04APR09 - Slab City, CA (aka niland, ca)

Dan sometime ago heard about a “place” called Slab City near the Salton Sea in CA. And recently we watched the movie “Into the Wild”, which has a large portion of the movie set in Slab City. Since Yuma is less than three hours from Slab City, we just had to check it out!

The following info about Slab City comes from Wikipedia: “It takes its name from the concrete slabs and pylons that remain from the abandoned World War II base, Marine Barracks Camp Dunlap. A group of servicemen remained after the base closed, and the place has been inhabited ever since, although the number of residents has declined since the mid 1980s. Several thousand campers, many of them retired, use the site during the winter months. These "snowbirds" stay only for the winter, before migrating north in the spring to cooler climes. The temperatures during the summer are forbidding; nonetheless, there is a group of around 150 permanent residents, who live in the Slabs all year round. Most of these "Slabbers" subsist on government checks (SSI and Social Security) and have been driven to the Slabs through poverty; some of the "Slabbers" also have a strong desire for freedom from the American government. The site is both decommissioned and uncontrolled, and there is no charge for parking. The camp has no electricity, no running water or other services. Many campers use generators or solar panels to generate electricity.”

After picking a spot to dry camp, we drove back to the beginning of Slab City to check out Salvation Mountain. Again from Wikipedia: “It is made from adobe, straw, and thousands of gallons of paint. It was created by Leonard Knight to convey the message that "God Loves Everyone". Mr. Knight claims to have refused substantial donations of money and labor from supporters who wished to modify his message of universal love to favor or disfavor particular groups. Salvation Mountain is the second most visited tourist attraction in Imperial County. Steps cut into the side of the hill lead to the summit which is topped by a cross. Knight lives full-time at the site in a small cabin mounted on the rear of a 1930s-vintage Chevrolet two-ton truck. Like Salvation Mountain, Knight's “Salvation Truck” and a collection of other vehicles and machinery are entirely covered with paint and Biblical quotes as well. He estimates that more than 100,000 gallons of paint have gone into the creation of the mountain and that every California-based paint manufacturer has donated paint to the project.”

We were fortunate enough to catch Mr. Knight before he went into town for lunch. Dan donated $5 to the cause and was rewarded with a DVD about Salvation Mountain. The riot of colors and use of hay bales, old tires, old telephone poles, bottles, car parts, etc, was almost impossible to take in.

http://www.salvationmountain.us/

After Salvation Mountain we returned to the general area of Slab City to explore. We say general area, because there are no real boundaries, let alone street signs (or streets). Most of the snowbirds have left but there were still a few around. There were a few million dollar rigs, but most were 15 or 20 years old, and some were little better than shacks with wheels. Some individuals were way off in the desert by themselves and obviously wanted to be left alone. Others were grouped closely together for easy socializing. In fact, we were next to a “family” group, which had two or three related families complete with many children running around.

We noted a couple of Slabbers were members of the Church Of Broken Toy (COBT), as well as the Cacophony Society. We never found out what the Church was all about, but the Cacophony Society is a randomly gathered network of individuals united in the pursuit of experiences beyond the pale of mainstream society through subversion, pranks, art, fringe explorations and meaningless madness. You may already be a member! They have many sayings/slogans, the one Dan likes is – We are the surfing Santas of the Watergate! We have no idea what it means.

Turns out during the Snowbird season there are many “social” events that take place. By reading the local bulletin board we found out we had just missed Saint Patties Day at “The Range”, the Sweetheart Dance, and Chili Night. But we were lucky to arrive on a Saturday because that is when they have live music at “The Range” (also heavily featured in the Movie). And someone named Linda gives a nightly newscast Mon to Fri, at 1800 on CB channel 23; too bad we were there on a weekend. Lastly on Easter Sunday they were having a Easter Egg Shoot! We are not sure what caliber of guns are involved, but they stressed that this was a shoot not a hunt!

At sunset we arrived at The Range to listen to the free music (donations accepted). But even in paradise there are problems; seems one of the Slabbers took offense to something at The Range and has started his own music nights at another venue on Fridays. We guess we will have to come back another time to check it out? The talent was pretty uneven to say the least. One guy couldn’t remember the words and so he would just mumble nonsense; one keyboard player kept changing the tempo several times on the same song; and a harmonica player wouldn’t play until he figured out what song the band was playing, which was about 10 seconds before the end of the song. The best was some Slabbers called Air Racket or Air Racquet, but they would only play there material, so of course we didn’t recognize any of the songs. Another group introduced their new singer, who was allowed to be the singer because it was her birthday (sweet 16). It didn’t help that most of the talent was drunk or stoned (or in most cases – drunk and stoned)!

Now that we know a little about Slab City, we will return for longer stay. To check out more about Slab City we recommend the “desertdutch” website over the “slabcity” site. For some reason the Slabbers want you to become members before granting access to most of their site.

http://www.slabcity.org/

http://www.desertdutch.org/slabcity.htm

http://www.cacophony.org/

http://www.ouramericanlife.com/2009/01/slab-city-talent-show-2009.html