By Timothy Roe, Staff Writer
In California, there exists a place in which no laws subsist, a place of freedom and art made through the creative minds that inhabit it. Once a U.S. military base and located northeast of San Diego, Slab City is home to around 150 people year-round who spend their days expressing their creativity through the very landscape on which they live. It’s a fantastical place, as if the world of an animated movie migrated to our third dimension. My family and I decided to visit the warm wonderland over the break. Here are some of the experiences and visuals you can find in and around the lawless zone, Slab City.
Salvation Mountain
The most well-known area and art piece in Slab City, this “mountain” was constructed over the course of nearly 30 years by resident Leonard Knight with half a million gallons of latex paint. It’s a myriad of color and text quite unlike anything you’d see anywhere else. Following the yellow brick road, reaching the peak of the mountain takes only around five minutes, paying with a view too splendid to miss out on. Surrounding the mountain are a collection of RVs painted and decorated with unique art, as well as a tunneled haven covered by colored trees and dirt.
East Jesus
East Jesus is a living, growing range of artwork made from various forms of unused artifacts, or as some would say, trash. Every bit of this location is a form of self-expression that’s entirely unique, strange and quite spectacular. A miniature robot stays guard outside the bicycle-wire gate, through which visitors can see an elephant made of tires, a renegade Statue of Liberty, intricately designed watchtowers, abandoned planes and TV screens that exude red truths.
Salton Sea
Although it has the title “sea” attached to it, the Salton Sea is actually a lake, though an enormous one at that. It was originally formed by the flow of the Colorado River which flooded the basin for over a year, before being closed off by a line of protective levees. Without a continuous flow of water, its salinity has spiked, killing off large amounts of fish and birds which can be found along the beach, dry and crystallized, at the right times of the year.
Bombay Beach
In the 1940s and ‘50s, this beach existed as a vacation spot for rich young men and women. Now, it’s a ghost town. Filled with abandoned houses and cars overrun with dust and small birds, the only sound a visitor can hear is the crunch of his or her foot upon the town’s road. The Salton Sea destroyed this town through its rising salinity, which resulted in major bird and fish population declines as well as a series of tropical floods. Near the actual lake is the wreckage of a long-forgotten ship, a lone door in the middle of gray sands, a swing set floating above the vast body of water and a serene sight of blue and white.
Slab City and its surrounding areas are the product of human and natural art, painting an experience that’s all intriguing, memorable and gentle.
