After several failed attempts to spread the Word of God through various grand schemes, Leonard Knight finally settled on building Salvation Mountain in the middle of the desert from discarded trash, sand and adobe. He painted it with inspirational quotes from the bible to help protect it from the weather.
Leonard decided to leave California but wanted to spend one extra week in the area to make a small memorial with a half bag of concrete he had lying around. Weeks begat months begat years and after tons of junk, sand, concrete and paint were assembled, Leonard had the 50-foot high creation he was after! Until it collapsed on itself.
Undaunted, Leonard rebuilt the mountain, this time using native adobe clay and straw. He applied paint liberally to keep the elements from washing away his work. Over the years, Leonard has applied well over 100,000 gallons of paint to his mountain of clay and debris as (he hopes) a lasting tribute to God.
http://www.kelleys.org/index.php/salvation-mountain/
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by tzkelley.
The place is stupefying.
Pictures do not do it justice. Not at all.
Fantastic primitive art.
Leonard is happy to talk with all comers.
How this old man keeps at it, out in the blistering desert is beyond my puny abilities to understand.
If you ever find yourself within five hundred miles of this place, stop, rearrange your schedule, and by all means go. Go and see this thing!
http://bit.ly/5pW47
I didn't know bible quotes workes as weatherproofing! Thats much more affordable than normal means.
I always thought it was little more than a trash heap when the shanty village of "slab city" (not too far away from here) is added to the picture.
I think Google Earth has a lot more pics.
Clip of Leonard on Vimeo
We'd like to go back again before too much longer, and bring our daughter, who was away visiting her grandmother this past time around.