Slab City
From WikiDemocracy
Slab City California
Slab City, also called The Slabs, is an unincorporated, off-the-grid alternative lifestyle community consisting largely of snowbirds in the Salton Trough area of the Sonoran Desert, in Imperial County, California. It took its name from concrete slabs that remained after the World War II Marine Corps Camp Dunlap training camp was torn down. Slab City is known for attracting people who want to live outside mainstream society. Slab City's popularity surged after an article was printed in Trailer Life and RV Magazine around 1984. A 1988 San Diego Reader reports there were no more than 600–700 RVs around 1983, and one resident estimated there were about 2000 trailers when he was interviewed in March, 1988.
Leonard Knight, an early settler who created the Salvation Mountain art installation, was featured in Sean Penn's Into the Wild, released in 2007. An obituary of Knight stated that he "spent almost 30 years building the colorful mountain ... Built out of adobe and donated paint, Knight worked on the mountain all day, every day. He even slept at the mountain's base in the back of a pick-up truck, with no electricity or running water".
An article in Smithsonian magazine in October 2018 referred to the community as a "Squatters’ Paradise" which locals consider to be "one of America's last free places." The article said of the population: "There are clearly people there who don’t want to be found, so there’s something about disappearing, and the desert offers that kind of opportunity."
Popular Articles
The exercise at least four times more efficient than walking
Photographing Slab City, California’s off-grid drifter community
by Eve Watling 27/7/20 INDEPENDENT
British photographer Matt Stuart spent five months in Slab City, a ramshackle California desert community. His new book, ‘Into the Fire’, is an intimate portrait of life lived in ‘the last free place in America’
Will Salvation Mountain find its savior? The quest to save the desert folk-art landmark
by Chris Iovenko 27/1/17 Los Angeles Times
People call it a mountain, but it’s just 150 feet across and five stories tall, jutting skyward like a candy-colored, Jesus-inspired hallucination brought to life on the subdued pastel palette of the desert. Created in a sustained fever dream by the self-taught artist Leonard Knight over nearly three decades, Salvation Mountain rose as a monument to individual fortitude and artistic.
Life in Slab City
Located on a former military base, Slab City, California is a place on the fringe both geographically and philosophically.
The Slab City Snowbirds : On This Stretch of Desert, Modest Campers Line Up Next to the Sleekest Highway Luxury Liners
by CHRIS HODENFIELD 30/3/1986 Los Angeles Times
Just because she had to give up almost everything she owned didn’t mean that Evelyn Bartlett was going to get rid of her two poodles, 15-pound cat and one-legged parakeet. She packed them up for her new life on the road. She now has them with her in Slab City.
Portraits From Slab City: 'The Last Free Place On Earth'
by Jordan G. Teicher 3/10/12 npr
People come to Slab City, a squatter campsite in the Colorado Desert in southeastern California, for many reasons. But one sentiment seems to unite many of them: They want to avoid people like photojournalist Jessica Lum. That is: City people. Taxpayers. Media types.
SLAB CITY: This Abandoned Military Base In The Middle Of The Desert Is Home To Americans Looking To 'Get Off The Grid'
by Robert Johnson 6/2/12 BUSINESS INSIDER
There are about 150 year-round residents called "Slabbers" who brave the 120 degree summer heat, on the border of Mexico, with no electricity or running water. The number of dwellers swells in the winter as "snowbirds" arrive to take advantage of the free RV parking and laid back lifestyle.
Unlikely nomads: Senior single women take up life on the road
by Randy Dotinga 30/3/04 The CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITIR
When Charlotte Hagemann, a pumpkin decorator from New Jersey, rumbles into Slab City in her motor home each winter she sets up next to Carl Gross - a sturdy World War II veteran and her high school sweetheart.
The oasis of the Salton Sea
by Danica Creahan 1/3/17 Los Angeles Times
Miles past the glamor of Palm Springs and the comfort of well-developed civilization, there is a place that remains off the grid. What used to be a marine training camp called “Camp Dunlap” is now the “Last Free Place,” Slab City.
