Salvation Mountain & Slab City
Wednesday, 30th November 2005 by James Turnbull
Salvation Mountain is an ongoing project of Leonard Knight, who has built and hand decorated the 3-storey "mountain" (I think it's really just a hill) for nearly two decades. The hill is created out of adobe, straw and many gallons of paint and is covered in religious messages.
Salvation Mountain also marks the entrance to Slab City, an ex-military training base which has become a camp for squatters and RV drivers. The area has no electricity or running water and takes its name from the large concrete slabs which were left when the military abandoned the area. Polar Inertia has a good selection of ground level photos.
Thanks: Pir4t3 & Rob B
Flickr also has some great photos.
It should also be noted that Salvation Mountain is built right on the San Andreas Fault, and you can see it moving from left-of-center top to the lower right (looks a little like an aerial shot of a wave on the ocean…)
The NY Times did a piece on Slab City a while back. They have a “snobby” part of the city (female retirees) and a “ghetto” part of the city (male dropouts), which is funny. Even in a waterless trailer park, you have class warfare.
We did a doc about the Salton Sea, which prominently features Leonard and his mountain. If you’re curious, come check it out at http://www.saltonseadoc.com.
Thanks for the look.
Chris
A buddy and me met Leonard Knight in 1998 or so. Having read about Salvation Mtn in Roadside America, we wanted a look see. Not knowing what to expect, we were braced for a holy-roller onslaught of the sort we figured would come from the kind of guy who lived as desert hermit and spent all his time painting biblical stuff on the side of a hillside that probably didn’t need painting. Anyway, we couldn’t have been more wrong about Leonard. He’s a nice guy, soft spoken, and was pushing nothing. He’ll talk religion if you bring it up, but he let his mountain do the evangelizing. We thought he was a cool guy. Of course he’s since been baking for 8 more years in the desert sun, so lately I wouldn’t know 🙂