Robert Smithson’s ‘Spiral Jetty’ Added to National Register of Historic Places

Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, the renowned 54-year-old Land art installation on Utah’s Great Salt Lake, has officially been added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Overseen by the National Park Service, a subdivision of the U.S. Department of the Interior, the list recognizes places of national importance. The addition of Spiral Jetty to the list will make it easier to preserve the piece in the long term.

Smithson created the installation in 1970, just three years before his death. At the time, he was using the concept of entropy as the basis for his works—looking at the ways natural elements and manufactured spaces interact and then eventually decay.

Spanning 1,500 feet, Smithson executed the piece using 6,000 tons of black basalt and dug-up ground from the site. He arranged these materials into 15-foot-wide curves and made them semi-permanent by using crystallized salt to bind the elements. Initially, depending on the time of year and the weather, water sometimes consumed parts of the piece. More recently, as the water levels have shifted, the work has become drier.

In a statement, Jessica Morgan, director of the Dia Art Foundation, which has Spiral Jetty since 1999, said, “We are delighted that Spiral Jetty has received this important recognition, which will help us spread awareness of the iconic artwork and advocate for its long-term preservation.”

Dia preserves and oversees the work alongside the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, the Great Salt Lake Institute, and the Holt/Smithson Foundation, with support from Utah’s Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands.

“This designation further supports our work to preserve the piece as Smithson envisioned, while recognizing the surrounding natural environment as integral to its meaning,” said Jordan Carter, a Dia curator.

The National Register, established in 1966, includes more than 95,000 sites across the country. Also on the list are monuments and statues, though Spiral Jetty is believed to be the first piece of Land art to earn the designation.