I rarely do this, but I have to issue a CAUTION on this post. A few of the images (candid photographs taken in public) might be offensive to some. I’ve included them here not for sensationalism, but simply to paint a fair picture of life in this very odd community. If you’re touchy or easily offended – – please, skip this post. You won’t like it, and you wouldn’t like Slab City.

OK, here’s the deal: Slab City is a free-wheeling community of off-grid squatters or visitors, just out of the town of Niland on the southeast shore of Salton Sea. The “Slabs” are built around old military foundations left over from the Marines’ Camp Dunlap. The military deeded the land to the State with few or no restrictions, and it sat fallow for almost twenty years. Some creosote-harvest workers first stayed there in the early ‘60’s, it being a short trip to the ubiquitous green bushes that cover the landscape. Later, more folks started moving in to the free-stay grounds around 1965, and they’ve never left.

It’s not a commune, but it’s not a town either. Community? Not in the ordinary sense, but yes. It’s a bit hard to define, so let’s just call it a collection. People here might be semi-normal, eccentric, off-the-wall, or just plain odd. After all, just how ordinary can you be when you decide to “pull the plug” and live off-grid with an eclectic bunch of civilization-rejecters? I actually didn’t see a whole lot of ordinary-looking people, so this post may or may not be a fair sampling of “the locals”. On a brief one-hour drive-by visit, this is what we saw.

Salvation Mountain, 25 years’ worth of work by the late Leonard Knight. This is the first sight entering the slabs, and it’s an impressive one for sure. There’s nothing else past it that even compares. A zillion applications of adobe mud, tens of thousands of gallons of paint, uncounted hay bales, and a lot of devotion and love.

These days, Leonard has gone on to his eternal reward, and follow-on caretakers are responsible for the never-ending task of repairing the desert’s continuing damage to the Mountain. By a quirk of legality, Salvation Mountain has become the salvation of Slab City. The Mountain is officially regarded as a “religious structure”, and this prevents the county from establishing any fee structure for occupancy. Slab City is (for now) free to all who come.

In 2014, the Slab City Community Group was established, a full corporation including a Board of Directors??? I can’t reconcile the rigidity of such a concept with the lackadaisical attitude I see among the wooden shacks and dilapidated RV’s. But give them kudos for trying to offset the inherent lawlessness and trashy behavior that always seems to accompany such anarchy.

Here are some people and scenes from the place. As you will see, much of it looks ever so much like a sci-fi film about Earth, after the apocalypse.

Two blocks past Salvation Mountain, this fierce guard dog blocked our path. He seemed certain that his 5.6 pounds could outfight Howie’s 15,000. After letting us know who’s boss, he graciously (but with an ominous glare) let us pass by.

Much of the occupied parts of Slab City look something like this – – ancient, patched-up RV’s, some make-shift shacks and/or shade shelters, and some occasional inelegant artsy stuff. Cargo palettes are popular building materials, along with palm fronds.

Only a small percentage of the population remains year-round (through the 120F days of summer). This site looks pretty permanent, with a sizeable garden and solar-roofed buildings.

Front yards can be ornate (by desert standards).

And then there are the true artifacts.

Vague, enigmatic symbols are scattered around – – –

Our Saturday visit provided entertainment by the weekly flea market, locals offering for sale or trade a broad variety of craftwork and – – uh, debris. And let me say that water is a precious commodity at Slab City, and not to be used frivolously – – like for washing. If you engage in a chat, you may wish to stand down-wind.

Here, we could not be sure if the espoused <pure love> was for the creosote bush, or a philosophical treatise from some up-wind enclave of ex-hippies. (Maybe not so ex.) Was the sign warning against <impure love> ? We’ll never know.

On the far outskirts of the City, a huge area is covered with the cast-off garbage you might expect from a rag-tag bunch of ne’er-do-wells. Contrastingly, the lived-in part of the City is fairly clean, albeit on the shabby side. Our impression was that this no-man’s-land was simply no-man’s-responsibility. Nobody was living here except one idiot who had pitched his nearly-buried tent in a sand wash before the last storm.

As we left the City, we passed by some more conventional housing. Along the access road, we were provided one more “ta-da” of entertainment, a beautifully embossed message, albeit a bit wind-beaten: “God Bless America”, via paper Dixie cups plugged into chain-link-fence openings. Now if that isn’t art, what is??

As you can tell by my arched eyebrow and tongue-in-cheek descriptions, we were both a bit entertained, bemused, and taken aback by the sights of the City. We certainly have compassion for folks living cheap; after all, we are dedicated boondockers when we’re traveling. But this is more like hyper-cheap. Honestly, I don’t think most of the people there think of themselves as a side-show – – – but in fact that’s kind of how it comes across.

For a place to stay overnight for free while traveling, I personally would rather find a lonely spot in the BLM desert. But for a look at how one piece of “the other side” lives, Slab City is worth a visit.

Still curious? See the wiki, or any of many other hits on a “slab city” search. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slab_City  Desert USA also has a nice write-up: http://www.desertusa.com/desert-california/slab-city2.html, and another on Leonard Knight: http://www.desertusa.com/desert-people/leonard-knight.html  Lastly, an intriguing piece about the future of Slab City: http://www.liveworkdream.com/2014/01/27/what-will-happen-to-slab-city/