(This is the third story in an album I am building. For more information, please go to the website homebrave.com.)

I think of this story as a cultural history of the Great Salt Lake Desert, the big landscape just west of my home in Salt Lake City. It used to be covered by an inland sea the size of Lake Michigan, but the climate changed and the water evaporated, leaving only salt.

The introduction is from “Roughing It,” by Mark Twain. He crossed this desert in a stagecoach in 1861.

The West Desert, edited by Art Silverman and Larry Massett, was broadcast in 1989 on “The Wild Room,” a weekly show out of WBEZ in Chicago, hosted by Gary Covino and Ira Glass.

I invite everyone to listen to these stories for free and then decide if they are worthy of a donation. If so, please go to the website homebrave.com and look for the DONATE button.