World Map from the old Salt Lake City airport preserved in a new home
Aug 26, 2024, 6:00 PM
The world map, which was in the former airport for 60 years, is pictured reinstalled in the Concourse B Plaza at the new Salt Lake City International Airport in Salt Lake City on Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. It will be open to the public when Phase 3 opens on Oct. 22, 2024. (Kristin Murphy/Deseret News)
(Kristin Murphy/Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — The beloved World Map from the old Salt Lake Airport has been safely moved to its new home.
That home is in Concourse B of the new airport, right by the escalator in the central tunnel.
John Kunz was the stone mason who helped pull this off. He says at first they weren’t totally sure they could safely remove and preserve the 64-year-old map. It used to sit near the TSA checkpoint.
“As we took the first piece out and found that there was a fabric separation as a crack isolation, it really ensured us that, ‘ok, we can do this,” Kunz said.
Kunz says they had to cut the giant stone map into 75 pieces. Each of those pieces weighed about 400 pounds.
The map sat in storage for a few years until the portion of the airport it’s now in was built.
“It’s been quite the pleasure to work on and to see the history involved in the map and to see it continue,” Kunz said.
Kunz says now that it’s back together, it could last “hundreds of years. It could last forever.”
The section of the airport housing the map will open to the public on October 22nd.
Read more: National Park Service celebrates 108th anniversary
