Who was the first white person in the US to explore the great salt lake?

Um... God? The Great Salt Lake is a natural, not a manmade lake, so nobody really invented it, they discovered it.

Native Americans knew about the lake for hundreds or thousands of years before white men knew about it. The Timpanogos Utes told Spanish explorer Silvestre Escalante about the lake in 1776, he wrote about it in his notes, but never saw it or named it. It was first seen by white men in 1824 - the men were trappers Jim Bridger and Etienne Provost.