Severe drought marks California landscape
Views of the California landscape, dotted with artificial lakes, golf courses, shrinking water reservoirs and vast agricultural fields, amid the state's worst drought since 1977.
The 6-year-old photographer with more than 200,000 Instagram followers shares shots of the best trips he's taken with his dad
by Sarah Jacobs 29/3/16 BUSINESS INSIDER
For the Huey family, the rules of a road trip are simple: take the back roads, eat at local restaurants, find a good place to spend the night before dark — and of course, take a ton of photographs for their combined 900,000 Instagram followers.
The Town That Doesn’t Exist
by Sarah Holder 9/10/18 Bloomberg
Deep in the heart of California’s Colorado Desert, a few hundred nomads have carved out a quiet life amid the sand. They’re uncountable by any real census, because their population changes every season. They’re unattached—living there because they’re escaping from something, or in search of something else. What they’ve all found is a place called Slab City.
stage
Inside The California Desert Community Where Societal Rules Do Not Apply
by Priscilla Frank 5/11/15 HUFFPOST
Slab City is an unregulated squatter settlement in the dusty Sonoran Desert, located about 140 miles east of San Diego. In a former life, it was a Marine training base, but over the past 60 years, it's become a community for hippies, rebels and misfits of all kinds. Living in campsites made from old trailers and campers, the 150 or so residents live free of the responsibilities and burdens of contemporary life. No bills, no jobs, no tweets, no likes, no electricity, no water, no taxes and no rules. That's why the off-the-grid commune has been dubbed the "last free place in America."
Artist communities thrive along the disappearing Salton Sea
by Christopher Booker 8/7/18 PBS NEWS
California’s Salton Sea was once hailed as a miracle in the desert. Located about 40 miles south of Palm Springs, it’s the state’s largest inland body of water. But today, the sea is no longer the early 20th century fishing and recreation hotspot it once was -- it’s drying up. Instead, it has become a haven for artists. NewsHour Weekend’s Christopher Booker reports.
Villagers & Pillagers: Who Will Survive the Collapse?
by Craig Collins 19/3/21 COUNTERPUNCH
Unless you live in a state of denial you’re probably like me, troubled about the future. There’s not much left of mine, but my daughter’s generation and their children will have to survive the aftermath of fossil-fueled civilization on the ravaged, toxic planet we’ve left them.
Americans living in their cars are finding refuge in ‘safe parking lots’
by Rick Paulas 5/1/24 The Guardian
According to Google Maps photos, the space had been mostly unused since 2008. But a local non-profit, the Dorothy Day House, created the Safe Parking and Respite Kickstart (Spark) program to help “alleviate the crisis of unsheltered and encampment homeless” in one of the nation’s most expensive housing markets.
Slab City
Gosh, where to start? On a trip to San Diego and Joshua Tree, our Son (Fine Art grad) requested a detour to see Slab City which he had first become aware of from watching Into The Wild. We had no idea what to expect and were somewhat concerned about safety having read some reviews exercising caution.
Slab City: Creative Homesteading in a Desert of Extremes
High & Dry surveys the legacy of human enterprise in the California desert and beyond. Together, environmental writer Jack Eidt and photographer Osceola Refetoff document human activity, past and present, in the context of future development. This Dispatch focuses on the off-Salton-Sea community known as Slab City.
SLAB CITY: The Only Place in The USA Where There is NO LAW ! - A Desert Town FULL of CRIMINALS -VLOG
In this video, we sent cameramen to the state of California in the United States. There is a town called Slab City where people who want to live away from the capitalist system and without any laws reside. People live a different life in the desert climate.
Inside Slab City, The Lawless city in the Desert | Last Free Place In America
What is Slab City? | VT
Journey into Slab City, the last free place in America. Discover the unique community, its DIY culture, and the extreme lifestyle of those who choose to live off-grid in the desert. Explore the challenges and freedoms of this American subculture.
Slab City: Living rent-free in the middle of the California desert (full documentary)
Meet many residents (and their dogs) from all over America with unique stories and personalities. They live in the middle of the desert with minimal utilities, but still have access to the internet, coffee, and even video games. The said the number of inhabitants is claimed to range from 300 to nearly 2,000.
