Special Places To Visit: The Tree of Utah

   On a vacation I decided to travel across the Great Salt Lake Desert of Utah.  This was west bound on I80.  Traveling across this desert stretch of highway made me think of how hard it would have been to travel across it in  wagon.  The vastness of the desert was incredible and for miles and miles that is all you saw.  Until about 25 miles east of Wendover and midway between the former railroad communities of Arinosa and Barro there appeared a giant sculpture. Talk about surprised.  After miles and miles of desolate salt flats, there ahead was a large sculpture.  I had to park and see what this was all about.  The sculpture was created by the Swedish artist Karl Momen in the 1980s and dedicated in 1986. The sculpture is 87 feet tall and is constructed mainly of concrete.  It consists of a squarish 'trunk' holding up six spheres that are coated with natural rock and minerals native to Utah. There are also several hollow sphere segments on the ground around the base.  Inscribed on the plaque are the words from Ode to Joy by Friedrich Schiller; also used as the chorus of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. It has been said that Momen was moved to create the 87-foot-tall tree after having a vision of a tree while driving across the desolate Bonneville Salt Flats.