Here’s a look at one of the most unusual, most unlikely, and, strangely, most beloved campgrounds in the entire United States.
OPEN…AND CLOSED
When the United States entered World War II following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, it was just a matter of time until American soldiers would go into battle against the German and Italian forces occupying North Africa. So in 1942, the Marine Corps opened a base called Camp Dunlap on 630 acres of desert land in Southern California, where it trained troops to fight in conditions similar to those in North Africa.
Camp Dunlap wound down after the war and closed for good in 1956. The military stripped the base of everything of value, and after they cleared out, the citizens of the nearby city of Niland tore down the few remaining buildings and used the lumber to build a church. All that was left were the concrete slabs that had served as the floors for dozens of portable buildings and tents. A few ex-marines decided to stay behind, roughing it on campsites they built on the slabs. “The Slabs,” or “Slab City,” as it’s called, has been occupied ever since.
Only the toughest and most determined “slabbers” could stand to live at the site year-round; in summer the temperature can climb past 120°F in the shade, what little there is. But over the years, the site became a popular wintering spot for RV “snowbirds.” By the 1980s, more than 3,000 campers, travel trailers, and motor homes were descending on the site each October and staying until April, when they packed up and headed north again before it got too hot. Slab City had a lot to offer its “citizens,” most of whom were on limited or fixed incomes: It was warm in winter but not unbearably hot, and because it was owned by the state (and not private property) it was legal to stay there. It didn’t cost a penny in rent, and because it was just 50 miles north of the Mexican border, affordable prescription drugs and medical care weren’t far away, either.
Before you quit your job and hit the trail for Slab City, there are a few things you need to know. For starters, there’s still no water, electricity, or sewage service. There’s not much fresh air, either: Slab City is just three miles from the Salton Sea, a dying body of water that’s bigger than Lake Tahoe. Fed by salty runoff from the irrigated fields of the Imperial Valley (known as the Valley of the Dead before the irrigation went in), the Salton is already saltier than the Pacific Ocean, and by 2017 it will be so salty that nothing will be able to live in it. The fish die-off is already well under way, and as migratory birds eat the diseased and dying fish, they die, too, and end up in the lake. The overpowering stench has been compared to a combination of cow manure, skunk spray, rotten eggs, urine-soaked hallways, and vomit.
And while Camp Dunlap has been closed for more than 60 years, the adjacent Chocolate Mountain Gunnery Range is still open for business. It’s attacked day and night by bombers and fighter planes using real ordnance. As if the loud noises and trembling ground weren’t enough, some Slab City denizens make extra money sneaking onto the range at night to collect shrapnel that they sell for scrap metal. The military sends out patrols to stop them, but the county sheriff has caught more than one “scrapper” red-handed trying to bring unexploded cluster bombs, antitank rockets, and even Sidewinder missiles back to Slab City. A few of the scrappers have been blown to bits by the bombs.
So is Slab City the last bastion of true freedom and independence in America, or is it a stinking, sunbaked, postapocalyptic ticking-time-bomb vision of hell on earth? It depends on who you ask. It’s certainly not for everyone: A 1989 survey of visitors to the Salton Sea area found that not only did most of them say they’d never want to return, more than half said they were afraid to return.
And yet in spite of it all, people keep coming back. They’ve created quite a thriving community in Slab City, complete with swap meets, a library, a singles club, a Christian center, a church, a pet cemetery, and an outdoor stage where people gather to listen to live music every night. Nearly everyone has a CB, and they’re usually tuned to channel 23, the unofficial Slab City channel, especially for the 6:00 p.m. nightly news bulletins and announcements. Many residents are better known by their CB handles (Stargazer, Brain Dead, Cardboard Johnny) than they are by their real names.
When groups of snowbirds start arriving in October, they tend to cluster their rigs in groups for security. But the various factions at Slab City—snowbirds, year-round slabbers, migrant laborers, the Apple Dumpling Gang (dune buggy enthusiasts), and even the local sheriff’s deputies, who patrol the area regularly—manage to interact on a daily basis without much fuss. Many slabbers have built small businesses that provide services to other residents. Does your rig need a new fan belt? Do you need water hauled in, or your garbage hauled out? Is your TV on the fritz? Do you want to replace your electric generator with solar panels? Someone in Slab City can take care of it for you. They even have an Avon Lady.
STAY TUNED
Imperial County isn’t crazy about Slab City, and neither is the State of California, which owns the land. But nobody wants the responsibility—or the expense—of closing it down and cleaning it up. Forty years’ worth of abandoned cars, burned-out trailers, and other junk would have to be hauled away, and the hundreds of “gopher holes” (makeshift septic tanks) scattered around the site would have to be dealt with. And who knows how many unexploded bombs are still lying around? On more than one occasion the state has tried to sell Slab City, perhaps to someone who would clean it up, put in utilities, and turn it into a commercial campground. But who would pay to camp between the stinky Salton Sea and a live bombing range? And as much as the county must hate to admit it, when all those RVs roll into town each October, they pump a fortune into the economies of Niland and other small towns in the area.
