Abandoned Salton Sea Beach Marina and the four mostly-dead palm trees

The Salton Sea is an incongruous sight: a huge body of water in the middle of a desert. And with good reason. California's largest lake was created purely by accident in 1905 when floodwaters from the Colorado River burst past a series of dams and settled in a naturally salty depression more than 228 feet below sea level. Ever since, the lake has been a Southern California oasis, rich in wildlife. Its future, however, is in doubt.

The Salton Sea was once a popular place for boating, swimming, fishing, etc., but an increase in the salt level of the water caused large numbers of fish to die and the water became foul. This, in addition to a couple of hurricanes in the 1970's, caused the communities surrounding the sea to deteriorate.

While there are several people that still live around the Sea today - and places like Salton City have been mostly cleared of abandoned buildings - many Salton Sea communities are still littered with abandoned and decaying trailers, marinas, houses, etc.

These days there are NOT that many dead fish on the shores - in fact, on doesn't really smell dead fish around the shores anymore.

The Sea itself is technically safe to swim in. The lake is NOT polluted with sewage, rather there are times of year when the decaying algae blooms give off a surfer odor which only smells like sewage. I must say, again, that the smell from the lake has actually been decent lately.

The Salton Sea was recently featured on Life After People on the History Channel.

Several still photos of the Salton Sea are on my Flickr page - with more being added regularly: http://www.flickr.com/photos/slworking/sets/72157605264326878/

Grand reopening of the Salton Sea History Museum. Now located at 72-120 S. Lincoln Street (end of road across creek), Mecca, CA 92254

News video: http://www.kesq.com/video/30403959/index.html

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Salton-Sea-History-Museum/125597164130869

Museum homepage: http://www.saltonseamuseum.org/

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• salton
• sea
• abandoned
• california
• desert
• urbex
• urban
• exploration
• decay
• lake
• flood
• nature
• disaster
• palm
• tree

[aducimeH]

Salton sea wasn't meant to be. It was formed when the Colorado river changed it's course then it dried up, was filled once more just to dry again. The latest version of the sea was formed by levee's accidendtally breaking 100 years ago and the sea is now drying again. Theres no natural stream feeding the sea but i agree with marcus and slworking that something has to be done but i doubt that anyone is prepared to spend the money needed to clean the place.

[slworking2]

@aducimeH Yeah. If someone has the money to invest in fixing the Sea, it would be nice.

[DixieLoves14]

thode trees arent even there any more...,, i dont think hah

[slworking2]

@DixieLoves14 The palm trees were still here last time I visited.

[DixieLoves14]

haahahhaa i live down here i go there all the time,my grandpa built the marina

[slworking2]

@DixieLoves14 Very cool.

[slworking2]

@mmmmmarcus I agree. It will cost a lot of money to fix the Salton Sea, but it would be an even bigger disaster to let it dry up. And, fixing the Sea would be an investment in the future. If the State were to fix it up, people would once again come here to swim, boat, fish, etc. - which would help the local economy and state tax revenue.

[mmmmmarcus]

This is such a tragedy. our state cant manage anything... Look what they did to this place. It used to be full or sargo, striper, corvina, now its just tilapia. Then it became an industrial landfill for toxic runoff.... california pisses me off.

[slworking2]

They were once normal, but it looks like they've been deprived of water and even burned at one time.

[davidsquall351]

Those are some strange lookin' Palms.....lol