Existing comment:
The capital rotunda reaches 165 feet at its highest point. The chain you see is 95-feet, weighs 7000 pounds, and supports a 6000-pound chandelier. There are twelve paintings, including the ones in the corners and the mural on top, were done by the WPA during the Depression. The mural was painted elsewhere and then attached here. They both depict early scenes of the founding of Utah. The big painting on the left shows the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition of 1776 which resulted in the first documentation of the area. On the right is John Fremont who mapped the area for the federal government. The mural shows other scenes. Just to the right of the chandelier chain is the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. The one of the left of it shows "the miracle of the gulls", where seagulls came in and destroyed a grasshopper plague during the early harvests here in the area. |