The Salton Sea & Slab City: Life, Death & Hope In The Badlands
I first heard about the Salton Sea, a few years ago. I stumbled across the only then recently released documentary Bombay Beach (2011), and was immediately fascinated by this strange community of people living on the edge of a dead lake in the middle of the Colorado Desert, in Southern California. Living in a hotchpotch of shacks and trailer parks, in among the bygone skeletal relics of a failed 1950s resort development , much of it half submerged in the waters of the large saline lake. The placed seemed to be the quintessence of a David Lynch movie spliced with a Daniel Clowes comic book, seen through the eyes of the bastard child of Wim Wenders and Terrence Malick who’d been abandoned on the stoop of one of the derelict shacks as a baby. With an ever looping Tangerine Dream remix of Ry Cooder’s “Paris, Texas” soundtrack, produced and arranged by John Carpenter. At any moment you expect Harry Dean Stanton to wander in from the middle of the desert, swigging on a gallon bottle of water, followed by Sissy Spacek in a thin strappy dust stained summer dress. A battered RV rolls down the road with duct-taped windows to block out the searing desert sun, from the vampires lurking inside.
You get the picture, for me the Salton Sea and the nearby Slab City (more on that later) embodied everything I loved about an aspect of America that had always appealed to me. The eccentric outsiders and rebels skirting the edges of ‘normal’ society choosing to live out their lives in the harsh and relentless badlands. In fact part of the Salton Sea sits in Riverside County, which also is home to the San Timoteo Badlands mountain range. As soon as I watched Bombay Beach, and the earlier John Waters narrated Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea (2004), I was sold on the place 100%. It immediately went to the top of must visit list. Not the by any stretch of the imagination would it appear on most people’s bucket lists of places they want to visit. Most people haven’t even heard of the place. I tried to talk to some of my American friends about my discovery, expecting them to laugh heartily at me, and wonder why I’d not heard of the place earlier. To my surprise, almost to a man every single one of them looked at me blankly. They knew nothing of the Salton Sea, and looked even more confused when I eulogized about my love of this newly discovered treasure of lost Americana.
Many visitors to the area come from the direction of LA. Heading east, past Palm Springs (The Salton Sea in its hey-day was supposed to be Palm Springs by-the-sea). Hitting State Highway 111, to Mecca, a small community on the northern tip of the Salton Sea that featured in Roger Corman’s infamous 1966 biker movie The Wild Angels. Skirting Mecca, the 111 takes you to the vast expanse of water. The low morning sun glinting off undulating waters, as you make your way along the shore towards the infamous post-apocalyptic resort town of Bombay Beach.
Despite the earlier film-geek referencing, in an attempt to describe the kind of people that I imagine inhabit that part of the badlands close by the Salton Sea, a big part of my enthralment with the place is its location, and the surrounding geography and geology. (Boring facts warning…) The largest lake in California, the Salton Sea is oddly comparable to the other harsh iconic landscape of California’s Mojave Desert, Death Valley. Sure Death Valley is famous for being the lowest and driest part of the United States, but in a bizarre twist of geography the Salton Sea is similar. Death Valley, it’s also below sea level, and at the sea’s deepest point only 5ft (1.5m) above the lowest point in Death Valley. Death Valley's Badwater Basin, is the lowest point in United States at 282 feet (86 m) below sea level. The Salton Sea was created between 1905 and 1907, when the Colorado River broke the banks of irrigation canals running through Imperial County. Water flooded into the Salton Basin over the two years, submerging the vast salt plains, and thus creating the inland sea. The Colorado River regularly flooded the area, adding to the sea, until the construction of the Hoover Dam. It’s estimated that around 600 tons of salt are added to the sea each year, from irrigation run-offs from surrounding farmland. The salinity of the sea increases by 1% year on year, and is more salty that the nearby Pacific Ocean.
You get the picture, for me the Salton Sea and the nearby Slab City (more on that later) embodied everything I loved about an aspect of America that had always appealed to me. The eccentric outsiders and rebels skirting the edges of ‘normal’ society choosing to live out their lives in the harsh and relentless badlands. In fact part of the Salton Sea sits in Riverside County, which also is home to the San Timoteo Badlands mountain range. As soon as I watched Bombay Beach, and the earlier John Waters narrated Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea (2004), I was sold on the place 100%. It immediately went to the top of must visit list. Not the by any stretch of the imagination would it appear on most people’s bucket lists of places they want to visit. Most people haven’t even heard of the place. I tried to talk to some of my American friends about my discovery, expecting them to laugh heartily at me, and wonder why I’d not heard of the place earlier. To my surprise, almost to a man every single one of them looked at me blankly. They knew nothing of the Salton Sea, and looked even more confused when I eulogized about my love of this newly discovered treasure of lost Americana.
