{"id":311,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:32:05","latitude":41.435484000000002424712874926626682281494140625,"longitude":-112.6660845000000108484528027474880218505859375,"title":"Spiral Jetty and Developments on Utah’s Land
","subtitle":"","fullsize":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/cd252d38c99380cc3de51de2d965df25.jpg","address":"","all_locations":[],"zoom":5,"creator":["Susan Keenan Redd, Brigham Young University"],"description":"In 1970, Robert Smithson constructed his landart piece titled, Spiral Jetty, at Rozel Point on the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Smithson is known as an artist who sought to challenge the role that art played in the world and the ways in which society defined it and being at the forefront of new developments in landart and earthworks. Fascinated by high salt content the reddish tone of the Great Salt Lake, Smithson ventured to its shores and was enthralled by the awe inspiring effect of the desolate and raw landscape surrounding Rozel Point and the ways in which the world seemed to spiral around the lake’s surface in an all encompassing manner. Smithson sought to build his jetty out of the same earth to mimic the powerful effect of the land. Smithson hired contractor Bob Phillips to use his construction equipment to move 6,650 tons of basalt and earth into a spiral that extended into the lake’s salty, pink waters. Smithson took photographs of his Spiral Jetty, created a thirty-two-minute film of its creation, and wrote an essay in 1972 about the earthwork’s conception and formation. In 1971, Smithson’s Spiral Jetty became submerged in the salty water of the Great Salt Lake and did not emerge again until 2002. Because Smithson employed the use of photography, film, and writing to capture the essence of the Spiral Jetty, the earthwork’s image and reputation did not drown with the sculpture itself.
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\r\nAdditionally, Smithson acknowledge the effects that time and the environment would have upon his Spiral Jetty and incorporated the transformative powers of the Great Salt Lake as a key element of his composition and entropic message. As the Spiral Jetty is continually worn away through time and the salty water, the spiral’s meaning, the world’s understanding of it, and its seemingly endless conceptual depth continues to develop and expand beyond the physical structure and embody the thought provoking intentions of Smithson’s creation. Emphasizing the earth’s connection to all life, Smithson presented his piece, in part, as an allegory for humanity’s relationship to the world, nature, and time.
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\r\nThough his earthwork is unique in its composition, Smithson’s Spiral Jetty is reminiscent of previous usages and developments of the Utah’s land. Smithson’s interest in societal isolation and environmental separatism reflects the early pioneers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and their desire to leave the world they considered to be sinful. As these pioneers relied on the guiding influence of God in their journey, Smithson relied on the transformative effects of nature that enabled the jetty’s evolution through time. The Spiral Jetty is also connected to Utah’s rich history of mining. Smithson was fascinated by the earth’s geology and incorporated such interests in his Spiral Jetty. Utah’s mineral rich earth provides the perfect landscape for mining and smelting and, as a result, the state’s landscape is littered with mines that extract its resources. The Spiral Jetty resembles a similar physical connection to the earth as is seen in these mines. The Spiral Jetty, therefore, evokes a connection in its similarities and differences with previous uses and developments of the land and represents the way that Utah, and the American West, is ever changing.
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","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":"Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty is a larger than life spiral that has been constructed at Rozel Point on the Great Salt Lake in 1970. Constructed from the earth on which it was made, the Spiral Jetty represents Smithson’s personal philosophies that challenged the boundaries of art and the relationship between nature and humanity. Smithson’s Spiral Jetty serves to represent a common history of the use and development of Utah’s land, specifically in regards to the early Pioneers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and Utah’s mining heritage.
","website":"","related_resources":["Alberro, Alexander, Suzaan Boettger, Thomas Crow, Mark Linder, Ann Reynolds, Jennifer L. Roberts, Richard Sieburth, and Robert A. Sobieszek. Robert Smithson. Edited by Eugenie Tsai with Cornelia Butler. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004.
","Baker, George, Lynne Cooke, Bob Phillips, Catherine Phillips, Ann Reynolds, Lyle Shaw, Robert Smithson, and Diana Thater. Robert Smithson: Spiral Jetty. Edited by Lynne Cooke and Karen Kelly. New York: Dia Art Foundation, 2005.
","Beardsley, John. \"Traditional Aspects of New Land Art.\" Art Journal 42, no. 3 (1982): 226-32. doi:10.2307/776583.
","Cooke, Lynne, “A Position of Elsewhere.” In Robert Smithson: Spiral Jetty. Edited by Lynne Cooke and Karen Kelly. New York: Dia Art Foundation, 2005.
