The first of a planned series of landscape observation cameras was installed recently on top of a tower at the CLUI complex in Wendover, Utah. The installation was performed by Wendover artist in residence Christa Erickson and CLUI staffer Erik Knutzen. The camera is contained in a heated and cooled weatherproof housing in order to withstand the temperature extremes of the area. It is trained due south, observing the salt flats and airfield.

“You’ll see long periods of stasis, with the light changing, and weather rolling through, punctuated by occasional military maneuvers, custom car racing, and runway construction,” said Knutzen. “If you’re lucky, you might even get to see the fire department set a car or trailer on fire.”

Connecting the salt flats to the world through a dedicated phone line recalls a similarly monumental act performed at Wendover in 1914, when a telephone company engineer spliced together the two sets of wires that completed the first transcontinental telephone cable in the country. The fact that the engineers’ name was Knudsen, similar to the CLUI’s Knutzen, is, no doubt, just a coincidence. The Wendover Landcam will be accessible off the CLUI website.