I realize this looks like Michael Heizer is taking advantage of some weird tectonic plate movement, or exploiting an abandoned construction site. But ho, ho dear reader…

This here is land art at its finest! In 1969, Virginia Dwan, Heizer’s art dealer, bought this plot of land and gave it to the artist to have his way with it. Personally, if someone gave me 60 acres of land I would probably build a giant mansion with a moat around it, but clearly Heizer and I have a difference of opinion because eighty miles from Las Vegas, in the vast Nevada desert, Heizer bulldozed and blasted two giant trenches on either side of Mormon Mesa.

The resulting valley spans 30 ft wide, 50 ft deep, and 1500 ft long. To make it, Heizer had to excavate 244,000 tons of rock and dirt, and for what? It’s just an empty ravine! Essentially, this artwork is less about what you see now than about what was taken away. It calls upon that finicky balance between nature and man, that often painful, tense relationship, the gaping distance between the two.

As any good businesswoman would (and no spellcheck, I do not mean business-man), Dwan saw this innovate earthwork piece as way to engage with the other type of green. Unfortunately for her, Heizer prohibited Dwan from selling the work and instead forced her to donate it to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. So now the MOCA owns a hole in the ground in the middle of Arizona. Pretty good deal for them, especially considering Heizer told them to not conserve it and that they should instead allow nature to take its course. But unlucky for ticket sales because Heizer has refused to exhibit photographs of the work in any museums, claiming you have to be there to experience it. So if you’re an adventurous soul and own a 4x4 vehicle, go see one of the largest, most original land art pieces that exists today...for no admission fee, at that.