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Slab City


Heavyduty053
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Did anyone see the evening news yesterday, the story about people (our nations people) having to move to a place in the desert called Slab city in California to live in small travel trailers, tents with their familys because they have no place else to go and it is not just a few it is many with a few more each day. It is a public land that is not useable for anything and been vacant for years. These familys with teenage kids and some smaller around 3 to 8 years of age were once like you and i had good jobs some with computer and high tech fields lost everything house, car, their lives because of jobs cuts, businesses closing. Sanitary conditions are horrible they take baths in a culvert. These were once tax paying citizens who just wanted to live and get along like the rest of us but life has thrown them a curve. They will suffer many hardship thru no fault of their own and yet there is nothing of little value for them. These are not rebellious or protestors these are true american families that have met the Corporate Beast to downsize. California Governor just admitted that the Federal Govt has reduced money to the state and the jobs situation is in dare straits. Seems like the feds are putting the squeeze on all the states by with holding funds.

When they interviewed these people and showed their living conditions it looked like i was looking at some place in a third world country not here in this great nation. If these trends continue how many more will fade into survival just to exist. This is so shameful to watch our people have to endure something like this and knowing that thousands of us could be next. Washington has insulated its self from the rest of this nation and don't even know whats going on. Anyone with any compassion left inside of them should be concerned right now. It is so shameful. This country is not supposed to be this way.............Heavyduty053

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There have been places in America like that for decades. The Pine Ridge Reservation comes to mind. If you visit there you would think you have entered a third world country. Certain pockets of the Appalachians are also very down trodden and have been for generations. Those are just the two that came to mind as soon as I read your post...I know there are a few more that hurt my heart everytime I think about them.

Our goverment would have enough money to educate and help all these people if we were not giving millions in aid to other countries. I understand the politics behind it but we really need to take care of our own first.

I don't believe in hand outs....they are counter productive but I certainly believe in a helping hand.

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Here in Michigan they have issued letters to all who are on unemployment benefits (by God's grace, my family is not) that the benefits of any and all extensions are over with as of Dec. 31st. It doesn't matter if you still have extension weeks left or not. The letter wasn't clear on whether new claims will be honored or not. This is why the jobless rate is going down and the big "O" is looking like a hero. It's not because of people finding work, it's because they are no longer allowed to collect the money that has been keeping their family from doing what the people mentioned above have had to do. Sad is what it is....Maybe we would still have funds available if this great country wouldn't allow entrance to every refugee and give them the benefits that our elders have paid into....Don't get me wrong, I am all for helping those in need. But when they come over here and we pay their housing, food, medical, give them cars and cash....then they start bringing in their entire unit of family (not to mention spawning more while here) it is just ridiculous!!!! Maybe if we helped them out for a three to six month time period until they got on their feet instead of just adopting them forever....what is up with this!!!!!! Just my two cents as I watch them continue to take away from my 92 year old grandmother who worked her entire life and paid in.....Just makes me sick!!!! Smh....

Edited by mogirl463
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I have been to the "Slabs" as they call it. It is the home, for the winter, of hundreds of RV'ers from all over the U.S. It is a quiet, cheap (free) place to be for the winter and the weather is gorgeous. I hate to see displaced families living there, as there mostly undesirables ( drugs, alcohol,etc.) there in the winter. There are plenty of other places to be in the desert without this obstacle, hundreds of square miles of open (free almost) BLM land in the desert. But you can't beat the weather in the winter, when most are freezing their buns off.

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I have been to the "Slabs" as they call it. It is the home, for the winter, of hundreds of RV'ers from all over the U.S. It is a quiet, cheap (free) place to be for the winter and the weather is gorgeous. I hate to see displaced families living there, as there mostly undesirables ( drugs, alcohol,etc.) there in the winter. There are plenty of other places to be in the desert without this obstacle, hundreds of square miles of open (free almost) BLM land in the desert. But you can't beat the weather in the winter, when most are freezing their buns off.

This might have been a little get away in times past for some but when you have nothing left it takes on a different look.

Brief history and over-view of Slab City.

Wait a minute what has this video from Colorado's abondoned Camp Dunlop got to do with the slab city of Niland California. This is two totally different places. Its not a resort.

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Wait a minute what has this video from Colorado's abondoned Camp Dunlop got to do with the slab city of Niland California. This is two totally different places. Its not a resort.

CAMP DUNLAP & SLAB CITY

Imperial Co., CA

By

Gary B. Speck

I VISITED THIS FASCINATING two-generational Class B ghost on September 29, 2006. CAMP DUNLAP and SLAB CITY, California, are the same place - different generations. This, Twentieth-Century ghost is located east of the Salton Sea, deep in the southeastern corner of California, about three miles northeast of Niland, itself a struggling community of 1100 or so folks.

The story of this ghost began in February 1942, when the United States Navy Department obtained 631 acres of desert land east of Niland at the western foot of the Chocolate Mountains for use as the Camp Dunlap Naval Reservation. The military post was built during 1942 and some of the improvements included: 30-some buildings, a water treatment & distribution system, sewage collection & treatment system, eight miles of paved streets, a 76’ x 165’ swimming pool and concrete fuel tanks. The Marine Corps used Camp Dunlap as a training center, and some 185,000 troops were field artillery-trained here. When the war ended, training ended. However, the post is said to have been active until 1949, finally being demolished in 1956, with all the buildings being removed and the site abandoned.

In 1961, the land was returned to the State of California, and for the past 45 years has remained a checkerboard of roads with scattered concrete slabs, bunkers, guard posts, water tanks and foundations, all slowly being reclaimed by the desert. Even the paved roads are beginning to crumble.

This is where its second life comes in. Beginning in the 1950s, “Snowbirds” discovered the remaining slabs at Camp Dunlap to be a perfect refuge from winter cold and a good place to roost for the winter. As time when on, more folks arrived, and some even began to remain year-round, squatters on state land that no one wants. The Slabs (or Slab City) has become quite populous, with a large contingent of transients having taken up residence. Some estimates range as high as 2000. The community is an interesting one, and at the time of my visit in 2006, I saw scattered snowbirds mixed with other folks that had obviously squatted here a long time. However, based on the number of “rigs,” I would guess that the entire population was well under 250. RVs on site include everything from high dollar motorhomes through dead, 50-year old travel trailers. Abandoned cars and all kinds of assorted junk decorate many of the Slabber’s sites, some of which have established “permanent” homes with their dead vehicles.

For those who do stay here, there are no sewer hookups, no electricity, and no water, other than what each individual provides. A loose-knit community has formed, and is well aware of outsiders. If you do visit, please respect the privacy and rights of those living on the site. A lot of the remains of Camp Dunlap are still visible, and makes for an interesting outing.

On the main entry road to the site, is Salvation Mountain, Leonard Knight’s colorful tribute to God sprawling over 100 feet of a thirty-foot high bluff face. He has spent 15 years painting the mountainside, and has applied 40,000 gallons of paint. He accepts donations, which has raised the ire of some Slabbers. Some say he’s a genius folk artist, and others call him a nutcase. I never spoke with Leonard, but did enjoy looking at his creation from the road, finding it fascinating and a positive influence in an increasingly negative society.

Maybe the reason Slab City fascinated me so much is that it is one of the last places in America that still allows personal freedom to be displayed and tolerated. Love it or hate it, or anything in between, this is a unique member of Ghost Town USA!

Location:

· NE¼ Sec 36, T10S, R14E, San Bernardino Meridian

· Latitude: 33° 15' 36" N / 33.2600364

· Longitude: 115° 27' 58" W / -115.4660961

Edited by krome2ez
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