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RV Paradise, Lost

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  • RV Paradise, Lost

    When early last century a land development company accidentally steered the entire discharge of the Colorado River into the below-sea-level "Salton Sink" in southeast California (for a period of two years!), six million acre-feet of water covered roads, towns, and part of an Indian reservation. What to do with such a disaster? They left it, maintained it, and by the 1950's the huge lake and nearby area became one of the more desirable vacation and resort lands in the state.

    However, when such "maintenance" involved sending in large amounts of agricultural runoff as well as new river inflow to counter evaporation and leaching with no real outflow, California's largest freshwater puddle, created by man and not nature, slowly became more of a saltwater cesspool. The water level rose with rain and flooding, then fell when it's traditional supply was diverted westward for the coastal cities. Within twenty years of the seeming heyday of the Salton Sea, fish died and stank...boating lost it's appeal...housing developments failed and the sprinkling of existing small original resort towns along the shore began to wither.

    Still, in 2015 people choose to continue living along now-dusty streets and hang their laundry out in the dry air. Remaining neighborhood residences...houses, shacks, and old trailers, line streets with names like Marina drive. They may be occupied, or not. Kids play soccer where there is open space, otherwise piles of discards and junk lie untouched, and look to have done so for maybe decades. No one ever came to clean or pick up what deteriorated beyond use or otherwise became abandoned. They haven't yet.

    Gail and I drove out along the eastern shore in 2010 to marvel at the sights...this weekend we explored along the west shores with me driving and she shooting a few odd photos out the window or while wandering around . It looked about the same...it is starting to seem to me like much of the wreckage there is preserved intentionally. Click image for larger version

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    While RV parks and small motels were common back-in-the-day, many of the weekend- or permanent residences from the good times were simply trailers moved onto sandy, flat lots. Wooden shelters deflect summer heat and the (very) occasional winter rain. The axles and tires look long-gone from this 35' example of faded sixties style.
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    How long since anyone lived here? Years. Anybody could walk through the brush up to it, yet there was little odd trash around this yard and no graffiti apparent. Click image for larger version

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    Not so, over on this lot. An old corner seat, perhaps from some restaurant, provides a place to rest between cans of spray paint if that's what your'e up to.
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    In some cases, old trailer siding was removed altogether. How a white porcelain toilet gets out there 30' away, and remains for perpetuity, I don't know. It was still possible to tell how nice the interior wood would have looked once and we were tempted to borrow a piece for a sample, but as with other abandoned residences, neighbor occupants and their dogs or whatever still live only steps away.
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    Another example, similar. Wood and insulation are preserved in the dry air long after the few-bucks' worth aluminum siding is stripped away.

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    The gem among broken stones here was this late-40s/early-'50s Spartan all-metal double-axle trailer. It sits behind a chain-link fence in a secured yard, still savable. Someone will fix this up someday.


    Trailers may have provided the kitchens and beds for retirees and weekend revelers, but boating was the real reason to come to the Salton Sea. Serviceable ones still lay around in backyards on trailers, looking unused. A few others repose in the mud leftover from the few flooding seasons. Click image for larger version

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    This was very-possibly buried here close to a "street" corner as a gag, but the curious respect paid it in the years since shows. The instruments and trim are in good condition, nobody has come along to break up the glass or spray-tag the hull. (Other examples like this exist, but if you search "Salton Sea" on Wikipedia as I did after our day-trip here, you'll find virtually this same picture.)


    While we were wandering around gazing at old trailers, homes and other domiciles, we stopped in at a small apartment/motel complex to have a look as well. Will the bulldozers ever come for this? Who knows. No one values the land underneath enough to pay the fee and apparently no city department enforces it's removal. Click image for larger version

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    I hate graffiti,especially where I have to look at it, but the one below on an interior wall was pretty good. It wasn't stuck out somewhere that everybody has see, or meant to claim a whole neighborhood. Click image for larger version

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    Work like a slave, anyhow...just to see what happens. Or don't...you can spend the night here with the pigeons and wonder what voices once filled these rooms.

    Thanks Gail for pics.

    ------Loren
    Attached Files
    Last edited by Loren; February 15, 2015, 02:57 PM.
    ...

  • #2
    Saw a documentary some years back on the Salton Sea and the heyday back in the fifties till now. There was a developer they were talking to who was looking to try and rejuvenate some of the area, guess he didn't succeed. Neat pics.
    Last edited by corvettedad; February 15, 2015, 11:23 AM.
    Pt 2010, Long Haul 2011,12,13,14,15,16,17, 18, 19, 23
    If you wait, all that happens is that you get older

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    • #3
      Cool pics of a disappearing Americana ...

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      • #4
        we've got some abandon places out here like that. my wife and i often comment to each other, why dont they have a program for homeless or poor people to get a place? its sad seeing homeless people sleep in the woods, eat in a soup kitchen, and theyres places they could fix up out here. sure would make things look nicer. if they could maintain it, no problems or inter-action with law enforcement for a period of time, give it to them. make taxpayers out of them eventually. not every homeless person is bad. maybe they need an opportunity, and this could be a good idea?

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        • #5
          Most homeless people out here want it that way ... it's their chosen way of life.

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          • #6
            This reminds me of a little group I found on Facebook. The chaos described there is strictly economical, but the results are similar and just as striking. Pity that the prosperity of many that spawned these was bypassed for the freedom of the few to prosper at the expense of the majority.

