Salton Sea Nights

An enigmatic and otherworldly lake in the baked noplace between Palm Springs and the Mexican Border, the Salton Sea was created in 1904 by a massive irrigation accident. It left an isolated, 380 square-mile inland sea, California's largest lake.

The '50s and '60s saw unprecedented growth around these remote desert shores. Developers successfully turned the Salton Sea into a resort destination and fisherman's paradise, a cross between Palm Springs and Lake Tahoe.

The floods in the mid-'70s destroyed the Sea's marinas, killing the towns ability to thrive. By the mid-'80s the cities around the Sea were hanging by a thread. Whole flooded neighborhoods were just abandoned, and left to rot.

Like a puddle in a parking lot, the Sea has no outlet. Fertilizer-filled Imperial Valley runoff keeps the water level up, but also causes massive algae blooms, which causes fish and bird die-offs by the millions, which mixes together to make the Sea stink. Unbearable summer temperatures into the 120s amplify the stench.

The work in this set spans from 1992 to 2008.

42 photos | 13,113 views

items are from between 12 Jun 2007 & 07 May 2009.