Gunnison Island
Gunnison Island sits in the northwest part of the Great Salt Lake in Box Elder County, Utah. It is about 55 miles northwest of Salt Lake City and about 6 miles from the lake’s western shore. The island is an important nesting site for American white pelicans and California gulls. About 10,000 pelicans nest there, which is roughly 10–20% of the U.S. population, and about 15,000 gulls also nest on the island. Other nesters include the great blue heron, common raven, prairie falcon, and rock wren. In the late 1970s, Gunnison Island was set aside as a State Wildlife Management Area, and access is restricted to protect the nesting birds.
Historically, the island’s remoteness kept predators away and made it ideal for ground-nesting birds. Recently, very low lake levels created a land bridge that connects the island to shore, allowing predators to reach it. This means pelicans now have to travel long distances for water and food, often more than 30 miles. They typically fly east to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, where the water is less salty and fish live (the Great Salt Lake has no fish). Pelicans also sometimes fly south to Utah Lake, about 100 miles away, using thermals to soar high and glide to their destination.
Gunnison Island was named after John W. Gunnison, a 19th-century explorer who surveyed the area in 1849. In the mid-1890s, artist Alfred Lambourne lived there alone for about a year. From November 1895 to March 1896 he observed the birds and wrote about them. In March 1896, some people began harvesting the guano left by the nesting birds as fertilizer. Lambourne left with the first group of guano workers, and the mining briefly attracted attention. The industry was difficult and stopped after about ten years; the pelicans temporarily left the island, while the gulls stayed.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 17:59 (CET).