June 20, 2005
Over the weekend, Ian and I headed out for a return trip to the Salton Sea. Heavy with supplies procured from Galco's Soda Pop Stop and Chick-fil-a, we drove almost three hours in to the middle of nowhere to drive around in deserted nothingness.
Almost as a side note (and as a result of being slightly disappointed with the eastern shores of the Salton Sea), we decided to find Slab City while we were out in the area. While what we found there was pretty great - and I'll write more about that later - the true treasure and discovery for us was Salvation Mountain, a beacon of ...well, of something, that sits just before you enter Slab City.
It was here that Ian and I came face to face with death.
The mountain is some kind of crazy folk art built by a man named Leonard Knight. Mr. Knight was not on the premises when we arrived, nor was anyone else as far as we could see. But a sign invited us in, so we parked the car by the roadside and crossed the small desert trench to make our way over to the mountain.
It looks an awful lot like a giant pile of play-doh with various paeans to Jesus and the Bible. There was paint and hay strewn about everywhere, as Mr. Knight appears to be working on seventeen different parts of the mountain at once.
The most impressive part of the mountain, though, was a smaller hill off to the side, about 30 feet tall and completely manmade. It's essentially constructed of hay bales and car doors painted over, propped up by branches and sticks. There's a small network of caves built in this mountain (this is where Ian and I narrowly escaped the fierce, ferocious barking puppy), and a number of smaller memorials to Jesus painted into the walls.
It's a truly remarkable place, especially considering that the entire community of Slab City, including Leonard Knight and his Salvation Mountain, are squatting on land that isn't theirs, that could be taken from them at any moment.
Posted by starlen at June 20, 2005 9:16 PM
