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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Another example, similar. Wood and insulation are preserved in the dry air long after the few-bucks' worth aluminum siding is stripped away.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Another example, similar. Wood and insulation are preserved in the dry air long after the few-bucks' worth aluminum siding is stripped away.
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.
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.
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.
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
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