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Fire, flooding and tourists: The history of Saltair at Great Salt Lake

Posted at 10:09 PM, Aug 03, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-04 00:09:43-04

SALT LAKE CITY -- The Great Salt Lake is known throughout the world as a unique geographical feature, but how many people actually visit Utah's largest lake?

FOX 13 News' Todd Tanner has been dropping into the Saltair, the Great Salt Lake Marina, and the beach between them both to find out what locals and visitors think of our lake.

Perhaps not surprisingly, he found very few Utahns there.

Angel De La Torre, who runs the gift shop at Saltair, was quick to point out the resort's guest book with entries from tourists around the world, but "not a lot of people from Utah," she said.

Angel estimates 80 percent of her visitors on any given day are from out of state, or out of the county.

At the Great Salt Lake Marina, Harbor Master Dave Shearer figures Utahns make up about 50 percent of his visitors, a number which he says is up from years past.

Shearer believes Utahns are beginning to "rediscover" the beauty and "great recreational waters" of the Great Salt Lake.

Watch the video above for a look at Saltair's history of fires and floods, and to hear what modern visitors have to say about their first impressions of Utah's Great Salt Lake.