I love those days that you look out the window and just decide it would be a great time to get out of the house and go on a road trip. North of our home and on the Rozel Point of the Great Salt Lake is an earthwork sculpture named the Spiral Jetty. It was constructed in l970 by Robert Smithson who used black basalt rock, salt crystals and mud collected from the area in the construction process. The Spiral Jetty forms a 1,500-foot-long , 15-foot wide counterclockwise coil jutting out from the shore. Originally the site was chosen because of the blood-red color of the water and its connection with the primordial sea. The red hue of the water is due to the presence of salt-tolerant bacteria and algae that thrive in the extreme 27 percent salinity of the lake's north arm.
When built, the lake was moving to a high level mark that eventually put the jetty under water. Since then the lake has receded quit a bit and the pink-red tint has moved farther away. You can walk out onto it and follow the spiral around.
This is one of my favorite photos of the lake, taken just down the road from the Jetty. You can see some old pilings for a pier leading onto the lake which is now far in the distance.
When Smithson died in l999, his estate donated the the Jetty to the Dia Art Foundation of New York. Kind of a strange fact. The State of Utah now has ownership.
I can't believe that I had never been here before! Obviously, there is still a lot to see in my own back yard.
I just love these photos. What an interesting place. I wonder if he knew the sculpture would eventually be under water when he built it? Interesting how that has completely turned around.
ReplyDelete