“You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus”

Mark Twain

Black Rock is located at the northern end of the Oquirrh Mountains, where the range abruptly ends on the southern shore of the Great Salt Lake. This is a very historic place and it is a pity that it is in the condition it is in. Black Rock is now a place where fools go to graffiti or dump their trash. There are ancient piles, large concrete blocks that no doubt once served as breakwaters for the many resorts that have been located here over the years. Old missing dock supports jut out of the salty water here at the edge of the inland sea. The place has a kind of skeletal appearance to accompany the ghostly story of the rock.

Many years ago, Black Rock was a very different place. Lush grasses, reeds, and reeds once crawled onto the lake beaches in this area. Streams of pure, crystal clear water, fed by the melting snows of the Oquirrh Mountains, once flowed into the lake in this area. One of the first mentions of Black Rock was Heinrich Lienhard’s Diary. In this journal, Lienhard kept a daily record of what he observed and experienced as a member of a group of emigrants who passed through Utah and crossed the Great Salt Lake wilderness on their way west, just weeks before Donner’s group. .

Here is an extract from that diary “August 8, 1846; In the vicinity of this spring, there was an immense, isolated and rounded rock under which there was a cave and those who entered found a human skeleton.” It is now clear that the group was in the vicinity of Black Rock at the time, but it is not clear to me if this is a description of Black Rock or one of the many caves and rocks that are just up the hill at the bottom. from the Oquirrh Mountains. There have been numerous reports of archaic human remains found in caves in the vicinity of Black Rock. The area must have had some significance to the ancients, as it was a heavily used burial ground. University archaeologists studied the sites extensively and much knowledge was gained about these peoples who lived in this area long ago.

In 1850, Captain Howard Stansbury was conducting a survey of the Great Salt Lake and the adjacent areas. He used Black Rock for various purposes. Captain Stansbury kept a careful record of this expedition and these records culminated in the following work “An Expedition to Utah’s Great Salt Lake Valley – Including an Analysis of Its Geography, Natural History, and Minerals, and an Analysis of Its Waters” by Captain Howard Stansbury – Captain; Corps of Topographic Engineers, United States Army. This volume is another of my personal favorites on Utah history.

The following are excerpts from this volume relating to Black Rock “April 19, 1850; after erecting a station at its northern point (Stansbury Island), he intended to proceed to Black Rock, a large isolated rock on the coast south of the lake, midway between the two islands (Antelope and Stansbury), to erect a station on it “To carry out his study of the lake, Stansbury erected triangulation stations on the high peaks of the islands and other points featured. He continues: “April 20, 1850; A new gale was blowing from the northwest which continued to increase during the day. The wind was exceedingly cold and the men were forced to wrap themselves in buffalo skins to keep warm. Pulling out the headsail, we ran to Black Rock, a distance of more than 20 miles in 3 hours. A station was built with wood previously cut in the mountains and they were dragged to the place for that purpose; but the force of the group was not enough to lift it. ” Stansbury goes on to claim that they were able to erect the station on top of Black Rock the next day and that he had the crew from the boat camp at Black Rock while he went to Salt Lake for supplies.

Upon his return to Black Rock, Stansbury decided to test a theory he had: “Before I left Black Rock, I did an experiment on the properties of lake water to preserve meat. A large piece of fresh meat was suspended from a rope” . and submerged in the lake for just over twelve hours when it was found to be tolerably well gored.After this, all the beef that we wished to keep while operating on the lake was packed in barrels without any salt, and the boats were then it was filled with lake water. No additional care or preparation was necessary, and the meat remained perfectly sweet, albeit constantly exposed to the sun. I have no doubt that the meats put in this water would remain healthy and good as long as if prepared after the most approved methods.In fact, we were forced to mix fresh water with this natural brine, to avoid that our meat was salted too much for the current use: a very few days soak changes its character from corned beef to what the sailors call “scrap salt”

When I visited Black Rock and stood on the edge of the breakwater, listening to the waves crash against the rocks, I envisioned Captain Stansbury and his crew, in their makeshift boat, traveling here and there around the lake. To think that those men camped near this place and erected a station with high beams on top of this rock.

Stansbury was not the only one who plowed through the waters of the lake. In 1854, Brigham Young had a boat built and named it “Timely Gull” after the seagulls that saved the crops of the Saints from the hordes of crickets. Timely Gull was used for recreational purposes and to transport livestock to and from Antelope Island. The ship was basically a 45 foot barge with a sail. Timely Gull operated on the lake from his mooring at Black Rock for 4 years until a storm freed him from his mooring and dragged him across the lake to the opposite shore where he was wrecked.