Many visitors to the area come from the direction of LA. Heading east, past Palm Springs (The Salton Sea in its hey-day was supposed to be Palm Springs by-the-sea). Hitting State Highway 111, to Mecca, a small community on the northern tip of the Salton Sea that featured in Roger Corman’s infamous 1966 biker movie The Wild Angels. Skirting Mecca, the 111 takes you to the vast expanse of water. The low morning sun glinting off undulating waters, as you make your way along the shore towards the infamous post-apocalyptic resort town of Bombay Beach.
Despite the earlier film-geek referencing, in an attempt to describe the kind of people that I imagine inhabit that part of the badlands close by the Salton Sea, a big part of my enthralment with the place is its location, and the surrounding geography and geology. (Boring facts warning…) The largest lake in California, the Salton Sea is oddly comparable to the other harsh iconic landscape of California’s Mojave Desert, Death Valley. Sure Death Valley is famous for being the lowest and driest part of the United States, but in a bizarre twist of geography the Salton Sea is similar. Death Valley, it’s also below sea level, and at the sea’s deepest point only 5ft (1.5m) above the lowest point in Death Valley. Death Valley's Badwater Basin, is the lowest point in United States at 282 feet (86 m) below sea level. The Salton Sea was created between 1905 and 1907, when the Colorado River broke the banks of irrigation canals running through Imperial County. Water flooded into the Salton Basin over the two years, submerging the vast salt plains, and thus creating the inland sea. The Colorado River regularly flooded the area, adding to the sea, until the construction of the Hoover Dam. It’s estimated that around 600 tons of salt are added to the sea each year, from irrigation run-offs from surrounding farmland. The salinity of the sea increases by 1% year on year, and is more salty that the nearby Pacific Ocean.
Welcome To A Post-Apocalyptic Resort Town
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The Salton Sea sits on the San Andreas Fault, the southern end of which actually finishes at Bombay Beach on the eastern coast of the sea. Bombay Beach is the most well known settlement on the edge of the sea. Like some abandoned and decaying set from a post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie, the harsh conditions have taken their toll on the town and the few people who live in this the lowest lying community in the United States. The shore line where Bombay Beach meets the sea is littered with the rotting stinking corpses of dead birds and fish, killed by disease and the constantly increasing salinity. The white sand beaches of the Salton Sea are no more than pulverized bones of millions of dead fish. The blue waters, on further inspection are no more than the reflection of the sky on the murky brown deadly waters. It’s estimated that the sea will be devoid of all life by 2030.
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Yet along its shores and in the surrounding area there are still signs of human life. In among the abandoned and dilapidated ex-holiday homes, skeletal remains of RVs and caravans, there still exists the homes of the lonely, the poverty stricken, the sick and the senile. Many residents of Bombay Beach trundle through the desolate streets on golf carts, as the nearest gas station is some 20 miles away. During the winter the town is prone to flooding and in the summer the baking heat drives the few residents indoors, to hunker down with their A/C cranked up. The dying town has long fascinated artists, photographers and film-makers. People travel from all over the world to record the decay, the desolation, littered with the follies of man’s attempt to tame this cruel otherworldly environment.
Grab a bit to eat at the Ski Inn, if they’re doing food that day. The inn was featured in the Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations TV series in 2008. The walls of this desert road dive bar are covered in dollar bills, signed and stuck up by passing visitors. A testament to the number of people that have made the rather odd pilgrimage to this part of the world.
Grab a bit to eat at the Ski Inn, if they’re doing food that day. The inn was featured in the Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations TV series in 2008. The walls of this desert road dive bar are covered in dollar bills, signed and stuck up by passing visitors. A testament to the number of people that have made the rather odd pilgrimage to this part of the world.
Slab City: The Last Free Place In America
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South East of Bombay Beach, only a few miles away from the Salton Sea past the small town of Niland is another refuge of the outsider in American society, Slab City and its eccentric monument of hope, Salvation Mountain. Slab City is on one hand a haven for the migrating snowbirds, as the roll-up in their RVs during the winter season. On the other it is a community utterly outside of society, a Mad Max kind of place of rebels and eccentrics, surviving among this decommissioned US Military camp. All that essentially remains of Camp Dunlap is the concrete slabs that the barracks once stood on. In among the RVers, are the residents, a eclectic bunch of freaks and weirdos. Survivalists and artists. There are those who choose to live "off the grid" as a life-style and those driven there by poverty.
