“In 1888, the daily Salt Lake Herald-Republican reprinted a story from a Canadian paper. The headline? That a family of whales was flourishing in the Great Salt Lake.
The article went on to describe the efforts of one James Wickham — an English scientist — to create a whale oil industry in Utah by capturing two adult specimens near Australia and releasing them into the Great Salt Lake. True? No, but the idea caught on and became local folklore. The new film ‘Whales of the High Desert’ examines the story and asks what it means to believe that whales could ever thrive here, so far from the ocean.” - Radio West