Even if the county could get rid of Slab City, would it really want to? Every year the conversation in Slab City fills with speculation and worry that this season might be the last, and every year the old-timers laugh it off. “Somebody’s always got a plan to clean up the Slabs,” one resident said in 1994. “I’m 87 now, and if I live to be 100, I’ll still be coming here.”
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The article above was reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges into California. This volume brings you stories of the Golden State you've never heard before. You’ll meet child prodigies, spies, traitors, celebrities (and sidekicks), gossips, hermits, humanitarians, and zealots.
Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!
This is a picture from the Curiosity Rover on Mars showing Earth from the Perspective of Mars. You are literally looking at your home from the Perspective of another planet. Epic times indeed
In professional wrestling, everyone's in on the joke. It's not real, at least in the sense that it's not meant to be taken seriously.
But in the far-right media, nobody appears to be in on the joke—the joke, in this case being InfoWars host Alex Jones.
That's not an opinion, or any kind of hot take form us. That's actually via his lawyer.
Jones, who's emerged in recent years as a leading voice in (very) conservative media, is preparing to argue that his public persona is fake. He's a "performance artist," Jones' lawyer told a court, during a recent hearing in preparation for a child custody trial between Jones and his ex-wife. Read more...
Dave Cutlip of Southside Tattoo Parlor in Baltimore has a plan for people who want to start a new life. He will give you a tattoo to cover up an old racist or gang-related tat for free! Cutlip and his wife Beth just want to do some good, but when word got around, everyone wanted to get in on the act.
Now Dave and Beth are launching a non-profit organization called Redemption Ink to help folks get beyond the tattoos they now regret. They are recruiting tattoo artists in other areas to provide the same service, and using donated funds to purchase laser removal for those who require more than a cover up. -via reddit
The Internet is everywhere. The latest anecdotal evidence of this is a story of prison inmates that build their own computer and connected it to the internet. Back in 2015, prisoners at the Marion Correctional Institution in Ohio built two computers from discarded parts which they transported 1,100 feet through prison grounds (even passing a security checkpoint) before hiding them in the ceiling of a training room. The information has just been made public after the release of the Inspector General’s report (PDF). This report is fascinating and worth your time to read.
This Ethernet router was located in a training room in the prison. Physical access is everything in computer security.
Prisoners managed to access the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections network using login credentials of a retired prison employee who is currently working as a contract employee. The inmates plotted to steal the identity of another inmate and file tax returns under their name. They also gained access to internal records of other prisoners and checked out websites on how to manufacture drugs and DIY weapons, before prison officers were able to find the hidden computers. From the report:
The ODAS OIT analysis also revealed that malicious activity had been occurring within the ODRC inmate network. ODAS OIT reported, “…inmates appeared to have been conducting attacks against the ODRC network using proxy machines that were connected to the inmate and department networks.” Additionally, ODAS OIT reported, “It appears the Departmental Offender Tracking System (DOTS) portal was attacked and inmate passes were created. Findings of bitcoin wallets, stripe accounts, bank accounts, and credit card accounts point toward possible identity fraud, along with other possible cyber-crimes.”
The prisoners involved knew what they were doing. From the interview with the inmate it seems the computers were set up as a remote desktop bridge between internal computers they were allowed to use and the wider internet. They would use a computer on the inmate network and use a remote desktop to access the illicit computers. These were running Kali Linux and there’s a list of “malicious tools” found on the machines. It’s pretty much what you’d expect to find on a Kali install but the most amusing one listed in the report is “Hand-Crafted Software”.
This seems crazy, but prisoners have always been coming up with new ideas to get one over on the guards — like building DIY tattoo guns, When you have a lot of time on your hands and little responsibility, crazy ideas don’t seem so crazy after all.
Well, of course MST3K does stranger things, stranger than most other shows, every time we watch it. Oh, but in this promo, the cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000 watches the Netflix TV series Stranger Things! That show is a definite turn from the quality of the movies Jonah and the bots are used to, but they still have plenty to say about what's directly in front of them.
Any production that has sequences without dialogue is just asking for the MST3K treatment. The new version of MST3K is now available on Netflix, and Stranger Things will return for season two on October 31. -via Geeks Are Sexy
If you live in Arizona, give a nice warm welcome to your newest police officer: a lizard.
That's right, the Avondale Police Department has officially sworn in Iroh the bearded dragon, and have given him a badge and everything. Photos of the momentous occasion were shared on the department's Facebook page.
Iroh first came into police work last year, when the police department announced on April Fool's Day that the bearded dragon would be joining their ranks with a specialty in dug detection.
"Research has shown that reptiles possess a strong sense of smell making their ability to detect certain illicit drugs possibly more accurate than K9s," the Facebook announcement read. Read more...
‘All that you need to know about boars can be summed up in the fact that if you wish to hunt them, you must have a specially made boar spear. This spear has a crosspiece on it to prevent the boar from charging the length of the spear, driving it all the way through his own body, to savage the human holding the other end.’
