Ghost of the Saltair

The Ghost of the Saltair

The Ghost of the Saltair

My story begins at the end of the 19^th century. The year is 1893 to be precise. In that year, a famous architect named Richard K.A. Kletting saw one of his most celebrated creations coming to life. The place was a well known bath resort built by the salty waters of the Great Salt Lake, Utah. The name of this place was “The Great Saltair”.

  This huge construction, designed in a moorish style, was one of the main tourists attractions in Utah, so famous to be nicknamed “The Coney Island of the West”. People had at disposition a train service to travel from Salt Lake City to Magna, where the Saltair was located. It was approximately 18 miles from Temple Square and it had one of the biggest ballrooms in the whole world, if not the biggest of all. The structure was completely made out of wood. Though stylish and peculiar, this proved to be a clear disadvantage because regular maintenance was required in order to keep the construction protected from the salty water of the lake. Unfortunately, fire was a serious threat as well, so in 1925, the resort and other adjacent buildings were destroyed by fire. Not long after the accident, a new pavilion was built, improved and enlarged, with the addition of a roller-coaster and some amusement park carousels. The fate of the Saltair II was not luckier than that of the first one, due to factors such as the Great Depression, the decline in number of clients, another fire that caused $ 30.000 of damage, waters receding and World War II, the latter which probably gave the definitive stroke to the hopes of glory of the resort, the resort completely went out of business in 1958. Abandoned throughout the 60’s, the Great Saltair was finally destroyed in an arson in 1970 which left nothing but piles of burned wood and rusted metal structural elements.

 But the story of the Saltair was far from over. In 1981, investors decided to convert a salvage air force hangar into what has become the New Saltair or Saltair III. Even with its ups and downs, including being flooded, abandoned and restored again, the New Saltair is still standing. This is the introduction to my experience with this building called The Great Saltair. Some of you readers might wonder why my story goes back such a long way, but it’s necessary that an explanation of what the Saltair used to be is given to you before I proceed with my personal events.

 At this point, I can introduce myself. I am Italian, you can call me Gabe. You will realize of me being a foreigner because of the use of the language, some of these things you’ll read might not sound like standard English.

 Last Summer I had the amazing chance to visit Utah after a first visit the year before, this time for a longer permanence and with a personal car to drive around, a lovely 1995 Chevrolet Lumina. I had dedicated most of my driving around to the main routes in the Salt Lake Area, Redwood Road and the Interstate 15, so one Night I decided time had come to take a look at the famous Great Salt Lake. My original plan was to leave not too late in the evening so that, with a shed of light left, I would have been able to see the shores of the lake. My erroneous estimations led me to get behind the steering wheel when it was already too dark to see the lake even in its proximity, but this didn’t discourage me from driving toward the appointed location. I drove down Redwood Road to the UT SR 201, which quickly took me to the West area of the Salt Lake County. I was using a sat nav (or GPS) and I could follow the route without the risk of getting lost, but at one point I decided not to use it anymore and try to follow directions just with my instinct. Truth is I was simply looking for the lake, so how in the world I could have missed it? I mean, you simply drive West, you will end up crashing against it. This was not my case though, in fact I drove on the I-80 towards Toeele only to find out that I was going in the wrong direction and the lake wasn’t even near. I took a look at the sat nav and realized how fool I had been, so I turned the car 180° and went back towards SLC.

 -Freak! I messed up!

 While I was trying to define my position using road signs, one of them clearly stated that I was not far from Toeele, which meant that driving back would have taken a while. I didn’t despair though, I made my turn and tried to follow the map in order to find the lake, which still was my main destination. After driving along a highway for a certain while, I saw a road sign which read “Great Salt Lake National Park”.

 -Cool! That road will lead me to the Lake!- I thought inside my mind.

 I took the left turn at the stoplight and drove down the UT SR 202 which connects with the I-80. My enthusiasm for the idea of finally catching a glimpse of the Great Salt Lake was killing me and I really felt like it was one of the most memorable moments ever. I was not disappointed, at least not in the way I had imagined. This is where my story turns a bit dark and mysterious.

 -What the heck is that?

 It was nothing I had ever seen before. There were no lights for at least a 3-mile radius. It was so dark that I could barely see the I-80 road sign, and everything around looked just as desolate as a horror movie. I felt shivers running up and down my spine while getting closer to this mysterious building of which I had heard stories, but that I wasn’t expecting to encounter by chance in the middle of the Night. Yes, my dear readers, it was the notorious Saltair.

