I visited there once a decade ago but the impression Salton made on me is indelible, and I think of it often. It's the wildest, weirdest, most important ecological place in the United States that no one knows about.
Plagues and Pleasures of the Salton Sea trailer
The lake was formed accidentally in 1905 when engineers re-routing the Colorado River failed to protect the canal barriers and the entire river poured into an existing salty depression. It took engineers a year and a half to stop the flow, and by then, one of the world's largest inland seas had been created. The lake was 45 miles long and 20 miles wide, and it stood at 227 feet below sea level. In time, it became 25 percent saltier than the Pacific Ocean as farmer runoff melded into the lake and kept it from evaporating completely.
I traveled across country with my husband at the time in a VW camper and we spent one night by the side of the lake. The air was so clear we could see every jagged crater edge on the moon, the desert before us cast aglow, and the snowcapped Sierra Madres in the distance. It was cool to be able to see desert, water, and snow all at the same time, under such a luminous moon, too, the likes of which I have never seen again. That beauty was offset by the weird vibes we got all night. We nestled down and tried to sleep, but could not. Eventually we just gave up, cranked the motor and booked out of there. The hairs on the back of our necks were standing up, quivering with electricity almost all the way to San Diego.
The documentary is interesting in that it shows the characters who live in the dusty and dying towns around the lake. But the director is never disrespectful of the people, instead, just showing them as who they are and letting us enjoy them and the place that is so offbeat that everyone accommodates all the wierdness. For example, a Christian nudist stands by the side of the road with his sign on the ground saying love and peace and waves to every car that goes by. "I just don't like clothes," he says. "And I love God."
Among the decidedly off-the-beaten-path folks featured in the film are a hard-drinking Hungarian revolutionary with a mouth worse than a seasoned sailor, and the noted outsider artist Leonard Knight, who has been obsessively building, re-building and painting his masterpiece -- the towering outdoor installation "Salvation Mountain" -- for the past 20 years. Being the only southern inland large body of water in the US-Canada-Mexico migratory route, the Sea is critical for birds and a bird lovers' paradise.
If you think Provincetown in summer is funky, if you think Burning Man is all that, well, you ain't seen nothing until you have seen the Salton Sea. Watch the movie, you will enjoy it.
Recent articles:
California's oft-maligned, oddly beautiful and downright weird Salton Sea
(by National Geographic)
Get a birds-eye view of birds at the Salton Sea
Ecological, human issues of Salton Sea
The Good
The Bad
The Ugly
2 comments:
Elizabeth - I have come back here numerous times. Something about that video and those pictures haunted me. Sure the place is wierd and there was no judgement in the way the video depicts the people. I saw it with my own "spin"
I know what the phrase is that has been haunting me - but I hesitated to "write it out loud" The place appears barren - desolate - a form of hell on the earth to me. And yet those people defend it with a passion and ferver. Makes me want to at least visit.
What is haunting me about this post? I wonder if we all defend the path to heaven (or hell) as passionately. I wonder if people on the outside looking in may think my defenses and love for my place in life would find it worthy of documenting. What can I do to share my faith in a way to make it worthy of watching and listening to?
Thank you for a very thought provoking post.
From http://www.biblebell.org/angels.html
It took three weeks for God's angel to arrive (Dan 10.13). Why? Because God's angel had been delayed by a lengthy battle with the prince of Persia.
The context of this Bible passage makes it evident that it was no human prince who battled the messenger of God. No, this "prince of Persia" was an angel, no doubt a follower of Satan.
It would seem from Daniel 10 that certain nations are under the guardianship of God's angels, as in the case of Israel.
Conversely, certain nations are defended by [or *ruled* by] Satan's angels, as is the case with the nation of Persia.
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The Salton Sea is like the latter. I believe there are places on earth that are closer to hell than others, where more of Satan’s demons rule. Strongholds if you will. In my spiritual mind’s eye I view the Salton Sea as a kind of gateway to hell, with spawning demons gushing out who roost there, preventing anything good from ever flourishing, despite the natural beauty there and the sincere desire of many, many people who have invested a lifetime to that end.
The documentary is very, very good. I recommend it.
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