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These are the Slabbers. An appropriately post-apocalyptic sounding name. The Slabbers first started arriving here in 1965, after being moved on from a campsite near Mecca, California. Some people settled in Bombay Beach, others travelled that bit further into the desert to what became Slab City. Also known as “The Last Free Place In America”.
As you drive up to Slab City on Beal Road, you come across Salvation Mountain. A gaudy concrete and mud hill some three stories high, covered in painted Bible verses. Salvation Mountain has been lovingly built by outsider artist Leonard Knight over the past two decades. Knight died earlier this year, aged 80 years old. The monument is maintained by a small band of dedicated volunteers, using donated paint to protect Salvation Mountain from the cruel conditions of the desert. Knight features in the 2004 documentary Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea, talking about his love and hopes for the ramshackled rural region. As you enter Slab City the resemblance to Mad Max isn’t lost on visitors, especially as evening draws in and the camp fires are lit. The tribes gather, and exchange bizarre tales and weirdly worrying anecdotes. The Slabbers known affectionately as “desert rats” who have made their homes there rub shoulders with the snowbirds, brave enough to leave their generator powered air-conditioned RVs. The naïve and idealistic young neo-hippy drifters, pass joints around, while the Spaz Kids organize their next psychedelic free party. Then there’s the Scrappers, who spend their days risking their lives in search of spent cartridge shells and shrapnel in the nearby Chocolate Mountain Gunnery range.
If it’s a Saturday night, then the place to go at sunset in Slab City is The Range for the weekly Talent Show. An open-air night-club built by the appropriately named Builder Bill, a resident for over decade. In 2012, a documentary was made about the annual event at The Range, the Slab City Prom. Everyone is invited, from residents to snowbirds, but all are asked to make the effort to dress-up for the prom. If someone finds themselves with nothing to wear, Bill’s wife Robin can help you out. She’s been collecting prom outfits for years and is sure to have something to suit anyone’s needs, so they can dance the night away under the stars. What better a way could there be to end your dreamlike journey through this crazy corner of southern California. Constantly under threat from Mother Nature and the Federal Government, the Salton Sea region is a must see on the bucket list of any would-be traveller wishing to venture into the weirdest and wildest places on Earth.
As you drive up to Slab City on Beal Road, you come across Salvation Mountain. A gaudy concrete and mud hill some three stories high, covered in painted Bible verses. Salvation Mountain has been lovingly built by outsider artist Leonard Knight over the past two decades. Knight died earlier this year, aged 80 years old. The monument is maintained by a small band of dedicated volunteers, using donated paint to protect Salvation Mountain from the cruel conditions of the desert. Knight features in the 2004 documentary Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea, talking about his love and hopes for the ramshackled rural region. As you enter Slab City the resemblance to Mad Max isn’t lost on visitors, especially as evening draws in and the camp fires are lit. The tribes gather, and exchange bizarre tales and weirdly worrying anecdotes. The Slabbers known affectionately as “desert rats” who have made their homes there rub shoulders with the snowbirds, brave enough to leave their generator powered air-conditioned RVs. The naïve and idealistic young neo-hippy drifters, pass joints around, while the Spaz Kids organize their next psychedelic free party. Then there’s the Scrappers, who spend their days risking their lives in search of spent cartridge shells and shrapnel in the nearby Chocolate Mountain Gunnery range.
If it’s a Saturday night, then the place to go at sunset in Slab City is The Range for the weekly Talent Show. An open-air night-club built by the appropriately named Builder Bill, a resident for over decade. In 2012, a documentary was made about the annual event at The Range, the Slab City Prom. Everyone is invited, from residents to snowbirds, but all are asked to make the effort to dress-up for the prom. If someone finds themselves with nothing to wear, Bill’s wife Robin can help you out. She’s been collecting prom outfits for years and is sure to have something to suit anyone’s needs, so they can dance the night away under the stars. What better a way could there be to end your dreamlike journey through this crazy corner of southern California. Constantly under threat from Mother Nature and the Federal Government, the Salton Sea region is a must see on the bucket list of any would-be traveller wishing to venture into the weirdest and wildest places on Earth.
Bizarre Profiles: Leonard Knight (1931 - 2014) - An insight into the man who arrived at Slab City and spent the next 3 decades building a mountain dedicated to love. Salvation Mountain!
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Tracking Down The Atomic Beast: Survival Town & Yucca Flats - Less than a 100 miles from Las Vegas is the infamous nuclear test site at Yucca Flats, home to the remnants of Survival Town.