 I parked my Chevy Lumina right before the fence that surrounded the property. I was seriously scared because there was a car parked not too distant from me, but nobody seemed to be inside. Being a tourist, I was super afraid at the idea of someone coming out with a shotgun asking me to leave or even worse a police patrol checking out the area at Night and finding me, alone in the dark, staring at this building with gleaming eyes as if I were a lunatic just escaped from an asylum. The design of the building was quite frightening, mainly because of the environment and the unusual location. Yes, because if you see the same building in the centre of a big city, then it might happen to be an eclectic construction conceived by a brilliant architect. But there, in the middle of nowhere, with no sparks of humanity and by the shores of the lake, it really gives you the creeps! I even shared a status on Facebook concerning the experience: “I’ve just found the most unusual building hidden in the dark. No lights around me, just this huge building…”

 I had spent at least 10 minutes with my engine off carefully checking if anyone else was around me. I decided to step out of the vehicle for a quick reconnaissance, still looking at the car nearby with the corner of my eye. I stood there in religious silence admiring the beauty and mystery of the Saltair, isolated in its disturbing quiet. Life seemed to have abandoned the whole surrounding, so I felt very uncomfortable spending too much time staring at it. I got back in the car and… and… and that’s when the weirdest thing started.

 I couldn’t describe it in words. It was like a force, a fragment of my rational side gone bad, but I really felt like taking the road again. Not any ordinary road, the road that drives right beside the lake. I started the engine, set the gear and took the N Temple Frontage, this is the name of the thin lane of asphalt I was travelling in. I was surrounded by her majesty The Darkness, I could only see cars coming and going on the I-80, but to be honest, all I would envision out of the windscreen was this desolate stripe of asphalt which seemed to lead to nowhere. I was unable to understand the reasons of my actions, I was just mesmerized by the shocking vision I had not too many minutes before. At a certain point, while driving into nowhere, I felt like stopping.

 -What is it?

 There was some sort of power controlling me. I had to stop, so I did, but I couldn’t figure out why. I turned the car and drove back towards the Saltair. I estimated of driving 1 mile or 2 from the starting location, I was not very distant, when all of a sudden I saw a gate. That power overtook again and without even conscience, I pulled the Lumina over, moved the lever in Parking and turned the engine off.

 -Now what?

 I got out of the car and started staring at the darkness which enveloped the horizon. I couldn’t see anything at all, I only knew somewhere in front of me there was the Lake, but I couldn’t even understand my position. I was just there, staring at nothing, but with this strong feeling inside that there was something more, something unusual in progress, something that I couldn’t understand with my rational side, but that a certain part of my subconscious was perceiving strongly and vividly. What was it? I am uncertain about the time, but I can assume I stood there looking at nothing for at least 5 minutes, completely unaware of the logical reasons behind my actions. I finally came to my senses. I got back in the car and drove away. While driving away I put some music on and listened to a very appropriate song from the German band Helloween, a song titled “Immortal” from the album The Dark Ride. The atmosphere was still so weird and strange while I was passing by the Saltair for the last time before heading straight home. What a disturbing experience it was.

 You might wonder if my story is worth to be told. Let me tell you in advance that the majority of stories you will hear are often made up to sound as scary as possible with fantasy elements and a lot of weird details that add more mystery and interest. In my story, there’s my “ordinary” experience where no supernatural events occurred during the events themselves. It sounds like little to no sense at all, so let me explain. The scary details have not been revealed yet.

 The day following my Night-time encounter with the Saltair I got super hungry for information about the place. I started reading, reading and reading non stop. I was reading so much stuff in just one day that one point my brain almost melted down. It was so intriguing, so fascinating, so disturbingly interesting! All of my energies were spent to know more about the place and going back there as quickly as possible. Nevertheless, I wasn’t ready for what I actually found out. Yes, I wasn’t ready at all. Here comes the seriously scary part of the story.

 While reading the chronicles of the Great Saltair, I ran across a blog where a photographer was explaining the exact whereabouts of the original pavilion. I was really curious to know more about the original, since the Saltair III was nothing more than a modified hangar and, even with all its charm, couldn’t stimulate my fantasy like the original one. So this photographer also posted a map of the location of the original Saltair. Contrarily to what I had imagined at first, the original pavilion wasn’t even close to the current structure, it was actually 2 miles away going north. I was stunned: it was exactly the same road I had driven by the Night before! But that’s not all; back in the 60’s, a movie was filmed using the then abandoned Saltair’s pavilion as a location for a horror story. Things were getting weirder and weirder.

