A song for every state: California

Published 12:15 am Sunday, January 26, 2020

California’s Salton Sea boasts an intriguing history of Americana folklore. Frequented by folks like the Beach Boys, the Salton Sea was once the place for a weekend getaway from Southern California’s collective metropolis. The area, once a bustling region of hip beach towns, is now home to many ghost towns along the coastline of this massive body of water.

My wife, Courtney, and I, along with our four-legged family, settled on the Salton Sea after being denied a campsite in California’s desert oasis of Joshua Tree National Park.

As we drove along the highway adjacent to the sea, Rosie the RV blasted surf tunes apropos to a time long past. The salty air wafted in through the rolled-down windows as we sang along with “Surfin’ USA” and other classic surf songs.

No longer connected to its oceanic counterpart thanks to a freak landslide, the Salton Sea is now separated from the greater Gulf of California. Around the same time the Colorado River was inadvertently diverted to the waters of the Salton Sea, creating untenable living conditions for marine life requiring just the right amount of salt. The result of these events is a dying body of water that boasts a salinity twice that of the ocean.

On high-wind days, the putrid scent of the sea can be smelled some 180 miles north in the city of Los Angeles. The Salton Sea’s size and chemical makeup has introduced an air toxicity problem affecting the entire Southern California region. These incidents have kept tourists from visiting the area, though Courtney and I were happy to enjoy miles of endless coast in complete solitude.

The Salton Sea boasts shores unlike anywhere else in the world. The beaches are adorned with dead barnacles, fish bones and other forms of marine life unable to survive the changes to their ecosystem. East of the Salton Sea lies a community that’s learned to adapt and thrive to this new environment, the town of Slab City.

Slab City exists on top of the ashes of Camp Dunlap, a former World War II Marine base. Activated in the fall of 1942, the base served as a center for anti-aircraft and artillery training throughout the war. After the war, the armed forces had no need for the outpost, and the base was sold to the state of California. At the time of the sale, the station was demolished, leaving only concrete remnants of building foundations referred to as “slabs.”

The desolate military outpost lay vacant for decades until the aftermath of the Vietnam War brought veterans to the camp. A small group of veterans struggling to cope with PTSD returned to the slabs of Camp Dunlap and established a makeshift residence, removed from society.

The number of homeless veterans flocking to the area ballooned to a point where the state considered intervening. Due to the lack of running water and electricity, many area residents considered the growing camp a health and safety hazard. Ultimately, due to the negative optics of evicting a group of veterans from the state-owned property, the government of California declined to intervene.

Today the slabs, now known as “Slab City,” have blossomed to support a thriving community of thousands of self-described “Slabbers.” Slab City and its outlying regions are reminiscent of scenes from the post-apocalyptic “Mad Max” film series. To me, the community draws comparisons to a year-round Burning Man gathering.

Drugs, extreme temperatures, hydration and sanitation are among a few problems that affect the so-called “Last Free Place On Earth.” The roads remain largely unpaved, and the landscape is void of vegetation and wildlife. Most notable to me, however, was the human waste smell throughout the desert community.

Famed “Into The Wild” wanderer Chris McCandless was known for a quick stay at the desert oasis before making his final adventure north to the Alaskan Wilderness. The community is discussed at length in both the film and Jon Krakauer novel of McCandless’ life.

Slab City is intentionally void of a leadership hierarchy, and community members support each other in ways that may seem tribal to the outside world. The community operates mostly on minimal financial donations from two art installations known as East Jesus and Salvation Mountain. Residents of the town take turns volunteering their time at these sites, speaking to tourists as they travel through the town.

East Jesus, in particular, is a stunning installation curated by a community of artists from the Slab City region. It utilizes the garbage and waste created from Slabbers to create surrealist expressions representative of the communities’ view of outside society. The end goal is to make Slab City a zero-waste community by turning trash into art. One scene that struck me was a massive wall built from old televisions. Each television, painted in white, contained red lettering intended to describe the true intentions of TV networks.

At the time of writing this, there’s talk that California is trying to sell the Slab City land to an energy company, effectively disbanding the city and forcing thousands of residents from their homes.

Many of the people we met in this community are retirees who can no longer afford proper housing. These folks moved to the desert as a means to survive on their Social Security income alone. Regardless of the inhumanity of this decision, the community of Slab City represents an essential faction in our American story. I hope that a government of and for the people will recognize this before it’s too late.

Courtney and I thoroughly enjoyed traveling through the south eastern California desert. We were consistently shocked at how different this region of America seems. Our time with the dying sea and a community of misfits and outcasts was a welcome respite from our time spent in other more well-known areas of Southern California.

“Bombay Beach Club” is a song reflecting on these people and experiences. It’s written as a reminder that no matter what life throws at us, there’s always hope that humanity can rebuild itself, even amidst a dying sea.

Bombay Beach Club

By Travis Ehrenstrom

I know a place where we can go

Way out west by the golden coast

Sunny skies and the Salton Sea

Take your cares to Bombay Beach right now

Dreaming of a perfect wave

When your life feels far away

From the things you want and the things you need

Come find them here along with me tonight

Dancing up the light of the moon

I see it in your eyes

Spirits make our bodies move

Love, a feeling divine

In California, I want to go

Man I miss my friends back home

I wish they knew the things I know

Life out here’s beyond compare

Breathing in this toxic air alright

Yeah this place is just for me

A lonely ghost so far away

Freedom is a funny thing

The more you lose the more you gain

Listen to the song: patreon.com/posts/31840298