Salvation Mountain, Slab City and the Salton Sea

This is another post working toward getting caught up. These visits actually took place in late December and early January.

This picture above is from Salvation Mountain at Slab City. It's a quirky place with a man made mountain built by the late Leonard Knight. Obviously the creator had a very defined religious message that is seen everywhere.

The mountain is made of adobe, straw, and thousands of gallons of lead-free paint 

The Folk Art Society of America declared A Mountain "a folk art site worthy of preservation and protection".

I mentioned that the mountain is in Slab City. This area got is name from the leftover concrete slabs after World War II Marine barracks of Camp Dunlop

closed down and dismantled.

Today this area is one of the most unique places in America. It is inhabited by mostly permanent RVers in every type of vehicle imaginable. There is no sewer, water or electricity, and there are no codes or zoning and no police. It is like being on another planet.

They say it is mostly inhabited by artists, and there is a lot of unique painting and structures, but I think it is more like the morning after a crazy frat party where you try to remember getting that new tattoo and the name of the person you woke up next to 🙀 When asked about it, you just say it's art.

Not far from Slab City is the Salton Sea. This was once one of the premier summer destinations for wealthy Los Angelinos. 

If you have ever read about this area you were probably left with the impression this was a hazardous waste land where the smell is so bad you can hardly stand to breathe the air. The picture above is the sand on the beach which is actually the crushed bone remains of millions of dead fish. 

Yet we found it to be very sand like and not at all smelly. It was picturesque reminiscent of an alpine lake, surrounded by mountains.

To begin with the Salton Sea is 236 feet BELOW sea level. It first came into being in 1905 when flooding on the Colorado River destroyed part of a canal system, forcing millions upon millions of gallons of water into the lowland area where the Salton Sea now sits. Far more devastating than one breach, the entire volume of the river continued to flow into the Salton lowlands for nearly two years before engineers were able to stop it. By that time, one of the world's largest inland seas had been created.

By the 1950s, the Salton Sea became a tourist attraction, enticing vacationers to enjoy its shores. Over the decades, though, rising salinity and agricultural runoff began to deter visitors as the health of the Salton Sea declined.

Today the sea is still a prominent destination for fishing, recreational hosting and bird watching. Over 400 species of birds have been documented at the Salton Sea. It supports 30% of the remaining population of the American white pelican.

While not what it once was, the Salton Sea is the subject of significant interest by government authorities. Initiated by the late Sonny Bono, work continues to find ways to return the sea to it's former glory and make it an asset to the surrounding population.

That's it for this post. Next up is Joshua Tree NP.

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