 That same afternoon I decided to visit the location again with the favour of light, so I drove straight with the Chevy Lumina without diverting to other highways and routes. I parked the car by the Saltair III and started walking in the squashy sand towards the original site that, according to the photographer’s description, was easily recognizable due to the presence of some remains. It took me a good hour and a half to get to the spot and when I got there I was very exhausted, especially because of the terrible ground I had walked on. The only thing that gave me strength was the morbid obsession for the historical site, as if I could find something of any worth. Once there, I realized that the photographer had given me the wrong instructions concerning the precise location. Even though they were facing each other, his supposed entrance was actually 200 yards or so from the correct location. I could recognize the remains of the structure and some wooden poles, all of which were headed towards the lake. I actually stepped on the ground where the Saltair used to be. Going back to the street, specifically the mysterious road of the Night before, I noticed the gate where I stopped with the car. I felt a shiver running down my spine. Once again, that disturbing feeling was taking over me. Yes, because the gate where I stopped the car and stared at the dark horizon without seeing anything, well, it pointed right towards the site of the original Saltair. In other words, had I been there 60 years ago, I would have seen the large pavilion with my own eyes from the position I was. I trembled as I came to the conclusion that the force inside was actually pushing me to look at something tangible, but invisible: the ghost of the building, or, in more appropriate words, the Ghost of the Saltair.

 I spent the rest of the evening with chills in my bones for how disturbing this story was becoming, but I couldn’t stop reading and finding out more about the new obsession of my life. Every neuron of my brain was busy in the quest for information and details concerning this building, it was draining all my energy and I even skipped dinner because my face was stuck in front of the computer screen.

 I wanted to know more about the movie filmed at the Saltair. Its title is Carnival of Souls, filmed in 1962 when the pavilion had already been dismissed for 5 years. The whole movie is available for free on YouTube, so I immediately had a chance to watch it. I shouldn’t have, considering my first hand experience, but I couldn’t resist the temptation. It was a terrifying view! The whole movie is creepy in itself, I suggest you watch it because it’s a prototype of modern horror movies and this one was filmed back in the 60’s before famous titles like Night of the Living Dead which set the standards for modern day horror movies. Yeah, Carnival of Souls is just as creepy as it could be for its days, but its psychological torture can still work on certain impressionable people. But the reason why I find it so frightening is very personal.

 There’s a scene where the main character, Mary, is driving at Night with her car and she sees the Saltair from the distance. The pavilion looks macabre and threatening, it’s like a ghostly figure in the middle of the shore. At one point, she drives her car off the road. Guess what road is! Yes, the N Temple Frontage! And at what point of the road?? Right in front of the spot where I stopped and stared at the veil of darkness that fright Night! I didn’t know anything about this movie, I didn’t know anything about the Saltair, but that Night I had been pushed by that unexplainable force to stop exactly in that point and stare at the darkness! But that’s not all! In the special content of the DVD, the director revealed that he came up with the idea for Carnival of Souls during a journey back from California. He was driving towards Kansas and the sun was setting. From the distance, he saw the silhouette of the pavilion and felt so impressed by it that he diverted a bit to catch a better glimpse. He didn’t know what he had just seen, so he drove to a place nearby and asked someone what that place was. Again and again, same pattern! This whole thing shocked me so much that for a couple of Nights I couldn’t sleep. I had the feeling that the Ghost of the Saltair was somehow calling me and I had bad dreams and nightmares about it. One Night I was so frightened that I stayed awake until the sun arose, I simply couldn’t close my eyes without feeling the fear connected with all the events surrounding my discovery of the Saltair. This in itself creates another link to the story in the movie, where the girl can’t sleep at Night because she feels the presence of the pavilion as if it was visible from the window. I have no words to explain the mark this story has left in my mind!

 At the moment now, I am back in Italy and well far away from Utah and the Great Salt Lake. I don’t know if other people can report the same experience, but if anyone has been involved in a similar way, I doubt I will ever know about it. My story is a genuine account of what happened to me. I have not made it up, I have not added fantasy elements to make it sound more interesting or entertaining. I honestly have no idea how you readers might perceive my description of the story, but I want to tell you one thing before closing and it is: if you should ever find yourself driving by the I-80 or the UT SR 201, take a diversion to the Great Salt Lake and experiment by yourself. Take a very good look at the current Saltair, either at the twilight or with complete darkness, and then drive North for approximately 2 miles by the shore. It might happen to you as well to be haunted by the Ghost of the Saltair.