

On the Surface: Utah Lake

UTAH LAKE IS THE CENTER OF UTAH VALLEY: PHYSICALLY, HISTORICALLY, AND ECOLOGICALLY. The largest freshwater lake in Utah and the third largest in the American West. The 145 square-mile body can hold 902,000 acre feet of water and spans about 24 miles north-south and 13 miles east-west (at widest point). THE LAKE'S AVERAGE DEPTH IS ONLY 9 FEET WITH A MAXIMUM OF 18 FEET. This is a natural feature that has existed since ancient Lake Bonneville drained about 14,000 years ago.

On the Surface: Cities + People

Utah Lake is framed by many rapidly growing cities. 14 of the 22 cities in Utah County have shoreline property. In 2023, the Utah County population hit 719,174. This offers a lot of amazing opportunities for residents to spend time in nature and recreate on/near the water. Locals can sail, fish, swim, boat, ice skate, bird watch, walk, bike, and many more incredible things. The views of lake + mountains in Utah Valley are also stunning.

However, the growing population of Utah Valley also presents many management and conservation challenges. Utah Lake is threatened by trash dumping, municipal and housing development pressure, municipal, residential, and agricultural runoff, possible bridges and causeways, wetland destruction, and water use issues tied to the use of the lake as a reservoir.

Taking care of the lake requires education of and effort from all of us living in Utah Valley.

Recommended Reading:

Layer in Nature: An Oasis

Northern Utah is an oasis in the desert: THE WASATCH OASIS. The snow-based watershed of the Wasatch Mountains has sustained all forms of life—human and non-human—for thousands of years. Northern Utah is NOT a desert; it's an abundant natural system with a lot of water cycling through the interwoven watersheds. Historically, the lake was a wetlands refuge, center of biodiversity, and vibrant fishery.

The habitat inside and around the lake supports a massive community of more-than-human life: migratory birds, invertebrates, algae and cyanobacteria, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and fish. All life in the valley depends on the water in this system.

Layer in Nature: In-Flow Rivers

Utah Lake is a naturally shallow, endorheic lake (no outlet to an ocean) filled by the snowmelt rivers of the Wasatch Front Mountains. Utah Lake has five main tributaries or in-flow rivers: American Fork River, Provo River, Hobble Creek, Spanish Fork River, and Currant Creek.

Only one outflow river leaves the lake, the rare north-flowing Jordan River. This umbilical river connects Utah Lake to her saline twin, Great Salt Lake.

Layer in Nature: Jordan River Out-flow

The only natural out-flow for Utah Lake is the Jordan River, which leaves the lake at the Inlet in Saratoga Springs (north-west shore) and flows north across Salt Lake Valley to empty into Great Salt Lake.

In 1859 and 1872, settlers constructed two dams across the Jordan River: one at the Inlet, and the other farther north at The Narrows in Salt Lake County, near present-day Bluffdale. These dams converted Utah Lake into a reservoir to redirect Jordan River water to Salt Lake valley farm canals. This caused a significant reduction in the natural outflow of Utah Lake to Great Salt Lake. Though northern watershed rivers such as the Bear River and Weber River contribute higher amounts of water to Great Salt Lake, the rare north flowing Jordan River is also a crucial source.

Though the Jordan River also suffers from a bad reputation, it's the focus of much restoration work. The Jordan River Parkway Trail is a great way to bike or walk to see water and wildlife. Kayakers and paddlers also love the river.

Recommended Reading:

Layer in Nature: Great Salt Lake

When ancient Lake Bonneville drained about 14,000 years ago, it left behind a natural watershed connection of fresh and salt water. Utah Lake is connected to Great Salt Lake through the Jordan River, a rare north flowing water. Utah Lake sends water to Great Salt Lake, a major tributary contribution.

THE HEALTH OF BOTH LAKES AND THE JORDAN RIVER ARE LINKED AND INTERWOVEN.

This is a WATERSHED, not individual pieces.

Recommended reading:

Layer In Nature: Fish

The story of Utah Lake can't be told without including the saga of the fish.

