White House spotlights Utah, U.S. national parks

WASHINGTON — Utah's natural beauty is helping the White House with its "Holiday in the National Parks" theme for 2007 Christmas decorations, unveiled Thursday by first lady Laura Bush.

A painting of a spectacular waterfall in Zion National Park is a highlight of the decorations, which use landscapes, monuments and historical sites from national parks all over the country, including 11 from Utah.

In the Blue Room, 347 ornaments decorate the official White House Christmas tree. The White House sent a blank ball ornament to each park, which in turn asked an artist to decorate it in a way that represented that park.

The decorated ornaments on the 18-foot tree represent Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Zion National Parks, along with Dinosaur, Hovenweep, Natural Bridges and Timpanogos Cave National Monuments. The Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and the Golden Spike National Historic Site in Utah also have ornaments on the tree, according to the White House.

Other ornaments recognize the new Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania, where a plane crashed during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks; the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, also known as the Gateway Arch in St. Louis; Joshua Tree National Park in California; the New Orleans Jazz Historic Park; and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

Jeffrey Lowe, 44, a Brigham City artist who teaches art at Roy High School in Weber County, painted the Golden Spike ornament.

It took him about 15 hours to complete, but he had only a few days to do it, Lowe said. Because the site commemorates the completion of this nation's first transcontinental railroad, Lowe said using the two trains on the globe was an easy solution.

The White House provided gold spheres for the artists to use, so Lowe masked portions of the ball, then painted over it so there are gold flashes coming out from under the paint.

"It was kind of fun," he said.

Meanwhile, Shannon Eberhard, 23, of Rockville, Washington County, painted the Zion ornament. Hers is "classic yet stylized," she said, using a stained-glass-like approach to show the horizons off different cliffs in the park.

Eberhard traveled to Washington, D.C., for a reception for the artists Wednesday. The White House took a photo of all of those who came in front of the tree, although Eberhard's ornament is pretty close to the top.

After the holidays, the ornaments will go to the National Archives, she was told.