Container Charley is one of the more recent resident characters of the slabs. He is a 47 year old transplant from the San Francisco Bay area. He is well educated with a degree in music and an eye for art. He has put together a garden art gallery which is available for curious eyes any time of the day. Some of the sculptures have been put together by Charley and other have been brought in by other artists who were looking for a permanent home for their works of art. Our leader had made arrangements for our group to tour Container Charley's abode which is open only by appointment.
Container Charley is the guy with the shorts and hat leaning on the car. Everything has been fashioned out of salvaged material or trash.
Note all of the artificial birds in the sand. The structure was contracted by Charley.
Old tires make up this mammoth.
This was one of the structures made by another artist in the area.
What one artist has to say about television.
There are several decorated cars on the premises all with a message...
Charley has set up a nice little entertainment area. Note the records which make up the ceiling of his living area.
The bottle wall.
Hundreds of bottles have been collected for future expansion of the wall.
This old bus had been driving around the US by two of Charley's friends. Charley found a home for it when they were finished with it. It is sunken part way in the sand but the inside has been leveled to make it habitable. It has a residential size stove and sink and has good sleeping quarters.
There is a bank of twenty four batteries charged up by solar panels. The panels span the length of a huge cargo container; salvaged of course. Charley claims he has enough power to run an arc welder. The batteries and panels were all salvage material.
These are big pieces of Styrofoams salvaged from a movie set. Charlie has used them to insulate his battery room, at the upper left of the picture.
Our next stop was Salvation Mountain. Lennard has been working on the project for 30 years. He lives off donations and at 87 has many guardian angles looking after him. Apparently there was a very bad element invading the slabs and they robbed Lennard on several occasions. "Residential law" aka known as guns, have eliminated the bad elements and Lennard is now carefully watched over by members of the community.
You can't miss Salvation Mountain on the way into the slabs
Thousands and thousands of gallons of donated paint have been used.
Old car and RV windows are used for sky lites. Lennard has painted blue birds on these windows.
Inside is a maze of trees and branches. The tree trunks are made out of old tires and the branches are then fastened to the trunks and painted.
Lennard is very enthusiastic about his Salvation Mountain and memorial to Jesus and God. He states he planned to only stay for a few days when he first came to the slabs, but his project has kept him here for over 30 years. In 2001 Salvation Mountain was designated as a Folk Art Treasure.
National Geographic featured Salvation Mountain on their TV series and they later sent Lennard a picture they took of the mountain and he has mounted it on one of the interior walls.
There is still is more on the slabs. Stay tuned.
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