There are currently eighteen species of fish in the water—15 are non-native/introduced, including the infamous common carp. Thirteen native fish species thrived in the lake before Mormon settlement and provided an abundance of nutritious food for the Timpanogos and Ute people and fish-eating wildlife. Today, only two of the original species survive and a third, the Utah Lake Sculpin, tragically went extinct during a dust bowl disaster in the 1930s when the lake dried up to puddles.

Two hundred baby carp were introduced in 1883 as part of a nation-wide effort by the US Commission of Fish and Fisheries program. Native fisheries all over the country were devastated by settler over-fishing and water diversions; carp were an easy option to boost food sources. Unfortunately, carp are bottom-feeders: they disturb sediment and rip out vegetation as they search for food. By the early 2000s, carp accounted for “an overwhelming 91 percent of the total fish biomass in the lake,” as reported by the June Sucker Recovery Implementation Project.

In order to save the native June Sucker, extermination of the carp began in February 2010. By 2019, the project had pulled 29 million pounds of carp from the lake. Habitat restoration also went forward with improvements to Hobble Creek and the Provo River Delta. On February 3, 2021, the June Sucker was downlisted from endangered to threatened, one of only a handful of fish to make this positive leap.

It’s impossible to maintain healthy water quality and protect native fish without the destruction of carp. However, we’ll never be able to completely remove all the carp—the lake is too big and the carp’s will to live too strong. As the current human stewards of Utah Lake—many of us of settler descent, myself included—we are bound to these invasive golden fish forever. And so, we continue our struggle to balance their harm—our harm—and the health of Utah Lake, which is vital for all life in the valley. 

Recommended Reading:

Layer in Nature: Ice

Winter is an amazing time at the lake. When temperatures are cold enough, usually now in January and February, the lake freezes. There's nothing quite like walking on the frozen water and checking out the ice formations. Historically, residents ice skated on Goshen and Provo Bays, ice fished, and some also hunted coyote on the ice.

Ice is a powerful force of nature. In the winter of 2025, the ice froze for a few weeks and then temperatures quickly increased. The ice broke into large chunks which strong winds forced onto the shores. In Vineyard, shoreline structures were damaged and a city backhoe came in to to help move the ten-foot high stacks.

For this reason, shoreline development plans need to consider winter conditions.

Sources: Carter, D. Robert. 2005. Utah Lake: Legacy. N.p.: June Sucker Recovery Implementation Project. Brough, R. Clayton. 1974. Mosida, Utah: Past, Present & Future. Provo, Utah: Provo, Utah: Press Pub. Co.

Layer in Time: Native Peoples

Utah Valley and Utah Lake are the ancestral homelands of the Timpanogos and Lake Utes. Before Mormon settlement in 1849, the area around Utah Lake was home to the largest Indigenous population in the Great Basin -- all because of the lake, rivers, and resources provided by the valley. Which, of course, is also why the pioneers chose to settle in Northern Utah. Settlement caused many conflicts, including the murder of Native residents on the lakeshore, winter ice, and eventual removal from the valley.

Part of recuperating our modern relationship with Utah Lake, which now includes a Utah Valley population of residents who are 90% white and up to 60% LDS, requires a knowledge of and reckoning with the full spectrum of racial injustice and displacement in our history. Utah Lake lives in the “aftermath of loss,” and loss needs to be remembered and grieved. The environmental abuse of the lake is deeply intertwined with the violence against the Timpanogos and Ute people.

Also, On Zion's Mount by Jared Farmer

Sources: Tatum, Stephen. 2006. “Spectral beauty and forensic aesthetics in the West.” Western American Literature 41 (2): 123–145. https://doi.org/10.1353/wal.2006.0039.

Layer in Time: An Archaic Man and His Dog

Near the remnants of Mosida, an orchard town abandoned in 1924, is a 5500 year-old burial site of a man and his dog. Many identified prehistoric sites exist across Utah Valley, but this is a rare Archaic Period find. The middle-aged man’s body tells the story of a long, healthy life; the same for his dog. Anthropologists from Brigham Young University and University of Utah highlighted that “the Mosida Burial is the first controlled and reported case of a dog being included in a human burial in the Great Basin and the early date places it among the earliest human-dog burials in North America.”

