Is it true that there were whales living in the great salt lake?

Answer 1

Never. In prehistory, the Great Salt Lake was once much larger, and called Lake Bonneville. But this large lake was full of fresh water from the melting continental glacier, and had no access to the sea, where whales would have come from. Though it may have existed for thousands of years, this is not enough time for large mammals to have evolved in its waters. There is a myth from the 1800s of a man having whales shipped via railroad to the lake, where they were kept in an enclosure, but escaped, but this is P.T. Barnum style hokum. It never actually happened. It might be possible for an air-breathing sea mammal to survive in some areas of the lake, but the main body of water is much too salty for these animals to live in comfort. Baleen whales who feed on microscopic organisms could feed on the brine shrimp, but since they get most of their moisture from their food (sea creatures do not "drink" sea water), they probably could not survive in the lake.