Landscapes of Extraction: The Art of Mining in the American West

Landscapes of Extraction: The Art of Mining in the American West explores the evolution of the art of mining, with works from the 1910s through today that depict regional landscapes of enterprise and examine how mining has altered the natural environment on a spectacular scale.

Throughout modern history, the mining industry has transformed the American West, competing with the scenic landscape on its own terms. In the first half of the 20th century, large-scale and open pit mines across Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah dramatically altered the natural environment and dictated the lives of those who worked in them, with cyclical booms that provided employment for generations of families and economic crashes that often left ghost towns and mass unemployment in their wake.

In the Copper State, mining has been fundamental to Arizona’s regional identity since the time of statehood in 1912, when an economy built around the five C’s—cattle, cotton, citrus, climate, and copper—began to take shape. In fact, mining, ranching, agriculture, and tourism still significantly define Arizona’s cultural identity, even today.

Over the decades, mining has continued to shape natural landscapes across the western United States, creating striking views in their own right. However, public knowledge on the destructive environmental and health effects of mining, as well as its massive impact on social, economic, and political systems, has increased, revealing the vexed legacy of the industry.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

Image credit: ​Erika Osborne, The Chasm of Bingham. Oil on linen, 48" x 90"