Sources: Janetski, Joel C., Karen D. Lupo, and John M. McCullough. 1992. “The Mosida Site: A Middle Archaic Burial from the Eastern Great Basin.” Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 14, no. 2 (July): 180-200. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7v24270r.

Layer in Time: Rock Imagery

The western shores and Lake Mountain are home to a rich collection of stunning rock imagery.  The Smith Family Archeological Preserve  protects hundreds of these. Public tours are held in the spring and fall. Sadly, many more examples were lost to unregulated target shooting in the hills of Lake Mountain before large areas were closed in 2018.

These artifacts are further proof that Utah Lake supported a thriving population of Native peoples as far back as 12,000 years ago.

Recommended Reading:

Hora, Elizabeth, and Christopher Merritt. 2020. “Utah Lake Rock Imagery: An intersection of Public Land, Recreational Shooting, and Cultural Resources.” Utah Historical Quarterly 88, no. 2 (Spring): 121-128.

Layer in Time: Monsters

A 60-foot long serpent, deep yellow in color with the head of a greyhound and black eyes. A creature the size of a toddler, with long black hair, and the cry of an infant meant to lure swimmers to their death. A strange swimming beast with four legs and a head similar to an alligator that roars like a lion.

Several accounts—mostly from the late-1860s to 1930s—record sightings of "monsters" in Utah Lake. Most major bodies of water across the globe have such stories. Folklore is a fascinating layer in time and story, and plays in interesting role in culture. These stories may be based on real animals or may simply illuminate general fears involving water.

Recommended reading:

A general search of "Utah Lake monster" on the following offers some fun reading:

And this story:

Layer in Nature: Hot and Cold Springs

Utah Lake includes several natural springs. Hot springs exist in Saratoga Springs, on the north-west shores, including one open to the public at Inlet Park. BUT THERE ARE ALSO MANY COLD SPRINGS INSIDE THE LAKE. The underwater cold springs are part of an intricate groundwater system. Utah Lake is much more than the water we see on the surface, which is one reason why dredging the lake (as is often suggested for various development projects) would be devastating to the system.

Layer in Nature: Trees

On May 25, 1844, John C. Frémont and his survey company traveled down Spanish Fork Canyon and arrived in Utah Valley. Thrilled to see a lush, idyllic landscape, Frémont recorded Utah Lake as “a lake of note in this country.” He also wrote, “The lake is bordered by a plain, where the soil is generally good, and in greater part fertile; watered by a delta of prettily timbered streams."

Before settlement, cottonwoods, alders, aspens, willows, junipers, pine, cattails, bullrush, sagebrush, and grasses grew along the rivers, around the lake, and up the canyons. Sadly, most, if not all, of the valley and canyon trees were clearcut for use as houses, fences, and more.

Trees play a vital role in riparian habitat by providing food and shelter for wildlife and improving and maintaining soil health for all plants. Wetlands alone can't fully do the natural jobs of an ecosystem—trees are important partners. We also know that trees produce oxygen, clean the air, and "sink carbon."

One gap in the Utah Lake restoration efforts is tree planting. The North Shore Wetlands and Provo River Delta Restoration are positive exceptions. But we need to bring back more of our native trees along the rivers and shoreline and continue to do the work of removing the invasive/foreign ones such as Russian Olives.

Sources: Frémont, John C. 2001. Memoirs of My Life. New York City, New York: Cooper Square Press.

Layer in Damage: Water Quality Part 1

The story of Utah Lake's water quality is a long and complicated one still evolving today. Water quality issues began almost immediately after Mormon settlement of the Provo area in 1849 and within fifty years major ecological disablement occurred.

Half the Provo River was diverted to irrigation, industrial mills were built that dumped into the lake, invasive fish species were introduced that destroyed aquatic plant systems, invasive plants and trees were planted that pushed out native habitat, wetlands and marshes were drained, trees were clearcut, grasslands were overgrazed, and dams were built.