            Chronicling abandoned retail since 2008. Where some see an eyesore or blight in label scars and crumbling facades, “Dead Mall Enthusiasts” see it differently. We at DME seek to preserve the memory...
            My hobby is needing a hobby.

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            • #7
              Looks like some places upstate NY. I remember seeing big abandoned motels up in the Catskills. Big massive places some like small towns.

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              • #8
                I saw a documentary as well...the place was really something back in its heyday....
                If you can leave two black stripes from the exit of one corner to the braking zone of the next, you have enough horsepower. - Mark Donohue

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                • #9
                  The upstate New York area was known as the "Borscht Belt".

                  For middle- and working-class Jewish New Yorkers, the Catskill Mountains were a paradise within reach. Beginning in the 1920s, the area, which became...


                  Just another part of "Roadside America" where hardly anyone drives down the road anymore. Route 66 like in the movie "Cars", Upper Peninsula Michigan there are more. I guess Wisconsin Dells is doing well from the Power Tour reports though. Makes you wonder how many decades it will take until all but the cities are Mad Max territory though.
                  My hobby is needing a hobby.

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                  • #10
                    With all this talk of structural blight, homelessness and other corruption I might as well tie in another big news story I've had some personal experience with. In the late 1880s after the Civil War Los Angeles was still in it's infancy as a major metropolitan area. A wealthy land owner her deeded over 387 acres to the Federal Government with the provision that it be used strictly for helping soldiers. Then progress happened. Now the land is bordered by UCLA, Westwood Village and Brentwood. Westwood is a premeire entertainment area with huge movie theaters and upscale shopping. Brentwood is second only to Beverly Hills for luxury homes. Those who remember the O.J. Simpson story will note I cropped this image to include Bundy Drive where he and his wife lived, him somewhat longer than the wife......

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                    A hospital was built there. Whenever it became full or outmoded they just built another one, after all with 387 acres, why not? This went on until the 60s when skyscraper-like buildings became popular and they built the big medical center south of Wilshire.....

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                    Of course they left the old buildings north of Wilshire there, why not as well? They already had a couple of theaters, a church, a baseball diamond and a fricken GOLF COURSE, what would they need any space for? Notice the 6 largest buildings. The three on the left house mainly a nursing home for Seniors, some clinics not in the main hospital and a LOT of administration. The one on the top right is leased to the Salvation Army for short term at-risk Veterans The other two are Domiciliary Housing. What that is for is when someone is hospitalized their life tends to blow up on them. A Domiciliary is a place to put them while they rebuild, seek disability benefits or employment. The buildings house 321 beds, because that is what fit two buildings and just one building didn't seem like enough. Of course the main hospital is 500 beds and not everyone's life explodes when discharged so there are usually a lot of empty beds. They have to very quietly interview other Veterans with health and support problems to fill some too. Quietly because there are over 4,000 homeless vets in LA, most of them in some way sick or disabled. Anyway I spent 7 months in a hotel-like setting under scrutiny of Counselors in West Los Angeles in 2007. The rest of the old buildings are 60-80% vacant except for the semi-circular one which was just completed as more nursing homes. Generally the guys in "The Dom" would work hard to get their lives together but also think "WTF, Why can't more like us get this kind of deal?". Also the VA was getting a little "creative" in the use of the land and not adding space for more Vets. An odd little aside is a handful of Veterans camp out on the property above any legal reproach. Trespassing? The land is deeded to Veterans.

                    Finally a little reality is on it's way. A group of Veterans filed suit so no more land can get leased or sold to outside parties. They won last month. More reading if you aren't bored to tears already:

                    The federal government has agreed to settle a lawsuit accusing the Department of Veterans Affairs of misusing its sprawling West Los Angeles health campus while veterans with brain injuries and mental impairment slept in the streets, people familiar with the agreement said Tuesday.




                    My hobby is needing a hobby.

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                    • #11
                      O.K. something car-related. When I was there I traveled San Vicente and Wilshire a lot by bus. My favorite pastime at bus stops was seeing if a traffic light could go red without a BMW or Mercedes stopping. Never Happened.
                      Attached Files
                      My hobby is needing a hobby.

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by RockJustRock View Post
                        The upstate New York area was known as the "Borscht Belt".

                        For middle- and working-class Jewish New Yorkers, the Catskill Mountains were a paradise within reach. Beginning in the 1920s, the area, which became...


                        Just another part of "Roadside America" where hardly anyone drives down the road anymore. Route 66 like in the movie "Cars", Upper Peninsula Michigan there are more. I guess Wisconsin Dells is doing well from the Power Tour reports though. Makes you wonder how many decades it will take until all but the cities are Mad Max territory though.
                        Those are the more well known ones there were/are plenty of smaller ones too. Upstate needs alot of help but that is a topic for another time. Very depressing up there.

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                        • #13
                          In California, NY and all over the motoring dependent portion of the vacation industry is on permanent vacation. When I look in on Delaware County NY where I was born it is hunkered down and doing O.K. Of course it never really depended that much on tourism. Unless things change I see a coming boom/bust cycle in secondary education. Imagine College Campuses in ruin like those other sights.
                          My hobby is needing a hobby.

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                          • #14
                            The Salton Sea reminds me of Love Canal for some reason.
                            If you can leave two black stripes from the exit of one corner to the braking zone of the next, you have enough horsepower. - Mark Donohue

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                            • #15
                              Another set of cool pictures of the relics of a time gone by. Thanks again for sharing.
                              Escaped on a technicality.

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