The REAL LOCAL Residents of SLAB CITY Tour- (Documentary)
Channel: Jax Austin
Date: 2020-08-08

Local Residents of Slab City Tour: I have been to Slab City several times. Mostly to drive thru, take pictures, and leave. Just for a day. Well, I wanted to explore the slabs in more detail, and to my surprise, Psi offered us a local's tour the morning we went for coffee at The Oasis Club. Hopefully this short documentary of our days there paints a better picture of this lovely place in the desert that so many call home.

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From wiki: Slab City, also called The Slabs, is an unincorporated, largely snowbird community in the Sonoran Desert located in the Salton Trough in Imperial County, California. Located near the east shore of the Salton Sea, Slab City is 100 miles (161 km) northeast of San Diego and 169 miles (272 km) southeast of Los Angeles. Slab City is used by recreational vehicle owners and squatters from across North America.[1][2] It took its name from concrete slabs that remained from the abandoned World War II Marine Corps barracks of Camp Dunlap.

The area that is now Slab City was the artillery training range[3] for the Camp. It was first settled by a few veterans who had worked at the Marine base. Current residents refer to themselves as Slabbies while tourists are called Normies.[4][5] The two individuals who had the greatest impact in the starting of the current settlement were Leonard Knight who created Salvation Mountain and Charlie Russel who built the first art installations in the area called East Jesus.[6]

Slab City is widespread, roughly 640 acres of public land.[7]

A journalist who visited this area filed this report in October 2019:[8]

"Slab City is part artistic commune, part snowbird getaway, and part refuge for druggies and squatters ... No property taxes, no utilities or other normal civic dues exist here.

She also found a free lending library and The Range, an open-air nightclub with "lights, amplifiers, speakers, and a stage ... Beaten up chairs and couches are scattered around for seating" where talent shows were being held on Saturday nights". There was no sewage or waste disposal being offered, leading to a very large amount of garbage and filth". There is no "food, water, healthcare, law enforcement available here" and the single communal shower serves all residents, up to 4,000 in winter. The so-called Salvation Mountain was a series of painted rocks, stacked three stories high, with bible verses and art work.[9] The settlement also has an internet cafe and a hostel.[10]

The community site is both decommissioned and uncontrolled.[11] Many residents use generators or solar panels to generate electricity. The closest body of civilization with proper law enforcement is approximately four miles (6.4 km) southwest of Slab City in Niland where the residents often go to do basic shopping. As a result, the site is described by its inhabitants and news outlets like Vice News as a miniature de facto enclave of anarchy.

There is one Airbnb accommodation in Slab City, "the Littlest Barn in the Desert ... a tiny house [with bunk beds] hosted by Rodney (Spyder)".[12]

The 2019 report described East Jesus as a "sustainable, habitable, constantly changing art exhibit in Slab City ... there are no utilities, no ties to modern life. Some of the [art] work here is truly fascinating and is made from many different and unusual materials.[13]

Thousands of campers and RV owners, most retired, use the site during the winter months. The "snowbirds" stay only for the winter before migrating north in spring to cooler climates. The temperatures during summer are as high as 120 °F (49 °C); nonetheless, there is a group of around 150 permanent residents who live in "The Slabs" year round. Some of these "Slabbers" derive their living from government programs and have been driven to "The Slabs" by poverty. Others have moved to "The Slabs" to learn how to live off the grid and be left alone. Still others have moved there to stretch their retirement income.[citation needed]

A January 2020 report stated that Slab Ciy was started by "transient, freedom-seeking people" who are now "all living off the grid in trailers, tents, lean-tos, and broken-down school buses in a remote patch of the Sonoran Desert". The report added that the community "has more than a dozen individual neighborhoods ... small camps of people with their own particular rules and culture". In an interview, well-known resident "Spyder" summarized the appeal of Slab City. "In a big city ... they have too many laws ... out here nobody tells me what to do".[14]