Sources: Bishop, Tara B., Lauren Brooks, Hillary Hungerford, Canyon Moser, and Addison Scott. 2024. Historical Overview of Territorial, State, and Federal Legislation Impacting Utah Lake. Orem, Utah: Utah Valley University: Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy. Carter, D. R. 2003. Founding Fort Utah: Provo's Native Inhabitants, Early Explorers, and First Year of Settlement. N.p.: Provo City Corporation. Hooton Jr., LeRoy W. 1993. Utah Lake & Jordan River: Water Rights & Management Plan. Utah: Salt Lake County. https://www.slcdocs.com/utilities/PDF%20Files/utah&jordan.PDF.

Layer in Damage: Water Quality Part 2

Dumping practices took a glaring turn in 1944 when the massive Geneva Steel plant opened on the shores of the lake in Vineyard (Orem). The company, initially tasked with supporting the mechanical efforts of World War II, “failed to initiate significant environmental control practices until the early 1990s” and so contaminated the lake with hazardous materials for nearly 50 years. Geneva Steel also worsened air quality as the smokestacks belched emissions, including microscopic particulates known as PM2.5, which human and animal lungs cannot filter out. Residents breathed in the toxins and the pollution settled on the surface of the lake from wind, rain, and snow.

Sources: Carter, D. Robert. 2005. Utah Lake: Legacy. N.p.: June Sucker Recovery Implementation Project. Farmer, Jared. 2010. On Zion's Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Layer in Care: Restoration

Thanks to hundreds of restoration projects that began in the 1980s, Utah Lake water quality, habitat, and wildlife are now thriving. Inputs like untreated sewage are treated or removed, native plants replanted after invasive ones such as phragmites removed, uplands and wetlands restored, water returned, habitat restored, and more.

The June Sucker Recovery Implementation Project saved a native fish from extinction by leading most of these efforts, which include the recent Provo River Delta Restoration.

Recommended Reading:

Layer in Care: North Shore Wetlands

One of the best examples of healing restoration on Utah Lake is the North Shore Wetlands property in Saratoga Springs. Accessed by walking the Utah Lake Parkway, an extension of the Jordan River Parkway, this 80-acre area is an active site with over ten years of careful restoration work by Utah Forestry, Fire, and State Lands. The uplands and wetlands are home to an impressive range of biodiversity in plants and wildlife. In a few minutes of walking on a summer day, you can see a dozen species of birds, a marmot family, monarch butterflies drinking from milkweed or beeplant, a tangle of garter snakes, maybe a few deer, and listen to the wind in the Fremont cottonwoods.

Layer in Time: Present + Future

The local collective memory around the lake is slow to adjust to new truths and often doesn't include all the layers. Because of this many residents are missing out on a connection to this incredible place and a chance to participate in protecting it.

UTAH LAKE IS OUR DEFINING ICON — AND IT'S TIME TO HONOR THAT.

We’ve done a lot of work to fix our mistakes and the potential for diverse and new ways of continuing to move forward are really exciting. And so, I like to think of these efforts to care for the water, ecosystem, and our cultural perspectives as a form of atonement instead of simply restoration. Atonement doesn't hide from the mistakes and damages of the past, which are easy to secret away in the word restoration. Atonement sits with the haunting of disablement and also makes room for holistic care. 

Atonement signifies an intimate connection in a way restoration does not. Our relationship with Utah Lake is most definitely an intimate one. 

These acts of responsibility are a way of paying attention to “relational harm and relational flourishing.” If we are willing to attend to the injuries of Utah Lake then we can participate in the miraculous event of healing. This work is a way of acknowledging a new normal, an always evolving normal, and not relying on misconceived stories of returning to what once was. 

Sources: Disabled Ecologies by Sunaura Taylor

Layer in Care: Know the Lake

How do YOU fit into the Utah Lake story? There are so many ways to engage. But most of all, please help share the updated truth about the lake: That it is a healthy, thriving, essential place we can all enjoy, protect, and conserve.

Get to know this amazing place for yourself . . .

Share this map with a friend!

Any questions, comments, or stories, please email:

Teri Harman ~ teri@teriharman.com