What Happened When California Tried to Sell Slab City

In 1991, California tried to sell Slab City for $225,391. Not one bid qualified. How a WWII Marine base became an RV snowbird town that California spent 40 years trying to sell. Slab City sits on a square mile of state school land near Niland, California, by the Salton Sea. In World War II it was Camp Dunlap, a Marine artillery base; when the buildings came down, only the concrete slabs were left, and by the mid-1960s trailers and RVs were wintering on them, rent-free. This is the Slab City history from the state's own records, with Leonard Knight's Salvation Mountain and East Jesus. ▸ Next: Revcon Kept Front-Wheel Drive Alive 13 Years After GM Quit    • Revcon: The Motorhome Charles Kuralt Bough...   CHAPTERS 0:00 Slab City, the Floors the Marines Left 1:20 The Floors 4:03 The Snowbirds 6:30 For Sale 10:03 Who Owns the Slabs 13:08 Today 14:48 Next: The RV Boom SOURCES California State Lands Commission (CSLC), Calendar Item 15, quitclaim of Section 36, 22 Nov 1961. https://web.archive.org/web/202110311... CSLC, Calendar Item 18, Sale of State School Land, 22 Jul 1982. https://web.archive.org/web/202110311... CSLC, Calendar Item 42, Authorization for Litigation, 15 Jul 1991. https://web.archive.org/web/202110311... CSLC, School Land Program report, 18 Oct 1991. https://web.archive.org/web/202110311... CSLC, Negative Declaration, Sale of School Lands in Imperial County, Dec 2015. https://www.slc.ca.gov/wp-content/upl... Congressional Record, Leonard Knight and Salvation Mountain, 15 May 2002. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/C... USGS, Iris Wash 7.5' map (1956) and Salton Sea 1:250,000 (1955), via Wikimedia Commons. SPACES Archives, Seymour Rosen letter (26 Aug 1994) and flyer against the county lease (c. 1994). http://spacesarchives.org/assets/2016... SlabCity.org, About and History (2001), via the Internet Archive. http://web.archive.org/web/2001081117... California Military History Online, Camp Dunlap. https://www.militarymuseum.org/CpDunl... KPBS (2014, 2015), Angela Carone. https://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/feb/10... Imperial Valley Press (2014), Antoine Abou-Diwan. https://www.antoineaboudiwan.com/slab... Calexico Chronicle (2021). https://calexicochronicle.com/2021/11... Bluedot Living (2022), Lily Olsen. https://bluedotliving.com/slab-city-r... SFGATE (2023), Ariana Bindman. https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article... Hyperallergic (2024). https://hyperallergic.com/865677/cali... KYMA (2026), Blue Church fire. https://kyma.com/news/2026/05/12/fire... Roadside America, Salvation Mountain. https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story... East Jesus, About. https://eastjesus.org/about/ KCET Artbound (2014), East Jesus. https://pbssocal.org/shows/artbound/o... RV.com (2020), RV System Fundamentals. https://www.rv.com/servicing-care/saf... IMAGE CREDITS Flickr, CC BY 2.0: Matthew Dillon (RuggyBearLA) (6), Tom Hilton (4), Joe Bielawa (2), Jessica Jewell Lanier, tuchodi, Amy Jeffries, Jim Bahn, bdearth, John Roney. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0: USMC Archives from Quantico (2), Kevin Dooley (2), Jessica Jewell Lanier, tuchodi, Greg Schechter, Chris M Morris, taylorandayumi, Brian. CC0: Pixel.la Free Stock Photos; DimiTalen. Public domain: Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress; National Archives DOCUMERICA; U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy; USGS maps and National Atlas (1970); Natural Earth; U.S. Census Bureau. Documents: California State Lands Commission; Congressional Record; SPACES Archives; SlabCity.org (Internet Archive). Maps, diagrams and the RV cutaway: Land Yacht Legends. MUSIC Music created in collaboration with ElevenLabs (Eleven Music). AI DISCLOSURE Narrated with an AI voice (ElevenLabs). Maps, diagrams and the RV cutaway are our own graphics. No AI-generated images or footage. Every fact in this video is sourced above. #RVhistory #SlabCity #SalvationMountain