I was thinking about these things while walking through Black Rock looking for a possible route to its top. It was a cold, gray, windy February day and the daylight was fading. The flash of strobes in the Kennecott Foundry chimney to the east seemed to attack the coming darkness with vengeance. The wind was blowing a little stronger now and the waves were getting bigger and now crashing against the rocks. As I considered the coming darkness and realized that I would not want to stay on the rock after dark, I found a notch on the west side that allowed relatively easy access to the top of the rock.

Once at the top, I stood there in the breeze and surveyed the scene. It sounds corny, but a feeling of loneliness and sadness came over me, and a creepy feeling that I wasn’t alone there. I don’t necessarily believe in ghosts, but if I did I would probably avoid Black Rock because I had the feelings described above before I heard the heartbreaking story of Ms. Charley White.

Mildred Mercer wrote an excellent article on the history of Black Rock and it is found in the book “Tooele County History – Volume I” Tooele County Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1961. The following information on the history of the White family was obtained from that source When Captain Stansbury and his team visited Black Rock in 1850, his assistant, Lieutenant John W. Gunnison (Gunnison died in 1853 at the bend of the River Sevier west of Delta when his expedition was massacred by the Indians) mentioned in its records that Mr. Charley White and his wife had built a cabin on the lake shore and had a working salt production business. Gunnison observed that Mr. White had 6 large 10 gallon kettles in operation. It boiled 60 gallons of lake water at a time and could produce 300 pounds of salt per day. Gunnison said they could get 1 bucket of salt from every 4 buckets of lake water.

Charley White also had a herd of cattle in the area around Black Rock and constantly had problems with Indians running away with their cattle. Apparently, all was not well within the White house and Charley eventually left his wife, known locally as “Mother White”, and their two children at Black Rock. Mother White continued to care for the animals and produce lake salt while raising her young daughter and son. Mother White was not a character to be taken lightly, as some described her as a large woman who was always seen toting a double-barreled shotgun. It would have to be tough as nails to survive that long on the shore of the lake, on the very edge of civilization.

If her husband’s abandonment wasn’t enough, one day in 1856, the two little boys went fording the lake about ¼ mile from shore. If you’ve ever ventured into the Great Salt Lake, you will understand the temptation to go further and further, as the water is still knee-high, even a mile from shore in many places. However, winds can change the depth of the water abruptly and waves can appear suddenly. This is what happened to the children. An unexpected gale rose on the lake, causing waves in the children. The boy was knocked over by a wave and strangled and drowned in the brine. His sister ran to shore as fast as she could to get help, but when Mother White caught up with the boy, he was already gone. She buried him on the slope of the Oquirrh behind Black Rock.

The White Mother must have been very depressed after these events. The gnats and mosquitoes piling up by the millions in the area would have been enough to depress anyone, but these personal tragedies certainly made matters worse. Mother White and her daughter continued on Black Rock until 1861 until they mysteriously disappeared. It was commonly believed that she had been killed for her cattle, as some of her cattle were later seen with some men in the Tooele Valley. One theory was that his body sank into the Great Salt Lake near Black Rock. Others believed his body was disposed of in a shallow grave in Black Rock Canyon. It is not known what happened to his daughter. Whatever the truth of the story, if ever there was a reason for a ghost to haunt a place, the White Mother would certainly have many reasons to haunt the rock.

Many other interesting events occurred at Black Rock and not all of them are melancholic. In 1851, 150 carriages, buggies, and railcars traveled from Salt Lake City to Black Rock, where cannons were fired and a large American flag was unfurled from the top of the rock to celebrate the 4th of July. Patrick Edward Connor operated several ships from Black Rock that transported the ore from Stockton Mines across the lake to Corrine and the railroad to transport it to the smelters. There was also a large resort in Black Rock in the late 1800s consisting of 100 bathhouses, a large pavilion, an amusement park with a large merry-go-round, and visitors came by train from Salt Lake City in open-air cars. .

Today Black Rock is not even a shadow of past glory days as it is an attractive place for scum to paint graffiti, litter, or conduct unscrupulous and illegal transactions. That being said, it is a very interesting place and an important landmark and part of our heritage. I just wish some entity would clean, protect and preserve it in some way for future generations to enjoy as the view to the west from the rock on the other side of the lake is unbeatable. To get there, take the Saltair exit # 104 off Interstate 80 and take the north side road and drive west past Saltair and the Great Salt Lake Marina. The road will become unpaved, rocky and bumpy, but most cars can go the last ¼ to where the road ends at the lakeside in Black Rock. Again, it’s not a place you want to be after dark, but if you haven’t been to Black Rock or the Great Salt Lake in general, it’s a very interesting, if not spooky, place worth a visit.