Why West Jordan has a giant steel sugar beet

The large white-and-green object outside West Jordan’s community and arts center is not a turnip. It is Rooted, a steel sugar-beet sculpture forged by artist Laura Erekson and installed as permanent public art.

The first local sugar-beet planting dates to 1891, and the West Jordan Sugar Factory dates to 1916. The factory became a major local employer during the early and middle twentieth century. Beet harvests also reached into ordinary family life: schools gave students time away for digging season, and the Beetdiggers nickname carried the crop into local identity.

Rooted gives that history a present address. Its metal body and seven upward-reaching leaves stand north of the Canyon View Credit Union Community and Arts Center at 8105 South 2200 West. The work commemorates West Jordan’s agricultural and sugar-beet roots.

The sculpture is a commemorative work, not surviving factory machinery, and the arts center should not be mistaken for the old factory. Its value is simpler: a conspicuous object explains why sugar beets still appear in West Jordan’s public memory after fields and industrial work gave way to a much larger city.

Look for Rooted on the north side of the arts center. Check the city’s current venue information before relying on event access or building hours; the sculpture can tell the local story without turning the grounds into an always-open promise.