Thank you for that fascinating history! I knew a little about Saltair, as my family goes back about five generations in Utah; I have a photo of my great-grandmother there, and I've heard stories about when it was the coolest place in town. I think there used to be a dedicated train line that went out there, since it's so far out of town. But I never really knew what led to its decline, so this was a fascinating read.
Have you ever seen The Giant Brine Shrimp? It's an old short stop-motion monster film, and I think it's meant to be a parody of monster films but it is as dull as spit. Still, it's interesting as one of the only other films to feature the Saltair. If you've any interest in seeing it, you can watch it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEQd17JjxxU&list=PL1126F751CEDD2B18&index=1. The Saltair first appears at about 1:20.
Unfortunately, the current Saltair is interesting only as the worst concert venue in Utahbadly managed, miles from anywhere, not nearly enough parking, and the whole place smells like the Great Salt Lake (not a compliment). But they get some pretty big names; I've seen the Lumineers and Mumford & Sons there. In case you were curious what the Saltair III is up to today.

Thanks very much. There's a lot of intrigue there.

Great write up and thanks for sharing. I always love abandoned places as I used to explore some in east Texas where I lived years ago. I would of loved to see the two earlier versions of the Saltair Pavilliona although I guess the third one is still around so far. ;)Cheers!

Just wow! Thank for the background history on the place diddleysquat-1! The story behind all 3 are just as eerie as this film. I just finished watching the film and was wanting some background information on the Saltair when I noticed your thread. The story behind the Saltair makes the film "Carnival of Souls" more, well, realistic (in so-to-speak).
"I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me." ~ The Invisible Man

Great post!

I managed to hunt down a few pages online.
Try this link:
http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/sanborn-jp2/id/800/rec/287
and this one:
http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/sanborn-jp2/id/998/rec/288
and this
http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/sanborn-jp2/id/1782/rec/289
You have to enlarge the images. Full size they are huge!

Would love to see those blueprints.

The Criterion DVD of the film has a thorough documentary of the pavilion.
Has anyone placed that on Youtube?
Non-sequiturs are delicious.

The Criterion DVD of the film has a thorough documentary of the pavilion.

There's an awful lot of history there. If you ever do get a chance to get the two-disc special edition, you get a brief history of Saltair itself, the first and the second, and a lot of very interesting facts about the location at the time of the filming. That part is available nowhere else.
Not only that but the qualify of the original movie is amazing, with images as crisp and clean as if made in modern times. It's quite amazing what they did with it.

I'd like to eventually own that but I only have a collection on one DVD. My husband got it for me one Christmas one year along with a Roger Corman collection.
I am checking out the history of Saltair. Such a sad history!
"Fasten your seat belts!
It's going to be a bumpy night!"

It would be hard to find anything more fascinating or full of intrigue than the history of the old Saltair(s). The collector's special edition of the movie has a lot of special material, including a good bit of background about the making of the film and some about the setting, as well. It's worth the price, honestly.

Thank you for sharing your research. This is very interesting. I just watched this film again the other day. Your post got me curious!
"Fasten your seat belts!
It's going to be a bumpy night!"

Saltair is a fascinating and spooky place, isn't it? I visited it on a whim while in SLC in the early 2000s. There were very few people there, and the sense of isolation and desolation was striking. For an Easterner like me, that feeling is accentuated by the dry, barren surroundings, which feel otherworldly anyway, without any help from mysterious abandoned buildings. Unfortunately, I wasn't familiar with COS at the time, or the experience would have been even eerier.
By the way, I was equally fascinated by the weird sculpture isolated in the desert by the side of I-80, west of Salt Lake. I think it's called the "Tree of Life". I also seem to remember passing a massive, abandoned (?) salt or nitrate plant out in the middle of nowhere a little further west on the Interstate. And I was very aware that Dugway Proving Grounds were somewhere not far off to the south.
In other words, I came away with the impression of Utah as a bizarre, creepy place, and I mean that as a compliment.

