The Spiral Jetty
As a student at the University of Utah, I learned about a work of art, called the Spiral Jetty, that broke new ground in the art world. Robert Smithson created one of the first "Earth Works" or examples of "Environmental Art" in 1970. The Jetty is located in the Great Salt Lake off a remote spit of land called Rozel Point, 15.5 miles from the visitor center at the Golden Spike National Historical Site (which is approximately 75 miles north of SLC). The Spiral Jetty has spent most of it's existence under water. Smithson created this massive work with the intention that it would eventually be reclaimed by nature. It was never meant to be permanent. The act of seeing the Spiral Jetty was meant to be an encompassing adventure. The journey is as much a part of the experience as actually walking on the basalt rocks of the Jetty itself. After prolonged dourght, the Jetty reemerged from the waters of the Great Salt Lake in the fall of 2002. I can remember sitting in a darkened lecture hall listening, with no small amount of skepticism, to my crotchety old art history professor talk about the artisitic relevance of the Jetty. I had the rare opportunity to form an opinion from experiencing the earthwork itself.
My dad and I drove to the GSNHS after skiing at Snow Basin on Saturday. A notice at the visitor center warned that the Jetty was inaccessible due to drifting snow. We decided to risk the drive in our 4-wheel drive. We traveled across the wintery landscape past the Promontory Range on miles of class D dirt roads, crossing cattle guards and following our directions to the letter. The desolation of the country was softened by the smiles of the cows we passed en route. After we passed the second "No Trespassing" sign, the dirt roads devolved into a track passable only with a 4-wheel drive vehicle. We plowed through a wide open field in a quagmire of mud and cow shit avoiding dozens of cows lazily moving out of our way. The stench was overpowering. The mudshit was soon replaced by two tracks following the contour of the point cutting through the drifting snow. Had it not been for the rancher who drove this track to feed his cows, we would have never found the Jetty nor made it past the mud. We could see the lake to our left and the mountains of the Wasatch in the distance. Our truck navigated the roller coaster tracks slipping and sliding across the slope. As we slowly rounded the point we spotted the old mining trailer and rusting WWII Duck left as refuse by an oil company. An oil jetty left behind by the oil exploration, which lasted from the 1920's through the 1980's, was directly ahead. Somewhere a half mile down the muddy track lay the Spiral Jetty. The snow on the track had been worn off by the sun on the south side of the point. We located the Jetty and parked the car. Stretching out into the lake was a giant rock coil covered by an impenetrable layer of ice and salt. We hiked down the lava rocks to the shoreline. The brown and basalt rock hillside gave way to black lava rocks which turned a brilliant blue speckled with salt near the frozen lake. Ice pockmarked by salt melting through the surface gave the shoreline and Jetty an unearthly look.
It took about 30 minutes to walk to the end of the 1500 ft Spiral Jetty. Silence was absolute. Not a sound, save for the mild wind. Not a motion. It was as unearthly and beautiful a place as I have ever been. We had a couple hours of daylight left and felt it important to navigate the treacherous part of our trek before the sun went down. Standing at the end of the Jetty we would have burned a lot of time following the coil out. The water had frozen between the inner and outer coil. So, I took a few ginger steps to listen for cracks and hopped quickly from the inner to the outer coil. Dad followed. We stood there in a strange state of awe. With a few steps we had left the artwork, literally. One second we were immersed, standing in the middle of a huge ice-covered rock coil in the lake. A moment later we were standing outside the piece looking in... a strange feeling.
Within one year, I have been fortunate enough to have experienced two of the seminal earthworks in the world. Both the Lightning Field and the Spiral Jetty are about isolation. Both, as difficult as it may be to comprehend without experiencing them in person, are phenomenal pieces of art.
The fact I was able to see the Jetty, especially in winter after a snowfall, was a rare and wonderful experience. An experience few people have had or will have... as evidenced by the only other single set of footprints at the site.
A couple side notes:
The area around Promontory Point is a bird watching bonanza, The Bear River Bird Refuge. While driving through the refuge, we spotted numerous hawks and an owl perching on fence posts.
This part of Utah is also home to Thiokol, the company that builds the solid rocket boosters responsable for lifting the Space Shuttle into orbit.
