More than just a myth, snowbird heaven or the last of the few options left to people wanting out, or just thrown out, of the regular American system. Slab City proved to be an incredible place to spend our last week in the USA and, if the Rainbow Gathering was our way in, and with all the craziness of Cascadia, Burning Man and Spaz in between, Christmas at the Slabs was the perfect exit. There’s a Slab City gallery here.
Slab City has been around for decades but not a lot of Americans know about it. This is despite loads of articles, documentaries – despite being in that film Into the Wild. That’s where I first came across the place: I remember seeing it in the film and thinking, ‘that has got to be a genuine place, not just a set’. We met such a varied bunch of amazing characters there – from the minute we arrived and got picked up by an ex-US Navy guy, to the time a eighty-year old English man got us drunk on sangria and drove us around in his SUV. Can’t forget the artists at Eastjesus, the Karma Kitchen, Salvation Mountain – a true feeling of home for this wandering traveler…
