Slab City and more...

Slab City is a community in Imperial County, just east of the Salton Sea. It’s occupied by RV/caravan owners and, what we are assuming are squatters. The name came from concrete slabs that remained from the abandoned WW II Marine Corps base that was here. Let’s just say, it is an interesting place. 

Several thousand campers, many of them retired, use the site during the winter months. The snowbirds only stay for the winter before migrating north in spring to cooler climates. The temperatures in the summer time are into the 120F region, so according to Wikipedia, there is a group of only about 150 permanent residents who reside year round. 

Their doesn’t seem to be any official government of the site, but as you look around at what they have, a library, a weekly live music show, a hostel, we assumed there has to be some sort of unofficial rules that govern this community, otherwise it would probably just be Mad Max style-anarchy. The site has no official electricity, running water, sewers, toilets or trash pickup service. Most residents looked like they were using generators or solar panels to generate electricity. Many had massive cubes of water on their living sites that we saw being trucked in. We’re still speculating what this must cost. There was no other obvious source of water in the community.

Before you enter Slab City, you (literally) cannot miss Salvation Mountain. A gentleman by the name of Leonard Knight spent over 20 years creating/painting the 3 story hill with latex paint, concrete, adobe and hay. The entire mountain is covered with bible verses, hence the name of it. Knight passed away a few years ago, but local residents have continued his artistic expression by continuing to update the paint and maintain it for tourists to visit. You can walk up to the top by following “the yellow brick road.” 

East Jesus came about because of Leonard Knight and his Salvation Army. A gentleman named Charlie Russell decided to move out to Slab City in 2007 and start this experimental, sustainable & habitable art installation. The area is now curated by a 501(c)3 charity as a folk art museum. There were 2 people to greet us when we entered and both had a lot of knowledge of the art and history. They also greet you with 4 warnings:

1. Any tetanus you leave with is free of charge & your blood will enhance the art

2. Feel free to touch to the art and don’t worry if it breaks, you can call it new art

3. You don’t have to stay on the carpeted foot path.

4. Keep off the grass, and tell us if you can find it. (This was my favourite rule)

Anyway, back to East Jesus. So Charlie Russell had heard about Salvation Army and decided he wanted to go off the grid and build his own folk art installation. The way we heard it, he literally made his home right next to what had long been used as the rubbish dump for Slab City residents. The museum docents described him collecting up piles of trash, setting them on fire and then using whatever remained in the ashes and crating art out of it. As you look around at what is there, this seems utterly logical. Russel died in 2011, but as at Salvation Army, local residents refused to let it just go. They formed the charity mentioned above and continue to build art in the space. Indeed there was a barefoot, bearded, kilted man moving things about in the space as we visited. 

Incidentally, to find it you have to just keep following the signs that say East Jesus, not named for any religious reason, but because it’s literally in East Jesus nowhere; down several dusty roads that feel a bit like the beginning of a horror movie. There’s no charge to visit East Jesus, but they do welcome donations. You all know I love a good charity and this was definitely an interesting one, so we threw a bit of cash in their donation bin. Ciara Culhane, it totally reminded us of Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, only a much more outdoorsy, “trashy” version of it.