Amazing report! There's hardly a spot on the planet with a more fascinating or eerie history. I'm too far from the scene to go out there myself and explore, much as I'd like to. Maybe one day. But your account of your visit there is very, very much appreciated.
Should you ever get a chance to go back and take pictures or video to post online, I'd love to see it.

Wow, glad I found this thread.
I remember seeing this movie a few years back and I liked it.
I happen to be from the Salt Lake City area. I live about 20 miles from Great Salt Lake and just last Sunday the 27th, on kind of a whim, my girlfriend and I got curious about old Saltair, and decided to drive out there. It was finally destroyed by fire the year I was born, 1970, so I never got to see it. I have been to, and or driven past Saltair III many times and just never thought much about it. They have an occasional concert there, and a gift shop with some cool postcards and photos, etc., and of course, salt water taffy :).
Anyway, we got out to the site on the frontage rd. off of I-80. You have to park, and walk through a small gate to walk out there. The two "earthen projections" as they are called, still extend outward toward the lake. The northern one was part of a drainage system, and the southern one, is the actual approach to what used to be Saltair. They are mostly just gravel, rocks, and weeds now, and a lot of broken up concrete. The lake has been receding for several years due to drought, and the water is a good mile and a half from the road, so you can walk down from the raised area, onto the lake bed. There is a lot of area there which as recently as the early to mid 90's was completely covered by water, so it is a little soft and mushy. I have to say, it is eerie to walk across that surface. You all may have seen the old photos of people floating and swimming in the lake, with that massive palace in the background. You can just see it in your imagination! It's like something that was there for so long, and occupied that much space, had to leave some ghosts behind
As of now, there is a lot of debris there, some boards, wires, bricks, pieces of wood. Others have said that if you look around, you can find old dishes there from the caf. Didn't see any of those, though What is left behind are a lot of the pilings that Saltair sat on. There are a few taller, ornately carved posts visible also. You can follow perfect rows of pilings along the ground which formed the piers, along with some slanted boards which I imagine were the stairways from the pier directly down to the water. We followed them out until they once again disappeared into the lake.
Really an interesting and fun afternoon out there. Kind of sad also, and most definitely spooky! I can see why the director of Carnival of Souls wanted to use the pavilion. It definitely added much to the movie

One of those gargantuan, robber-baron/gilded-age edifices from the cusp of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Like old Penn Station. Just humongous.
Thanks for posting.
Non-sequiturs are delicious.

It's cool to read about the history of the site. Thanks for taking the time to research and post about it!
They'll hang you as sure as 10 dimes will buy a dollar

Very cool. Looks positively scary!

This may be the next best thing to real
in 3D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miuq_zNGyG4

I live one state away from the old Saltair and never saw Saltair II during it's life, other than in the movie. But like you, I'm originally from the east - New Jersey. In fact, we lived very close to Asbury Park where that old Palace Amusement Park stood for so many years. That's fascinating, too, but there's something extra-special about the old Saltair.
If you get the Criterion Edition of Carnival of Souls - released in the last couple of years with dazzling clear video and audio - you'll see an interview with the producer, Hank Hervey, in which he explains how he got drawn into it.
The size of the grand pavilion was immense, much bigger than photos or movie can show. Hervey caught sight of it driving along I-81 when it stood against the sunset nearly a mile off the road. It was massive and dark and totally still against the late afternoon sun and the breeze from the lake behind it. The contrast between the sunlit water and beaches and the dark, foreboding presence of Saltair had to impress. He called it the "spookiest" location he had ever seen.
It's worth watching the extras if you're inclined to buy the new (not cheap) criterion edition of the movie. Hervey and the cast and crew offer lots of fascinating stories - not about Saltair's history but about the filming of the movie. Amazing stuff!

Wow. Thank you so much for sharing such detailed information! I can see how you got sucked into it. I have long been fascinated by the backdrop of this film. I live in Philadelphia and it reminds me of my childhood memories of Wildwood NJ, Atlantic Cty and Coney Island of the 60's-70's. This relic of a place totally warranted developing a story around it. Still love this movie!

thanks for this interesting info.

I just looked at the video from Channel 5 about the wild parties at Saltair. It actually aired on the 9th of March 2011. Sorry. I thought it was last year!