Antelope Island is the biggest island in the Great Salt Lake. It has many kinds of animals. People go there to ride bikes, go sailing, hike, see animals, and many other things. It has an interesting history too.

Antelope Island was named for the Antelope that explorers John Fremont and Kit Carson found on the island in 1843. It has also been called Porpoise Island and Church island too. The Gosiute and Fremont Indians lived there long ago. Daddy Stump was one of the first people to live there in modern times. Fielding Garr was a pioneer who built a ranch house in 1848. It is still standing today. He kept cows and horses on Antelope Island and it has been used for cattle grazing. Some people made homes on the island like George Frary, who lived there for over 50 years. William Glassman brought bison to the island in 1893. The Island Improvement company owned the island from 1884-1972 and a lot of sheep and cattle were raised there. A plane crashed on Antelope Island in 1944. Antelope Island State Park was made in 1969 and in 1981, the whole island was bought by the State of Utah. In the 1980's there were lots of floods which wrecked the road going to Antelope Island, but it was later rebuilt. A bison roundup started in 1987 and is still done today.

Antelope Island is about 15 miles long and 5 miles wide. It has mountains too with very old rock. You can see some places where Lake Bonneville once was. It has some areas of grassland and sagebrush, but also has some beach areas and little streams with river-like areas that help the animals.

People like to use Antelope Island a lot for hiking and biking. There are places to swim and camp too, though there are lots of brine flies. Some people like to see the sunsets or take pictures. You can even ride horses. To get there, people have to go on a 7 mile road over the lake and pay a few dollars to get in. This helps pay for keeping the island nice. Some people go sailing and you can also take a boat to see the lake from Antelope Island too. About 400,000 people visit there every year. Many of them are not from Utah.

Of course, Antelope Island is famous for its animals and bison. Learn about them by clicking here. Here are some views ot the island.
This is from the north side.

This is from the southwest side

This is from the east side.

Antelope Island pictures courtesy of Martin Cuma.

You can also see Antelope Island close up. You need the quicktimevr plugin which you can get by clicking here

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