It is said to be possible to see the curvature of the Earth at the horizon.Ī large proportion of the Salt Lake Desert is used by the military Hill Air Force Base to the north and the Wendover Gunnery Range to the south, and there have been many reports of the damage done to the land by the last 40 years of weapons testing. However, a rather more spectacular sight is provided by the great expanse of salt flats, remnants of the former Lake Bonneville, that extend south and west from the lake - this huge desert is almost completely white and level for over a hundred miles in some directions. However, in 2011 he proposed creating a visitors center at the location with construction costs being paid for by donations.The lake is famous for its high salinity (which varies between 10 and 25%), second only to the Dead Sea of Israel, but like the Salton Sea in California, the water tends to be rather smelly and this is not in general a place for swimming or sunbathing.

įollowing the dedication of this work of art, Momen donated the sculpture to the State of Utah and returned to Sweden. It has been said that Momen was moved to create the 87-foot-tall (27 m) tree after having a vision of a tree while driving across the desolate Bonneville Salt Flats. Inscribed on the plaque are the words from Ode to Joy by Friedrich Schiller also used as the chorus of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The sculpture currently has a fence surrounding the base to protect people from falling tiles. There are also several hollow sphere segments on the ground around the base. The sculpture, which is constructed mainly of concrete, consists of a squarish 'trunk' holding up six spheres that are coated with natural rock and minerals native to Utah. It is located in the desolate Great Salt Lake Desert of Utah on the west bound side of Interstate 80, about 25 miles (40 km) east of Wendover and midway between the former railroad communities of Arinosa and Barro. Metaphor: The Tree of Utah, sometimes called the Tree of Life, is an 87-foot-tall (27 m) sculpture that was created by the Swedish artist Karl Momen in the 1980s and dedicated in 1986.

Utah salt flats location on map