Slab City: Living Off the Grid in California's Badlands
"Chicago" Joe Angio and his wife Anna did everything by the book to secure their slice of the American Dream. They earned college degrees, started a small business, bought a house and pair of cars, paid their taxes and credit-card bills on time. But when the economy tanked, so did the dream. Between two jobs they could barely pay their mortgage, reaching a point where they had to choose which creditor to shortchange at the end of the month in order to keep the lights on. With foreclosure no longer a matter of if, but of when, the couple looked on the Internet for the ideal place to lay low, spend less and experiment with solar power to "get more for our buck out of our environment." They bought a used RV and went off the grid. Way off.
Slab City, their home for the past three months, is a squatters' camp deep in the badlands of California's poorest county, where the road ends and the sun reigns, about 190 miles southeast of Los Angeles and hour's drive from the Mexican border. The vast state-owned property gets its name from the concrete slabs spread out across the desert floor, the last remnants of a World War II–era military base. In the decades since it was decommissioned, dropouts and fugitives of all stripes have swelled its winter population to close to a thousand, though no one's really counting. These days, their numbers are growing thanks to a modest influx of recession refugees like the Angios, attracted by do-it-yourself, rent-free living beyond the reach of electricity, running water and the law. And while the complexion of the Slabs, as the place is locally known, may be changing in some ways, the same old rule applies: respect your neighbor, or stay the hell away.
"It's pretty much as close to the Old West as you're gonna get. Most of us don't own guns or none of that garbage, but if we have problems, we take care of [them]," says Ray, 56, a former drug addict turned born-again Christian who has traversed the country six times with a giant wooden cross on his back. Katie Ray, 30, a perennial visitor from Oakland, Calif., calls the place a "postapocalyptic vacation zone."
Although Slabbers tend to defy easy characterization, de facto neighborhoods ("Poverty Flats," "Lows"
and tribes have emerged. There are Year-Rounders who brave the 120°F summer inferno, and Snowbirds who land from as far as Canada with their souped-up RVs and pensions, soul-searching Gypsy Kids who arrive by train with little more than the ragged clothes on their back, Spaz Kids and their electro-psychedelic outdoor parties, and Scrappers who risk life and limb to collect shrapnel from the gunnery range that flanks the camp, where Navy SEAL teams train year-round (and where rumor has it they prepared for the Osama bin Laden raid). That's to say nothing of the rowdy bikers who pass through, or the meth-addled loners on the outer edges inclined to greet a trespasser with a gunshot. If the Burning Man festival were a permanent settlement instead of a weeklong escape -- remixed with a hard dose of reality -- this might be it.
http://news.yahoo.com/slab-city-living-off-grid-californias-badlands-090000272.html
Weren't outfits like this called "communes" in the past? Or is that too flowery and socialist a term to use for this bunch?
= new reply since forum marked as read
Below sea level, and almost as low in elevation as Death Valley, The Salton Sea, was created by an engineering accident in the early 1900s that allowed the Colorado River to pour into this depression for 2 years, creating the largest fresh water lake in California.
During the 30s - 40s, it was a very popular resort area,
but the Hover Dam prevented any further inflow of fresh water.
The Salton Sea began to Dry Up, and by the 60s the pollution and salt content became too high for most life.
As the area became uninhabitable, most people moved away, leaving the old motels and resorts abandoned.
There have been several documentaries lately on that area.
It definitely has a Post Apocalypse vibe.
My wife & I live Off the Grid as much as possible,
and I guess this area qualifies as Off the Grid, but this is not something we are attracted to.
"Life" is not sustainable in this area.
Fresh Water and Food would be only 2 of the immediate, critical problems.
Check out some of the images from Google/images for Salton Sea
There IS a beauty in their starkness.
This is probably the future for the Suburbs in the USA as rising fuel costs make them uninhabitable.