Slab City: The Last Free Place on Earth

A misleadingly beautiful city full of sand, God, and life.

Me Adjacent Salvation Mountain, 03-26-23

Of all the places we've travelled, Slab City was probably one of the most misleading of the bunch. Don't get me wrong, it truly is a beautiful little place in the middle of nowhere and is full of creativity and art; it's just, there's so much more than that- metaphorically speaking.

Me, Nickel, and my boyfriend Collin went on this trip. We didn't use Nickel's car (for some silly reason) and decided to rent one on our own. We drove 2.5 - 3 hours south of our university to see the very well-known Jesus mountain in addition to the town itself: the last place in the world without any real laws or rules.

I learned about this place from a Mr. Beast video, which'll be linked down below. From the looks of the video (and to no fault of Mr. Beast), Slab City looked like a really fun town full of artists and like-minded people who are influenced by God and use the earth around them as inspiration. And partially, it is.

Nickel in Slab City, 02-06-22

But beyond the adobe clay and the bright colors were the people who actually lived there, all of which were homeless.

The homeless population in California is a problem, obviously, and has been for awhile. To be honest, I don't understand how so many random, arbitrary things exist in the middle of the vacant desert, some of which being entire societies/civilizations! My friend Nickel once told me and Collin something I think about often; he said, "this country is too big". That sticks with me because he isn't talking about the world. No, we all know the world is too big, so why even bring it up? But the country, well, that's a different story.

It's just hard to normalize or process things like the ever-growing homeless population (almost 70,000 in LA alone and around 160,000 in California entirely) when there's just so much space we could expand and, I don't know, do something about it. It's almost heartbreaking when it really processes.

I mean, despite the heavy truth that leaked through every crack and line throughout the city, it really was beautiful. The people of Slab City are the prime definition of those who have made the best of a bad situation, and have done so very, very artistically.

Salvation Mountain, 02-06-22

"The mountain is called Salvation Mountain, and the man who built it is named Leonard Knight. It took 25 years of hard labor, endless buckets of adobe clay, 100,000+ gallons of paint, thousands of hay bales and one man with unwavering faith to build a mountain" (https://www.desertusa.com/desert-people/leonard-knight.html#:~:text=The%20mountain% 20is%20called%20Salvation,faith%20to%20build%20a%20mountain).

Collin said to me once that he believes Slab City is a place that everybody should go, and quite frankly, I think he's right. It's a humble reminder to be grateful for the bed you sleep on at night, in addition to being able to see some really beautiful, hand-made art. All in all I'm glad we went, and I'm excited to eventually go back one day. Who knows, maybe we'll even return and make some kind of documentary about it.

Me, Collin, and Nickel, Slab City 02-06-22

Slab City, 02-06-22

~ Mr. Beast's video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1WBdh56Vq4.