SLAB CITYLife in the Pits of the California Badlands
PHOTOS BY PETER SUTHERLAND
Set beside the Imperial Valley in southeastern California, the Salton Sea area was supposed to be Hollywood’s answer to the Riviera back in the 50s. But its developers failed to anticipate the raw sewage that would run up the New River from Mexico and make survival impossible for many aquatic species. Rotting fish guts and toxic debris soon littered the shoreline. Construction projects were abandoned, and yet another impotent vision of luxury tourism was left flaccid. Thanks again, trash!
Today the entire Imperial Valley is an apocalyptic dustbowl in the center of the California badlands. We set out to explore this fetid bouillabaisse. What we found were remnants of the Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range, a half-million-acre plot that was once the practice site for various governmental bombardiers. It is the place of business for the residents of a nearby compound known as Slab City—a mostly insane coterie of fun-hunting drifters, vets, addicts, artists, and crazies who subsist on sautéed snake, lukewarm Tecate, money earned from scrapping bombshell fragments, and what’s left of their wits. It’s pretty much all that remains of the Wild West.
Get to know the cast of the Slab City funny farm this month on Toxic on VBS.TV.
Anonymous, on Jul 21, 2009 wrote:
i live about 45 minutes south, 10 mintues from mexico. it wasn’t taken durring the forest fires, people burn fields instead of letting them just lie fallow on their own. Slab City is also a local band. | | Anonymous, on Jul 10, 2009 wrote:
how "off the map" can a place two hours from san diego actually be? | | Anonymous, on Jul 7, 2009 wrote:
that picture is bad ass...makes me wanna wander off into the middle of nowhere | | TheDon, on Jul 7, 2009 wrote:
there are better places to go if you wanna be independant than the middle of a desert filled with trash | | Anonymous, on Jul 5, 2009 wrote:
I wonder if this place gets a lot more tourism thanks to Into the Wild...but it IS a beautiful movie, so it’s ok. | | donaghy, on Jul 2, 2009 wrote:
this must be heaven on earth for dogs. at first i felt bad for the pup but then i got to thinking and open fields, ponds, snakes to fuck with and lot of trash. what more could you ask for. | | Anonymous, on Jul 1, 2009 wrote:
"red touches yellow kill a fellow" ...whats that from and why is it so familiar?
| | Anonymous, on Jul 1, 2009 wrote:
how can they even eat snake? I mean, there is barely any meat to them | | Anonymous, on Jul 1, 2009 wrote:
Was he there during the California forest fires? | | Anonymous, on Jul 1, 2009 wrote:
I think I’m going to have to make a skateboard like that. Awesome. | | duck duck goose, on Jul 1, 2009 wrote:
it’s too bad you can’t have the independence of a place like this with the conveniences of a city. | | gnarwhal, on Jun 30, 2009 wrote:
that’s a lot of natty light cans. i doubt the recycling truck makes it out that far. | | catbird, on Jun 29, 2009 wrote:
check out peter sutherland’s website, he has great work | | Anonymous, on Jun 26, 2009 wrote:
bouillabaisse is delicious. | | Anonymous, on Jun 26, 2009 wrote:
people actually live out here? | | Anonymous, on Jun 26, 2009 wrote:
I feel like this place would be great to take some boomers... as long as you dont wander off | | rufiomania, on Jun 26, 2009 wrote:
i didn’t know it took so little inspiration and so much bitch work to live off the grid. no thanks. | | el guapo, on Jun 23, 2009 wrote:
i saw the s logo on my street yesterday in dried concrete. oh the kids, they love their s logos. | | Anonymous, on Jun 22, 2009 wrote:
I used to draw the weird S logos on my skateboard as a kid all the time. no idea what they meant then, still don’t now. ◊ | | Anonymous, on Jun 21, 2009 wrote:
I went to vbs.tv/watch/toxic and there’s no Slab City there. There are 9 videos from Garbage Island to Napoli but no Slab City. WTF? | | Anonymous, on Jun 20, 2009 wrote:
Did you take this entire article from that one segment in "Fruit of the Vine"? | | Anonymous, on Jun 18, 2009 wrote:
"why are they wearing bee keeping stuff? are they making their own honey? self sustaining and getting crazy drunk, now that sounds awesome."
there’s bee boxes in the fields to help pollinate. | | Anonymous, on Jun 17, 2009 wrote:
why are they wearing bee keeping stuff? are they making their own honey? self sustaining and getting crazy drunk, now that sounds awesome. | | Anonymous, on Jun 17, 2009 wrote:
that first picture is awesome, talk about desolate that place is serious. you would not catch me hanging out there. | | Anonymous, on Jun 17, 2009 wrote:
was there not a huge point about all the sewage that came into the river? why the hell would you swim in it? i know there wont be any penis fish, but there could be some serious mutant fish going on down there. | | Anonymous, on Jun 15, 2009 wrote:
yeah according to lots of peoples theories on adaptation, the king snake developed similar striping patterns to trick predators into not eating them. same deal with monarch butterflies. pretty crazy. | | Anonymous, on Jun 15, 2009 wrote:
hooohaaa,
"red touches yellow, kill a fellow" is a common saying regarding the difference between a king snake and a coral snake, they are very similar but one will kill you the coral snake with the red stripe touching the black stripe. The king snake has a black strip in between the two colors.
| | Anonymous, on Jun 14, 2009 wrote:
the "red touches yellow" thing is to help identify which snakes will kill you and which are ok. Coral snakes (bad) are striped red, then yellow, then black. Another helpful saying: If the red and yellow stripe are together, that shit will kill you. | | zerotransfat, on Jun 12, 2009 wrote:
the dude with the snake...where have i seen him before??? | | crimewave, on Jun 12, 2009 wrote:
"fetid bouillabaisse"
you guys never really stop getting better | | | Next 30 comments > |
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