West Desert
The West Desert, also called the Great Salt Lake Desert, is an expanse of salt flats and mountain ranges to the West of the Great Salt Lake. The flat pan surface is the former lake bed of the Pleistocene-era Lake Bonneville, which covered a huge expanse in the Great Basin. The Desert includes the Bonneville Salt Flats and several smaller mountain ranges including the Cedar, Lakeside, Silver Island, and Hogup Mountains. Most of the region receives less than eight inches of precipitation per year, with cold winters and hot summers. The surface of the salt pan sits at 4,250 feet above sea level. The U.S. military’s Utah Test and Training Range occupies the northern portion of the Desert. The West Desert was a significant impediment to wagon trains on the Overland Trails to California. In the 1840s and 1850s the Hastings Cutoff became popular, which crossed the desert to the South of the Lake and was shorter than the traditional route around the North side of the Lake. The 1846 Donner Party’s delays in crossing the West Desert likely contributed to them facing early season snows in the Sierra Nevada. On the western boundary of the Desert stands Pilot Peak, which emigrants would focus on as a destination (water could be found at the base of the mountain, after many dry miles) at the conclusion of this difficult and dangerous trek. Goshute and Western Shoshone peoples have made a living off the meager resources of the West Desert since time-out-of-memory.
Click here for the full oral history with Terry Tempest Williams
Terry Tempest Williams is a writer and activist, who was born in California and raised in Salt Lake. In this interview, she talks about her family’s history in Utah and growing up near the Great Salt Lake. She also talks about developing an interest in nature at an early age. She discusses her education, her mentors, and her time as a student at the University of Utah. She talks about her work with the Utah Museum of Natural History and her career as an educator. Terry goes on to describe the process of writing her book Refuge. She also discusses her involvement with the University of Utah’s Environmental Humanities Program. Finally, Terry describes some of her favorite places and memories of the Great Salt Lake.
"Crossing the Great Salt Lake Desert from Simpson's Spring to Short cut Pass, Granite Mountain in the distance." Illustrations of the Captain James H. Simpson expedition in 1859, H.V.A. von Beckh was the artist with the expedition in 1859, and J.J. Young made the finished water colors. Courtesy of the National Archives, Washington D.C. From the Classified Photograph Collection, Copyright Utah State Historical Society.
Just west of Grassy Mountain. Donor & Photog: Charles Kelly. From the Classified Photograph Collection, copyright Utah State Historical Society.
Click here for the full oral history with Hikmet Loe
Hikmet Loe is an artist, writer, and teacher who draws her inspiration from the land. Born and raised on the east coast, Hikmet moved to Utah in the early 1980s. In the 70s, Hikmet received her undergraduate degree in Art History from Penn State, and later received her master’s in Art History from Hunter College in New York City. Hikmet's master thesis, An Intermittent Illusion: Local Reaction to Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, sparked her lifetime involvement with Robert Smithson’s work, and with landscape art in Utah. Currently, Hikmet works as a professor at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, as well as with CLUI (Center for Land Use Interpretation), and with the Dia Art Foundation. In this interview, Hikmet speaks at length about her involvement with the Spiral Jetty, Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels, and about her interpretation of Utah land and beauty.
Shadscale Desert beyond Grayback Mountain, looking west toward Pilot Peak. Donor & Photog: Charles Kelly. From the Classified Photograph Collection, copyright Utah State Historical Society.
Click here for the full oral history with Matt Coolidge
In this interview, Matt Coolidge describes his early travels in and experiences of the west. He talks about becoming involved with art. Matt discusses founding the Center for Land Use Interpretation in Wendover. He lists the people involved in the beginning, as well as the process of starting the organization. He describes the Center and its environment. He also talks about some of the artists who have been residents, the work they’ve done, and describes the residency itself. Through CLUI, Matt is also involved with centers and programs across the country. He details the center’s exploration of the Great Salt Lake area. He describes the Great Salt Lake Land Scan and the process of creating it. Matt then discusses artists who have worked at and around Great Salt Lake, specifically Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt. At the end of the interview, he gives the interviewers a tour of CLUI while talking about land use issues relevant to the west.
