NELSON Arave, the first ever "Arave," did some boating on the Great Salt Lake and even had one recorded shipwreck.
A large pioneer map of the Hooper area, on the wall at the Hooper, Utah City Offices (drawn and produced by the late Hooper historian, John M. Belnap), lists Nelson Arave (one of my great grandfathers) as having wrecked a boat on Fremont Island in the Great Salt Lake in 1874. Three years later, in 1877, there’s a reference in The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star (Volume 39, p. 223) that states Nelson Arave had built two large boats to transport cedar posts and wood from Promontory (Point) to Hooper. Presumably, it was one of those two boats that wrecked on the isle.
Nelson Arave
-Four years after Nelson Arave’s wreck on Fremont Island, one of his friends, Charles Smaltz, wrecked his large boat too on Fremont Island, in 1878.
Fremont Island as seen from the sandbar This was all under some five feet of water in 1874.
Why did these ship wrecks happen? Back in the 19th Century, there were no weather reports and storms could then surprise boaters and seemingly come up suddenly on the lake. Its briny waters also pack more of a punch than fresh water does, given its high mineral content. And, Fremont Island was the only safe haven from a storm, if you were out in the GSL, between Promontory Point and the Davis County line.
Taylor Arave marks how high the water level of the Great Salt Lake would have been during its all-time high mark in the mid-1980s. He is standing in the southeast bay to Fremont Island, with Isle seen in the background. In 1874, this was all under four or more feet of briny water,
Why did these ship wrecks happen? Back in the 19th Century, there were no weather reports and storms could then surprise boaters and seemingly come up suddenly on the lake. Its briny waters also pack more of a punch than fresh water does, given its high mineral content. And, Fremont Island was the only safe haven from a storm, if you were out in the GSL, between Promontory Point and the Davis County line.
