500,000 Tourists a Year. Now 230 People Live Here.

In the 1960s, the Salton Sea drew more visitors than Yosemite. Movie stars raced powerboats, a $2 million yacht club rose on the shore, and developers sold 25,000 lots in a brand new "Riviera" in the middle of the California desert. Twenty years later, millions of dead fish covered the beaches, lots worth $3,000 sold for $100, and the people left. Today fewer than 300 residents remain in Bombay Beach, and the shrinking lake leaves behind toxic dust. How did an accident in 1905 create California's largest lake, why did over $1 billion of investment vanish, and why could the dead sea now be worth $540 billion in lithium? 0:00 Intro 2:00 The $3 Million Mistake (1905) 4:31 Architects of the Desert Mirage (1950s) 7:09 The Golden Years of the Riviera 9:34 The Terminal Trap 11:59 The Two Storms That Broke the Sea (1976–1979) 14:25 The Great Exodus 16:43 The Poison Shore and the Lithium Future After the Crowd tells the stories of places that were once packed with people and are now empty: megaprojects that never paid off and destinations emptied by a single turning point. Subscribe for the next one. #SaltonSea #AbandonedPlaces #California