Travel Photography > Desert Southwest > Slab City

Among the filth and terror wade a number of spectacular birds. California has lost over ninety-percent of its wetlands to development. This development would have meant that the vast array of bird species - in their Pacific flyway from Canada, Alaska and the Bering Sea to Mexico and beyond - would have had no rest stop on their annual migration south. But the 1905 accident that refilled this then-dried-out lake has become a savior for the migrating birds of the west coast. A last-minute salvation for one of the world's great migratory routes. The Salton Sea has hosted 380 different bird species. That's half the total North American count.

The problem with the Salton Sea is that it kills what it saves.

Everyday you see dead animals all along the seashore. But some years, these die-offs – birds, fish, whatever, occur in the thousands and millions. Something – many things actually, are quite wrong with the Salton Sea.

Before all this, and by the 1920’s, the Salton Sea had become a tropical destination in California. It was almost as popular as Yosemite National Park: boaters, vacationers, fishermen. But the sea was being poisoned, and by the 1960’s, the smell alone was enough to warrant a gradual exodus.

A few have remained in coastline towns that resemble the realms of ghosts. Broken down and faded neon signs, nautical-themed bars that open early in the morning. This human residue, more than the wading birds along the shore, color the Salton Sea and give it its peculiar gestalt.

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