Detour Pit Stop #38: Salvation Mountain, California, USA
Alex Radelich / Unsplash
Just outside the small town of Niland in the Californian desert, around a one and a half hour drive south-east from Palm Springs, you’ll find Salvation Mountain, quite one of the weirdest, most profoundly strange art installations you’re ever likely to encounter.
This man-made mountain complex is constructed out of, well, a whole heap of random things. Dirt, painted cement, hay bales, adobe bricks and old tyres, the surrounding landscape littered with art cars, sculptures, telephone poles and other assorted bits of rusty desert ephemera. And it’s all covered in a psychedelic patchwork of latex paint – half a million gallons of the stuff.
The whole site, which also boasts countless murals and painted areas daubed with Christian proverbs and Bible verses, was the vision of late artist and local resident Leonard Knight, who wished to share his religious beliefs through his artwork. Starting the project as a ‘small monument’ in 1984, Knight’s work grew into a structure that was several stories high and around 100 yards wide after just five years. Unfortunately, this ‘first’ mountain collapsed in 1989 due to some highly unsound construction methods. Let’s just say that there weren’t a lot of civil engineers about to oversee things. So, Knight started again. What you see today is the second iteration of Salvation Mountain, a little shorter than the first attempt, but still equally jaw-slackening.
Sadly, Knight passed away in 2014. His mountain legacy remains, but since his death the site has required constant upkeep and maintenance in order to prevent the harsh desert environment from engulfing it. Many visitors have since donated paint to the project, while volunteers protect the mountain and keep all the artwork touched up and presentable.
Entrance to Salvation Mountain is free, although cash donations and/or buckets of latex paint are welcomed.
Words Luke Ponsford
Photography Chelsea Bock / Design Class / Olga Delawrence / Unsplash