Week 134 - Salvation Mountain, Niland CA - 03-08-2009

Salvation Salutations,

In search of warmer weather we headed from San Dimas to Niland, California, then to El Centro and on to Casa Grande, Arizona. The highlight of this week was meeting Leonard Knight when we visited Salvation Mountain in Niland, California. We heard of Salvation Mountain from Pete's sister DonnaLee. Perhaps you saw it on Huell Howser's TV show California Gold in 1999. More on that later.

We visited three RV parks this week which we show briefly here. You can get more information on this and the over 300 parks we have visited from our website www.BigRigBible.com.

The Fountain of Youth RV Resort, north of Niland CA, a short distance east of the Salton Sea. Home to many during the winter months, it has two pools, four spas, mineral tubs, pool tables, indoor table-top shuffleboard, outdoor shuffleboard, bocce ball and lots of activities.

Sunbeam Lake RV, a few miles west of El Centro, CA. We enjoyed pickleball here in November 2008 and returned for more. They play everyday, except the morning we were there so . . .

we moved on to Plam Creek Golf & RV Resort in Casa Grande, Arizona. This huge resort has most everything.

A large and small pool and spas. Eight pickleball courts (24 as of 11-2012), tennis courts, shuffleboard, lawn bowling, deli counter,

pool tables, 18 holes of golf, hiking, crafts of all sorts, Bible studies and chapel on Sunday.

We, of course, came for the pickleball. They play seven days a week and from 8 am to 9 pm. The weekend we were there they hosted a tournament with players coming from hundreds of miles away. It included mens and womens doubles and mixed doubles. The age brackets were 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69, Masters (50-64) and Legends (65+). We had lunch with Juanita and Betty in the blue outfits. Juanita is an "A" player and has played for seven years. Juanita and Betty had to play 24 games (to 11 points) to arrive at the Gold Medal game. Unfortunately Juanita got a cramp in her leg and forced her and Betty to forfeit the championship game.

And now to Salvation Mountain, the story of Leonard Knight. Our synopsis here was gleaned from the DVD that Leonard gave us on our visit. Salvation Mountain is three miles east of Niland, California at the entrance to Slab City.

Leonard was born in 1931 in Vermont. A 10th grade dropout he was drafted in 1951 and served in the Korean Conflict as a motor sergeant. In 1967 he visited one of his sisters in San Diego. She forced him to go to church and "he hated it". He ran away, but while sitting in this truck, he repeatedly asked "Jesus, I'm a sinner, please come into my heart, Jesus, I'm a sinner, please come into my heart". Before long he was "crying like a baby" and dedicated his life to the Lord.

In 1971, he saw a hot air balloon fly over his house in Vermont. He began to pray to the Lord to get him a balloon. He wanted one that was labeled, "God is Love". After praying for 10 years and no balloon, his truck broke down on a California trip, in Nebraska. With the help of the mechanic, Mr. Jones, who repaired his truck, he began to make a balloon. He bought scrap fabric and spent three years sewing an enormous 100 wide and 200 foot high balloon.

Leonard tried many times to build equipment to inflate his gigantic balloon. His final flight attempt was in 1982 in Niland, California. It was not successful and by this time the balloon fabric was rotting. Having failed to deliver the Gospel message by balloon, he set out to build an 8 foot tall replica of the balloon in the desert by Niland.

Leonard has lived for the last 26 years on the property without electricity or running water, sleeping in the back of his truck. Each morning he rides his bicycle to town for a cup of coffee and then returns to work on his Master's piece.

This balloon replica grew into a 50 foot tall mountain built of desert rubbish and "weak" concrete. His worked on his mountain for four years starting in 1982. In 1986 a rain storm drenched the mountain and it came tumbling down.

Undaunted, Leonard started again and has created Salvation Mountain as it exists today. He estimates that it has 100,000 gallons of paint over the adobe, straw and tree limbs. You need to know that Salvation Mountain is built on public property!

Slab City is what is left of the abandoned Fort Dunlap marine base. After World War II, the marines removed all buildings, leaving only the concrete slabs. People in trailers,campers and motorhomes dry camp at Slab City, billed as "the last free place". In 1994 Imperial County came up with the idea of turning Slab City into a fee-based campground. One problem was that they could not have the Gospel message at a public campground. They needed to remove the message and sent soil analysts out to prove that the paint was causing the soil to be toxic. Therefore, they would have to remove the mountain.

Well, Leonard wasn't buying their story and hired private soil scientists who proved that the county analysis was incorrect and that the soil was not toxic. A fight went on until 1998 when the state backed off and let Leonard keep the Lord's mountain. Because of this fight, Salvation Mountain and Leonard got lots of media attention. This has lead to thousands of visitors from around the world.

The mountain includes scriptures, waterfalls, ocean, a boat, the Lord's prayer and even a Yellow Brick Road! Leonard loves to give tours and rewards you at the end of tour with a DVD or Salvation Mountain picture puzzle. When we asked if we could donate, he said, "yes, now I can buy more DVDs for the people".

1) God is at the top of Salvation Mountain 2) Our motorhome as seen through the eye of God, or at least the eye of the D.

Yes, Niland is out of the way, but put this on your bucket list and try to get there while Leonard is still with us. He is a treasure and his "Childlike Faith" and commitment to this project to spread the love of Jesus is inspiring.

To God be the Glory. Thank you for Leonard.

No movement next week as we will stay once more at Palm Creek Golf & RV Resort.

Love, Pete and Ellen

Photos from Mar 2009