-Boar and Apples, T. Kingfisher
fuck OFF
Note that pigs are also HUGE. So, yes, they ARE slightly larger pigs.
So I grew up in the city and have never seen a pig in real life and I just googled it and WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS
I thought they were like labrador sized, like, fat labradors, not mini-cows.
every time I see this post there are more people discovering how fuck off huge pigs actually are and I love it I thought this was a thing everyone knew but clearly not and I’m laughing
This is me with our Tamworth boar, a heritage breed closer to their wild cousins than the Yorkshire above. I am a fully grown, average sized human. He was a gentle sweetie who, sadly, is no longer with us. His name was Mr. Big.
FUCK OFF
Forever laffin’ at people who don’t understand how enormous, terrifying, and tenacious wild boar are.
They’re like if bears had knives protruding from their closed mouths and Didn’t Know When To Quit. Their survival instincts when they’re wounded aren’t “run away and minimize injury” it’s “take the thing that hurt you down with you” They also make sounds like someone crossed a pig with an alligator.
Their head and neck alone can be like the size of an entire human torso.
Also forever laffin’ at people who think pigs are tiny, ‘cause we designed those things can get in the neighbourhood of a thousand pounds in ideal circumstances.
It’s like when people assume Tuna must be small because they’ve only ever experienced them in hockey puck form.
Tbh I blame Charlotte’s Web and Babe for all of that. (Except the tuna)
April the giraffe is in active labor this morning. Here April is checking out the two hooves that have emerged from her innards. They say the whole process could take up to an hour.
People who live in the country know what I'm talking about: you're blissfully driving like 150 miles an hour over the speed limit on some rural freeway, when BAM! Tractor. Ssllooww tractor. Not to mention the fact that he's too wide to pass. Thankfully, if you come across this guy on his tractor, there will be no need to fret. As the great Ricky Bobby once said, "if you ain't first, you're last!"
If you've never bitten into a bell pepper vigorously then looked into the mist with a passionate, steely gaze, let us explain.
Iron Chef started as a Japanese cooking show in 1993 and its mix of melodrama, competition and food skyrocketed the program to worldwide fame. Its stateside adaptation Iron Chef America (not to be confused with the William Shatner-hosted, short-lived Iron Chef USA) lasted 11 seasons on The Food Network. (The show was put on hiatus in 2014 and has not yet returned to film new episodes.) Read more...
Nintendo has been proclaiming that the Switch is its fastest-selling console ever since the system launched, but now it has numbers to back that up. Based on NPD reports, it says the Switch sold 906,000 units in the US in March. What's surprising, ho...
A couple of boaters found themselves directly in the middle of a pod of orca whales hunting a sea lion off of the coast of Bowyer Island in British Columbia, Canada.
According to Viral Hog, the man filming the incident spotted a few whale watching boats and went to go check out the action. After observing the orcas from a distance for 30 minutes, things took a turn when a sea lion sought refuge under one of the boats. The orcas bashed the boats like toys in a bathtub while trying to hunt the sea lion.
The boaters were fearful that they would harm the animals with the propellers on their boats if they tried to get away, so the boats stayed put until a guide on the whale watching boat suggested that they move closer to the island so the sea lion could get to safety. Read more...
Here's something that might make you spit out your tea.
According to food scientist Dr Quan Vuong, from the University of Newcastle in Australia, microwaving your cup of tea is the key to getting more health benefits from the beverage.
He's done years of research on the matter, but still, people aren't taking it well.
"Microwaving is one of the advanced technologies to get more bioactive compounds from the products," he told ABC News.
According to Dr Vuong, the best tasting and most effective method of microwaving your tea is putting hot water in the cup with a teabag, then heating it in the microwave for 30 seconds on half power, and finally letting it sit for a minute. Read more...
Make a cartoon, even the most benign, into a hyperrealistic image is often frightening, but the bizarre and surreal images of Ren and Stimpy, from the 1990s Nickelodeon series The Ren & Stimpy Show, take it another step into crazyland. Andrew Freeman of Immortal Masks made these masks to bring the cartoons to life. Happy happy joy joy!
Every time I look back on that show I think about how they used to make human knees look so nasty. There was such fine detail in the writing and the animation on that show. I was a huge fan. When it comes to these masks I can’t say I’m a fan. I’m amazingly impressed by the precision and the “this is what they’d look like in real life” factor, but I can honestly say if one of these were in my house I would constantly freak out and have nightmares.
(Image credit: Flickr user Gerry)
(Image credit: Flickr user Don Barrett)
(Image credit: Flickr user rocor)
(Image credit: Flickr user Marc Cooper)
(Image credit: Flickr user bellbeefer)
(Image credit: Flickr user rocor)
The article above was reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges into California. This volume brings you stories of the Golden State you've never heard before. You’ll meet child prodigies, spies, traitors, celebrities (and sidekicks), gossips, hermits, humanitarians, and zealots. 
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Nintendo has been proclaiming that the Switch is its fastest-selling console ever since the system launched, but now it has numbers to back that up. Based on NPD reports, it says the Switch sold 906,000 units in the US in March. What's surprising, ho...
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