Slab City
Encyclopedia
Colorado Desert
California's Colorado Desert is a part of the larger Sonoran Desert, which extends across southwest North America. The Colorado Desert region encompasses approximately , reaching from the Mexican border in the south to the higher-elevation Mojave Desert in the north and from the Colorado River in...
in southeastern California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, used by recreational vehicle
Recreational vehicle
Recreational vehicle or RV is, in North America, the usual term for a Motor vehicle or trailer equipped with living space and amenities found in a home.-Features:...
owners and squatters from across North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. It takes its name from the concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
slabs and pylons that remain from the abandoned World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Marine
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
barracks
Barracks
Barracks are specialised buildings for permanent military accommodation; the word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes. Their main object is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. They were sometimes called...
Camp Dunlap
Camp Dunlap
Camp Dunlap was a Marine Corps base activated on October 15, 1942, as a training facility during World War II. The camp was named for Brigadier General Robert H. Dunlap. It was used to train artillary and anti-aircraft units of the Fleet Marine Force. The base was located at the present day...
there. 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
Snowbird (people)
The term snowbird is used to describe people from the U.S. Northeast, U.S. Midwest, or Canada who spend a large portion of winter in warmer locales such as California, Arizona, Florida, Texas, the Carolinas, or elsewhere along the Sun Belt region of the southern and southwest United States,...
" stay only for the winter, before migrating north in the spring to cooler climates. The temperatures during the summer are unforgiving; nonetheless, there is a group of around 150 permanent residents who live in the Slabs all year round. Most of these "Slabbers" derive their living by way of government checks (SSI
Supplemental Security Income
Supplemental Security Income is a United States government program that provides stipends to low-income people who are either aged , blind, or disabled. Although administered by the Social Security Administration, SSI is funded from the U.S. Treasury general funds, not the Social Security trust fund...
and Social Security
Social Security (United States)
In the United States, Social Security refers to the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program.The original Social Security Act and the current version of the Act, as amended encompass several social welfare and social insurance programs...
) and have been driven to the Slabs through poverty.
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
Electrical generator
In electricity generation, an electric generator is a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. A generator forces electric charge to flow through an external electrical circuit. It is analogous to a water pump, which causes water to flow...
or solar panel
Photovoltaic module
A solar panel is a packaged, connected assembly of solar cells, also known as photovoltaic cells...
s to generate electricity. Supplies can be purchased in nearby Niland, California
Niland, California
Niland is a census-designated place in Imperial County, California. The town is located north of Calipatria, southeast of Salton Sea. The population was 1,006 at the 2010 census, down from 1,143 at the 2000 census...
, located about three miles (5 km) to the southwest of Slab City.
Located just east of State Route 111
California State Route 111
State Route 111 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California. It is the main north/south state highway and retail corridor through the Coachella Valley, a part of the Colorado Desert in the southeastern corner of the state and famous as a resort destination...
, the entrance to Slab City is easily recognized by the colorful Salvation Mountain
Salvation Mountain
Salvation Mountain is a colorful art installation covering much of a small hill north of Calipatria, California, near Slab City and just several miles from the Salton Sea. It is made from adobe, straw, and thousands of gallons of paint...
, a small hill approximately three stories high which is entirely covered in acrylic paint
Acrylic paint
Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant when dry...
, concrete and adobe
Adobe
Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for...
and festooned with Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
verses. It is an ongoing project of over two decades by permanent resident Leonard Knight
Leonard Knight
Leonard Knight is the builder and chief architect of Salvation Mountain. He lives at the mountain near Slab City, a few miles from Niland, California, and approximately from San Diego.-Childhood:...
.
In popular culture
Slab City was featured in the book Into the Wild and also in the 2007 movie of the same nameInto the Wild (film)
Into the Wild is a 2007 American biographical drama film directed by Sean Penn. It is an adaptation of 1996 non-fiction book of the same name by Jon Krakauer based on the travels of Christopher McCandless across North America in the early 1990s. The film stars Emile Hirsch as McCandless with...
.
The back of the Kyuss album "and the circus leaves town" shows the members of Kyuss sitting over a painting on Salvation Mountain.
The video for "Fourth of July" by Shooter Jennings
Shooter Jennings
Waylon Albright "Shooter" Jennings is an American singer-songwriter active in the country music and Southern rock genres as well as making his first foray into psychedelic rock in 2009...
is partially set at Slab City.
It was featured in the radio documentary program Hearing Voices
Hearing Voices
Hearing Voices or Hearing voices may be:* Auditory hallucination* Hearing Voices , 2001 audio-recording collection by D. Mahler* Hearing Voices Movement, a different way of viewing people who hear voices...
episode "Small Town" the week of November 11, 2009. The segment's synopsis is "This town in California never did exist, though it’s full of folk who live there: an unofficial RV Park and home to the homeless thrives in culture and community."
Slab City figures in Sue Grafton
Sue Grafton
Sue Taylor Grafton is a contemporary American author of detective novels. She is best known as the author of the 'alphabet series' featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone in the fictional city of Santa Teresa, California. The daughter of detective novelist C. W...
's mystery novel, "G" Is for Gumshoe, first published in 1990, about private investigator
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
Kinsey Millhone
Kinsey Millhone
Kinsey Millhone is the name of a fictional private investigator created by Sue Grafton for her "alphabet mysteries" series of novels. Millhone appears in a number of short stories written by Grafton. Grafton's mystery novels featuring Millhone are set in 1980s Santa Teresa, a fictionalized town...
.
A fictional version of Slab City is featured in Hal Duncan
Hal Duncan
Hal Duncan is a Scottish science fiction and fantasy writer who published two novels, one novella, three poetry collections and several short stories.His works have been listed in the New Weird genre but he denies that such genre was even known to him at the time...
's fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
novel Vellum: The Book of All Hours, first published in 2005.
In the cable reality show Art Race (broadcast on Halogen TV
Halogen TV
Halogen TV is a television network that airs feature-length films, documentaries, short films, and original reality programs that center on making positive social changes and making the world a better place.-History:...
), one of the artists attempts to stay in Slab City to sell his art but leaves soon after dark with the show's crew because of fears for his safety.
Slab City is the main setting in the play Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter, by Julie Marie Myatt.
Slab City is featured in the novel The Slab http://www.jeffmariotte.com/slab.htm by Jeff Mariotte
Slab City is the feature in an episode of the TV series "Built to Shred" (broadcast on FUEL TV
Fuel TV
Fuel TV is a U.S. cable and satellite specialty channel that launched on July 1, 2003. It focuses on the cultures of such extreme sports as skateboarding, snowboarding, wakeboarding, motocross, surfing, BMX and FMX. It is a unit of Fox Cable Networks and is currently available to 26-million...
)