Gunnison Island is located in the northwest quadrant of the

Great Salt Lake The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It lies in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, partic ...

Box Elder County Box Elder County is a county at the northwestern corner of Utah, United States. At the 2020 United States census, the population was 57,666, up from the 2010 figure of 49,975. Its county seat and largest city is Brigham City. The county was n ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, approximately northwest of

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

and about east from the lake's western shore, and is best known as an important rookery for the

American white pelican The American white pelican (''Pelecanus erythrorhynchos'') is a large aquatic soaring bird from the order Pelecaniformes. It breeds in interior North America, moving south and to the coasts, as far as Costa Rica, in winter. Taxonomy The Americ ...

(''Pelecanus erythrorhynchos''). The

California gull The California gull (''Larus californicus'') is a medium-sized gull, smaller on average than the herring gull, but larger on average than the ring-billed gull (though it may overlap in size with both). Although named after California, it can b ...

(''Larus californicus'') also nests on the island, and occasional nesters include the

great blue heron The great blue heron (''Ardea herodias'') is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North and Central America, as well as far northwestern South America, the Caribbea ...

(''Ardea herodias''),

common raven The common raven or northern raven (''Corvus corax'') is a large all-black passerine bird. It is the most widely distributed of all Corvidae, corvids, found across the Northern Hemisphere. There are 11 accepted subspecies with little variatio ...

(''Corvus corax''),

prairie falcon The prairie falcon (''Falco mexicanus'') is a medium-sized Falconiformes, falcon found in Western North America. A separate species from the peregrine falcon, with which it shares some visual similarities, the prairie falcon is, essentially, an ...

(''Falco mexicanus''), and

rock wren The rock wren (''Salpinctes obsoletus'') is a small songbird of the wren family native to western North America, Mexico and Central America. It is the only species in the genus ''Salpinctes''. Description Measurements: * Length: 4.9-5.9 ...

(''Salpinctes obsoltetus''). The entire island was designated as the Gunnison Island State Wildlife Management Area in the late 1970s. Access to the island is restricted to prevent curious tourists from disturbing the nesting birds.R657-15 — Closure of Gunnison, Cub and Hat Islands
''

Utah Division of Wildlife Resources The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR) is part of the Utah Department of Natural Resources for the state of Utah in the United States. The mission of the Division of Wildlife Resources is to serve the people of Utah as trustee and guard ...

''.

Wildlife biologists estimate that the population on Gunnison Island (about 10,000) constitutes about 10–20% of the entire American white pelican population; there are also about 15,000 California gulls that nest on the island.Mr. Hall
The Great Salt Lake Page for Kids.
1984. Utah State Wildlife Policy. Historically, the island's remote location protected it from predators, which made it an ideal spot for ground-nesting birds. However, due to recent low lake levels, it is no longer an island; it is connected to shore by a land bridge which predators can use. The remoteness also forces the pelicans to travel or more to find fresh water and food. The pelicans typically fly east to the

Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge in Utah, established in 1928. The refuge is part of a national system of fee ownership lands purchased from willing sellers, mostly private property owners. The refuge encompass ...

, where the Bear River flows into the Great Salt Lake. In the bird refuge, the water's salinity is low enough that fish can live there. (The Great Salt Lake contains no fish.) The pelicans have also been known to fly south to

Utah Lake Utah Lake is a shallow freshwater lake in the center of Utah County, Utah, United States. It lies in Utah Valley, surrounded by the Provo- Orem metropolitan area. The lake's only river outlet, the Jordan River, is a tributary of the Great Sa ...

, about away. To get to their destinations, large flocks of adult pelicans ride

thermal A thermal column (or thermal) is a rising mass of buoyant air, a convective current in the atmosphere, that transfers heat energy vertically. Thermals are created by the uneven heating of Earth's surface from solar radiation, and are an example ...

s to a great height, then coast down to their destination.

History

Gunnison Island was named after John W. Gunnison, an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

and surveyor of the

valley in 1849. In the mid-1890s, artist and author

Alfred Lambourne Alfred Lambourne (February 2, 1850 – June 6, 1926) was an English-born American artist and author. In the 1860s, he and his family moved to the American West with the Mormon pioneers. He is best remembered for his paintings, but he also wrote ...

spent a year living in solitude on the island. From November 1895 to March 1896, he was alone. In March, a few enterprising individuals decided to harvest and sell the abundant

guano Guano (Spanish from ) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. Guano is a highly effective fertiliser due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. Guano was also, to a le ...

that the nesting birds left behind as

fertilizer A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from liming materials or other non-nutrient soil amendments. Man ...

. Lambourne included musings about these guano sifters in his work ''Our Inland Sea'', which he authored during his time on the island. Lambourne left the island early in the winter of 1896 along with the first group of guano sifters. The mining activity caused the pelicans to temporarily abandon Gunnison Island as a nesting site, though the gulls remained despite the human company. Because of the difficulty of obtaining the guano, however, and its tendency to dissolve in the rain and wash back into the Great Salt Lake, the guano industry was abandoned about ten years after it began.Lyndia Carter (June 1996
"Guano Sifters on Gunnison Island,"
''History Blazer''.

References

External links

Guano Sifters on Gunnison Island
(on official Utah History to Go website) {{authority control Landforms of Box Elder County, Utah Lake islands of Utah Great Salt Lake Protected areas of Box Elder County, Utah Uninhabited islands of Utah Islands of Utah

History

See also

References

External links