22,200 B.C.: Lake Bonneville, Stansbury level, 245 feet deep.16,000 B.C.: Lake Bonneville, Bonneville level, 1,020 feet deep, as the climate becomes wetter.
14,800 B.C.: Lake Bonneville breaks through at Red Rock Pass, Idaho, making an outlet into the Snake Drive Drainage. Its level rapidly decreases.
14,200 B.C.: Lake Bonneville, Provo level, 640 feet deep.
10,800 B.C.: Lake Bonneville, Gilbert level, 75 feet deep, as a drier climage exists.
10,000 B.C.: The first humans may have arrived at the lake.
8,000-10,000 B.C.: The modern Great Salt Lake emerges.
A.D. 1776: Spanish explorers Escalante and Dominguez hear tales of a bitter sea that connects with Utah Lake.
1824: Jim Bridger and Etienne Provost become the first recorded white men to see the lake.
1843: John C. Fremont and Kit Carson explore the lake and visit Fremont and Antelope islands.
1847: First pioneers bathe in the lake.
1870: Lakeside and Lake Shore, the first two bathing resorts on the Great Salt Lake, emerge.
1873: The lake level reaches a historic high of almost 4,212 feet above sea level.
1890: Dropping lake levels decrease crowds to the lakeshore resorts.
1896: State gets ownership of the lake.
1903: Lucin railroad causeway cutoff is built near Promontory.
1963: The lake level drops to 4,191 feet above sea level.
1964: Most of the causeway to Antelope Island is built.
1969: The Antelope Island causeway opens.
1983: Rising lake levels close the Antelope Island causeway. (It was also temporarily washed out during numerous storms from 1969-1983.)
1986-87: Lake level almost reaches 4,212 feet.
1987-89: Pumps operate to lower the level of the lake.
1993: The causeway to Antelope Island reopens after reconstruction.
1997: The lake begins to rise again.
1999: The lake's level rises 1.5 feet since 1998.