","Jamasmie, Cecilia. “Rio Tinto’s Kennecott Wins Clean Air Lawsuit in the US.” Mining.com, June 9, 2016. http://www.mining.com/rio-tintos-kennecott-wins-clean-air-lawsuit-in-the-us/.","Loe, Hikmet Sidney. The Spiral Jetty Encyclo: Exploring Robert Smithson’s Earthwork through Time and Place. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 2017.
","Phillips, Rick. \"The \"Secularization\" of Utah and Religious Competition.\" Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 38, no. 1 (1999): 72-82. doi:10.2307/1387585.
","Reynolds, Ann. “At the Jetty.” In Robert Smithson: Spiral Jetty. Edited by Lynne Cooke and Karen Kelly. New York: Dia Art Foundation, 2005.
","Reynolds, Ann. Robert Smithson: Learning from New Jersey and Elsewhere. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2003.
","Rio Tinto Kennecott. “Mine Access Road Opens.” 2014. https://www.kennecott.com/newsroom/copper-currents/mine-access-road-opens.","Roberts, Jennifer L. “The Taste of Time: Salt and Spiral Jetty.” In Robert Smithson. Edited by Eugenie Tsai with Cornelia Butler. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004.
","The Salt Lake Tribune. “Spiral Jetty: Building an Artistic Masterpiece for the Ages.” March 7, 2011. http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=51297857&itype=CMSID.","Smithson, Robert. “A Sedimentation of the Mind: Earth Projects (1968).” In Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings. Edited by Jack Flan. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1996.
","Smithson, Robert. “Entropy and the New Monuments.” In Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings. Edited by Jack Flam. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1996.
","Smithson, Robert. “The Spiral Jetty (1972).” In Robert Smithson: Spiral Jetty. Edited by Lynne Cooke and Karen Kelly. New York: Dia Art Foundation, 2005.
","“The Trek Across Iowa.” In Church History in the Fulness of Times: Student Manual. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2003. https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/language-materials/32502_eng.pdf?lang=eng.","“Utah in Isolation.” In Church History in the Fulness of Times: Student Manual. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2003. https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/language-materials/32502_eng.pdf?lang=eng."],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/cd252d38c99380cc3de51de2d965df25.jpg":{"id":1299,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson","description":" Earthwork Made of Basalt Rocks and Earth Found On-Site in 1970. | October 12, 2008. Flikr Commons. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. https://www.flickr.com/photos/poetarchitecture/27114042486/in/photolist-SVPjM1-SVPdXq-U9CwUW-SVPuGG-U9CAyj-SYCpYX-HdvBdE-HiYyc9-SYCuXK-SVPqwN.","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/cd252d38c99380cc3de51de2d965df25.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/8d55c28e4f134611e3efe62feeffed79.jpg":{"id":1300,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Salt Lake Valley","description":"Pioneers descending Little Mountain into their New Homeland where through the magic of irrigation the Desert were made 'to blossom as a rose.' America's inland Sea, Great Salt Lake is shown in the background. 1930-1941. | L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/Jackson/id/3438/rec/3. | William Henry Jackson","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/8d55c28e4f134611e3efe62feeffed79.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/45a073273a1c75befa12b72231f9c668.jpg":{"id":1301,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Spiral Jetty","description":"Flikr Commons. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. https://www.flickr.com/photos/24008363@N08/2278839874/in/photolist-5ZcYj7-3ebyHo-4tnDGE-6tmrKE-6tmqB1-4toFkj-4tj35i-oCBRdw-omkXkV-oEApTH-xGaDE7-oCyKBK-6tmsm5-yDc3bZ-ymFhPr-ymFjrV-yDWepR-HiYyc9-21ozvdi. | September 17, 2005 | David O. Higher Stevens","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/45a073273a1c75befa12b72231f9c668.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/6973b89a3b2a57e69b40d67d628c8687.jpg":{"id":1302,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Bingham Canyon","description":"Flikr Commons. https://www.flickr.com/photos/woodhead/12369136184/in/photolist-853266-8VMUXb-zQYujx-dyspuS-dymVLe-cD3B7j-cD3HjL-cD3Byh-dyspou-6WhS3-pcG1mj-8T5Rf-8T5R7-8T5QM-dbsDuj-dbsD9u-dbsErv-dbsCHo-4zNEvq-763WU-763yJ-jR24fG-cD3J2h-4nTVGn-2J4m8p-6WhS1-dbsFW8-Ec9Ygc-Ec9YLF-Do1gxi-zhWKjf-dbsDRb-Fu8W3w-GYU6TY. | February 7, 2014 | Jason Woodhead","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/6973b89a3b2a57e69b40d67d628c8687.jpg"}}}