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> Outsider artist Leonard Knight built Salvation Mountain in Niland, California out of concrete, sand, and accumulated junk. He used so much salvaged paint to c
by close04 7y ago
> Outsider artist Leonard Knight built Salvation Mountain in Niland, California out of concrete, sand, and accumulated junk. He used so much salvaged paint to cover it with brightly colored religious messages that the county declared the site a “toxic nightmare” due to the amount of lead in the soil and considered dismantling the mountain and hauling it to a toxic waste dump.
How does someone get to build such a mountain without anyone taking notice and considering the impact? You need a permit to extend your porch but nobody looks more carefully at someone building such an artificial mountain? I understand that when powerful economic and political interests are concerned some of these worries will be artificially dismissed but this doesn't appear to be one of those cases.
- dmurray 7y agoIt's in the middle of nowhere. Niland, CA is 5 miles away and has a population of 1000. Not going to have a lot of NIMBY activity there.
- dirktheman 7y agoNiland, a.k.a. 'Slab City' is a ghost town on the edge of the Salton Sea. People who live there are all outsiders who live in huts or RVs.
- ovi256 7y agoNiland is an unincorporated area, so there's no city, and he probably never asked the county for a permit. Without a complaint, the county department won't investigate, they have too much to do. And what asshole goes to make a complaint for artwork.
- Gibbon1 7y agoIt's on or near and long demolished army base that for decades no jurisdiction wanted to take responsibility for. Also the local culture is western desert rats and ranchers. Which are adverse to getting in other people business.