What exactly is this?
I’ve looked up sites and it looks like a lake. But other sites say the Humboldt River just dries up or disapears into a sink.
Is this a hole in the ground?
What is th SD?
It is a lake in the Spring during the winter-melt runoff, but at other times, it is simply a broad sandy, alkaline low spot where the Humboldt “River” spreads itself out and is absorbed by the sand.
Given the general nature of the region (hot, dry, desert), any water that remains at the surface evaporates pretty quickly.
It should be pointed out that river is a generous term for the amount of water flowing down the Humboldt. Numerous settlers talked of how it barely carried enough water to supply the livestock with a wagon train. Back East it would probably have been called Humboldt Creek.