Saltair, America's Salt Palace

Ever since I was young, I have had a fascination with the Great Salt Lake. Not only with the Great Salt Lake, but with Saltair.

In an earlier time Saltair was a Great palace on the shores of the Great Salt Lake. A train would run from downtown Salt Lake City to Saltair daily, bringing masses of people, old and young to swim, unsinkable, in the salty water, dance on one of the largest dance floors in the nation, or ride a wonderful roller coaster out over the lake. Families would come, they could share a day or an evening enjoying each others company. Time didn't move to fast, and parent and children still talked about what was important to them, and what mattered.

Tragedy struck in 1920, some 27 years after it was built, turning this western rival to New York's Coney Island to nothing but cinder and ash. A few years later the depression hit, and for a time recreation and leisure were forgotten, and with it Saltair was left to be washed away with the tide.

It was later rebuilt, burnt down and rebuilt again, each time losing more and more if the splendor of Saltairs glory days.
Now when you go and visit, a considerably more humble stucco building with Russian Onion domes on each of the corners, stands near the edge of what was the shoreline of the Great Salt Lake (The waters have receded almost a quarter of a mile from banks). When you think about the proud edifice that once stood there, you can feel a sadness, mild at best, resting over the place.

That's not to say that the place is completely abandoned. On any given day, I can visit the place, and find Photographers preparing for Bridal shots in the evening(the place has some of the most Beautiful sunsets you will ever see), Locals who had heard about the place and wanted to see what it was, or wind boarders enjoying the flat sands that the receded shore lines have produces. on one of my visits, which are frequent, I was met by a young Frenchman who had come to the USA to travel with his girlfriend. Smiling he said, "Its amazing, a Russian style building in the middle of Utah."

I just smiled and thought to myself about a lost era when Saltair was a place for family and friend to gather, time didn't move too fast and were for the most part you could feel safe, like you were among friends.

Sometimes I wonder if it is possible to miss something that you have never really experienced. When I think of what society once was, what Saltair epitomized, and then I look at the challenges our society faces, when family is expendable, commitments are broken before people even finish shaking hands, and for many people fear is a daily thing, I miss those lost days. Though cannot bring back what Saltair represents, I will continue to be fascinated by this place, and I will continue to dream of a time when family mattered, and brotherhood and friends came before fame and a quick buck. I will hope for the best in men, and live as if men hope for the same thing.