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Salton Sea & Slab City in Movies & Documentaries
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Plagues & Pleasures On The Salton Sea (2004): Narrated by the cult film director John Waters, this documentary is part quirky look at the lives of the eccentric inhabitance of the area, part serious examination of the environmental and related political issues that face the region as one of America’s worst ecological disasters. A poignant postcard from what was once considered to be the California Rivera.
The film explores the historical, economic, political, and environmental issues that face the Salton Sea, while taking a closer look at the people who have chosen to live in what they see as a surreal paradise. Telling the story of the Salton Sea as it is today, through the eyes of the few remaining people that brave the harsh conditions of the unique community by-the-dying-sea. |
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Bombay Beach (2011): A look at a surreal version of American Dream through the eyes of three residents of the derelict town on the edge of nowhere. A story of dignity among decay, a beautifully woven tapestry of tragedy and hope. A compelling and candid slice of a forgotten aspect of Americana, worthy of a Steinbeck novel.
The New York Times said of the film that, “[Bombay Beach] feels like a fever dream about an alternate universe. Suffused with a sense of wonder, it hovers, dancing inside its own ethereal bubble." Cult film-maker Terry Gilliam called the film, "A beautiful, quirky, and ultimately very moving film about the American Dream on the edge of a desert sea." Where Plagues & Pleasures On The Salton Sea is poignant postcard, Bombay Beach is a love letter of lament. |
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Salton Sea (2002): A mysteriously surreal drug fuelled pulp-fiction style noir thriller and darkly comic tale. Starring Val Kilmer back on form, Salton Sea is full to the brim with whacked-out characters, corrupt cops, drug-addled lowlifes, and an uncontrolled performance from Vincent D'Onofrio as the constantly teetering on-the-edge drug dealer Pooh-Bear. Full of unabashed nods and winks to a number of other movies. There are touches of the Tarantino and a cheeky aside to Aronofsky in there. Salton Sea has begun to garner a worthy cult status.
Even though the Salton Sea itself has only a cameo in the movie, its symbolism as forgotten and decaying aspect of Americana is ever present. Evoking an elsewhere, a place we all are seeking to return to, that maybe never was. |
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Little Birds (2011): A dark and unrelenting tale of teen angst. The story of two teenage emotionally impoverished girls living near the Salton Sea, and their escape to LA after following boys they meet. A solid, if at times formulaic indie-flick. Otherwise the film is an admirable directorial début from former member of Friends Stand United, Elgin James.
James, who founded Friends Stand United, began working on Little Birds around 2009, loosely basing the film on his own life experiences. The film has washed out home-movie feel to it, hazy and distant, as colours drain and bleed, giving it an otherworldly feel that belies the gritty realism it portrays. A harrowing tale of teenage runaways, and life of the other-side of the tracks for young people who have dropped through the gaps of mainstream society. |
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Into The Wild (2007): A drama based on the real-life American adventurer Christopher McCandless. The movie was written and directed by Sean Penn, scenes were filmed at Slab City. It is an adaptation of the 1996 non-fiction book of the same name by Jon Krakauer based on the travels of Christopher McCandless across North America and his life spent in the Alaskan wilderness in the early 1990s. Told in a non-linear narrative, the story jumps from McCandless's time spent in Alaskan wilderness and his two-year travels leading up to what brought him there.
The movie is spellbinding story of one man's restless search for peace. Loving handled by Sean Penn, the film was well received by critics and the independent film festival circuit. Being nominated for and winning numerous awards, and considered by many as one of top ten films of 2007. |
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Below Sea Level (2008): A cinematic journey into the badlands of the Californian desert, Italian film-maker Gianfranco Rosi spent 5 years documenting the lives of people who had drifted into the badlands and found themselves at Slab City. An award winning documentary that without judgement tells the stories of some of the inhabitance of Slab City. People who arrived with often little more than a vehicle that only just got them there, a bag full of possessions and maybe a dog in tow.
The documentary tells the story of heart-break, loss and sadness. While at the same time telling a story of hope and new beginnings, as all these disparate characters make life work for themselves in the last truly free spirited community in the United States. |
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Slab City Prom (2012): A documentary about Builder Bill, who has lived in Slab City since 1999 and built The Range , an open-air night-club in the isolated squatter and RVer community. Set around the annual prom event that is held The Range, and the eclectic characters that attend.
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Top Ten Weird Places To Visit In The USA - A personal top ten of places past and present, that for one reason or another hold a weird fascination for me. What would you have on your list?
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Monroeville: Mall Of The Dead - The biggest character in the cult zombie horror Dawn Of The Dead, the shopping mall, located just 10 miles east of Pittsburgh, PA.
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