One afternoon, Randy told us to go visit "The Center of the World" in a place called "Felicity" California a few miles over the border from Yuma. What the center of the world is one of the most crazy things I've ever seen. This is a chapel that is a stark and rather spooky silhouette against the sky as you approach the "town" which is basically just where this man and his wife live.
Jacques-Andre Istel has officially established the Center of the World here, and he has built a town around it to bolster his claim. He's the mayor. That's his signature on the official certificate you receive for standing at the Center of the World (which I did received).
Jacques-Andre saw this barren wasteland while serving as a Marine in the Korean War. He fell in love with it, and, with money made from his successful parachute schools business, bought thousands of acres stretching from I-8 northward to the Chocolate Mountains.
Jacques-Andrea helped convince Imperial County, California, to legally recognize a spot on his property as the official Center of the World. Next, he had the town of Felicity incorporated, naming it after his wife, Felicia Lee. An election was held, and Jacques-Andre became the first (and thus far only) mayor of Felicity by a unanimous vote of 3 to 0. The photo below was taken inside of a pyramid looking towards the chapel and at the granite monuments.
The official "Center of the World" inside of the pyramid.
The whole thing is dedicated to inscribing the history of the world on granite slabs....... which in a desert seem like an unlikely way to preserve something for a long long time. In any case, this is the first stop for in the "desert eccentrics" tour.
Second stop was the back yard of the Paradise Casino where Randy has spent time exploring and found encampments of folks living on native land, apparently, without being bothering by the native land owners for quiet some time. He doesn't do this much anymore, but would seek out these types of folks and engage them and find out their stories. So he's a great "off the beaten path" tour guide. Here is a campsite ghost town.
We actually found someone living in a huge RV out there in the back that had an up to date registration on the vehicle, but clearly was not driveable. These guys LOVE THEIR JUNK!!!!! This is hording on a mega- scale out here.
Another guy has been living out here in a "house made out of sticks" as Randy describes it, but apprently he's getting more serious now with his "boundaries" having erected a chain link fence and surrounding himself, with, what else, but junk and junk and more junk.
Third stop is a fantastic restaurant called "Lutes Casino" in Yuma, that's been in the family and in operation for well over 70 years. It's CRAMMED full of JUNK but it's cool junk, not hoarding gross junk. Endless amounts of stuff to look at. Good 'ole American food, done well. They had slot machines for a week, then thankfully, got rid of them.
Fifth stop on the tour is at the "tallest flagpole in the United States" on our way to the most eccentric desert dwelling place I've ever seen, The Slabs.
Yes, it is very tall.
The fifth stop on the tour of desert eccentrics is the Taj Mahal of hoarders and fringe dwellers, The Slabs in Niland CA. Fasten your seat belts, here we go.
The most famous place in the Slabs is a place called "Salvation Mountain" where
Leonard Knight spent 25 years dedicating his life to creating an outdoor sculpture in honor of the message of Jesus that "God is Love." I believe Congress has declared this a "national treasure" of folkart and has taken steps to preserve it. Many tourists stop here. Thousands of pounds of stucco and thousands of gallons of paint, all donated over the years, went into this project.
The Slabs is an abandoned military base that left hundreds of cement slabs that many boondocking RV folks have turned into winter quarters. All of this is free to use and stay as long as you like. Many come to winter here, some stay full time. The full timers are the most hard core eccentrics and desert hoarders. So it can range from moderately tidy to outright GROSS and disgusting. Piles of garbage are not uncommon along with just stockpiles of "stuff" that they someday think that might use in one way or another, but just collects and creates the whole ambiance of the apocalypse meets the 1960's hippies.
And these were the "nicer" places. Most everything is totally trashed, the stuffing is completely ripped out of whatever sofa or chair it was, everything is covered in grime and dirt. There is no house keeping here, other than probably moving junk from one place to another occasionally or making art out of something. Lots of kids come here who need to crash. Probably most folks who are full time residents.are either drunk or high a good portion of the day. It was definitely "skeevy" in spots, but other spots were better maintained and not looking so nutty.
"East Jesus" is another touristy destination in the Slabs, an outdoor modern art gallery made out of, of course, junk. Our very retro and sweet tour guide took us on a bit of a behind the scenes tour of how they live at East Jesus. She is one of the curators of the place full time (and it gets to be 125 degrees there in the summer). No one gets paid, they'll all trying to make it on donations.
You get a bit oversatuarated with the "art made from junk" theme after awhile, but this one stood out to me as being actually very beautiful. I was my favorite piece in the place.
Other pieces. Most of this if you saw in the MOMA you'd probably think that it was indeed, modern art.
The wall of TV's.
We ended the day at the "Range" a nightclub run by "Builder Bill" one of the leaders of the Slabs. Mostly kids up there making lots of noise and having a good time. Only "Slabish" thing other than the ripped chairs, tons of dogs, and barrels lit on fire was a guy standing outside of the area yelling "YOU SUCK" about every five minutes.
There you have it!
Woah-- it's a whole other world out there!
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