Salvation Mountain, Slab City, Niland, California.
After visiting the Salton Sea, I drove to Niland California in search of Slab City, and especially Salvation Mountain. The "mountain" was constructed by Leonard Knight (1931–2014), a folk artist preoccupied with Christianity and simple, straightforward religious practice. Knight lived in a decorated truck at the site until three years before his death. There is lots of information about Knight, Slab City, and Salvation Mountain available online. Here is a link to the Wikipedia entry for Salvation Mountain.
#1. The last free place. Slab City is northeast of Niland, California in Imperial County. When I first saw this photo I was disappointed that I'd left my truck in the frame, but now I'm happy with it.
#2. The "mountain" is constructed of straw bales, sticks, wire, adobe, stones, and thousands of gallons of brightly colored paint.
#3. Behind the scenes. Everything that stayed still got covered in thick, bright paint.
#4. The archway over a passage into the mountain. You can see the straw bales that comprise much of the structure in the background.
#5. The arch from #4 is in the lower center of this image.
#6. Another passage into the interior of Salvation Mountain. The bright Imperial Valley summer sun is relentless.
#7. One of Leonard Knight's decorated trucks.
#8. Leonard Knight's religious themed folk art on the side of one of his trucks.
There are more images from Salvation Mountain in my SmugMug galleries at https://mcamann.smugmug.com. I hope you enjoy these! Comments always welcome!
Best,
--Mike C.
Comments
Nice work - very colorful ! I checked out your SmugMug also - nice work !
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Thank you, jerryr! I'm still learning.
I'll have to put this on my bucket list.
Sam