The first Salvation Mountain was created in 1984 based on the “Sinners Prayer” reading “God is Love.” It was a small concrete monument crafted by Korean War Vet - Leonard Knight…
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
A rainstorm collapsed the first mountain in 1989 inspiring Knight to build a “smarter” mountain with better materials and engineering, such as adobe mixed with straw, brick and tires…
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
in 1998 Knight expanded the Mountain gathering ideas from the local Navajo. Inspired by their pueblitos, he created the Hogan with the hope of living inside. Instead, he lived in a shack on the back of his truck for 27 years…
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
The “Sinner’s Prayer” is an evangelical Christian term referring to any prayer of repentance, prayed by individuals who feel convinced of the presence of sin in their lives and have the desire to form or renew a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ…
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
Knight considered himself to be a visionary American folk artist whose message was unconditional love to all humankind…
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
Knight began another formation he called “the museum.” It is a dome shaped structure with personal items that visitors come to see, and pray for redemption in…
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
A public charity, Salvation Mountain, Inc. was established to maintain the site after Knight sustained an injury in 2011, and couldn’t paint the structure twice a year as he’d like…
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
In December 2011, Knight at age 80, was placed in a long-term care facility in El Cajon for dementia. He was able to visit Salvation Mountain for the last time in May 2013 before his death on February 10, 2014…
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
Salvation Mountain is “at the entrance of Slab City (the Slabs), a community of "snowbirds" and local squatters occupying the old dismantled and abandoned Fort Dunlap World War II Marine training base.”…
Care of https://www.salvationmountain.us/history2.html
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
“Because the land was government owned and because so many people were camping there without paying taxes or rent, the county thought it would start collecting a user fee. They also figured that there might be a conflict with a "religious monument" at the entrance to a county campground.”…
https://www.salvationmountain.us/history2.html
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
“in July of 1994, their solution was to hire a toxic waste specialist to come out and take samples of the dirt around Leonard's Mountain to test for "contaminants."…they cordoned off the area and labeled it a "toxic nightmare." The county petitioned the state of California for funds to tear down the mountain and haul it away to a toxic waste disposal dumpsite in Nevada.”…
https://www.salvationmountain.us/history2.html
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
Local residents and a private firm from San Diego discounted the County’s claim that Salvation Mountain was toxic from lead paint. Knight has used Latex instead…
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
“The primary objective and purpose of Salvation Mountain, Inc. is to preserve and maintain the work and legacy of American Folk Artist Leonard Clark Knight…”
Thanks to - http://www.salvationmountaininc.org/
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
“All donations go to preservation and maintenance of the Mountain, to continue open interaction with the public, educational/artistic programs and internships, and efforts of charity on Leonard's behalf.”
http://www.salvationmountaininc.org/
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
And now we enter Slab City!
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler