"An Enchanted Place"
“Everything was louder and brighter at night: the roar of the roller coaster and squeals of girls, the glitter of thousands of lights, the barbaric noises... Sometimes we slipped away from the stand for an after-dark swim, moving quietly among the reflected green and blue and lemon yellow of lights on the water’s metallic surface. Cradled in water warm as milk, we felt the sting of brine in every cut, and over us washed the secret, half-tainted shore breeze with its smell of the flats. To me it was an enchanted place.”
- Wallace Stegner
Operating during a period of major social, political, and economic change, Saltair benefited greatly from local boosters working across religious and political differences in the late 19th century. Newspaper "society" pages reported visits to Saltair by Utah’s upper crust. President Taft took a quick tour of the resort in 1909, and silent film star Rudolph Valentino brought a dance partner to the resort's famed dance floor in the 1920s. Church groups, social clubs, tourists, fraternal orders, couples, families, and friends enjoyed Saltair's attractions and amenities.
Saltair was no stranger to crime and vice. Pickpockets, cheaters, pranksters, kidnappers, and catcallers mingled in the crowds, and police responded to issues of public nudity and disorderly conduct. A few visitors drowned. An African American was kicked out of the resort because of his race in 1910, and some carnival games used racist stereotypes for entertainment. High winds and harsh winters made Saltair expensive to keep polished for each season, and a fire completely destroyed the first Saltair pavilion on April 22, 1925.
As a modern architectural and engineering marvel constructed on an environmental wonder, Saltair was a product of its time that appealed to a cross-section of local residents and tourists. A trip to Saltair was affordable to hourly wage earners. Saltair's architecture, ever-changing attractions, unique swimming experience, and quality live entertainment, provided the affordable transcendent escapism that visitors wanted.
