PHOTOS BY PETER SUTHERLAND

Set beside the Imperial Valley in southeastern California, the Salton Sea area was supposed to be Hollywood’s answer to the Riviera back in the 50s. But its developers failed to anticipate the raw sewage that would run up the New River from Mexico and make survival impossible for many aquatic species. Rotting fish guts and toxic debris soon littered the shoreline. Construction projects were abandoned, and yet another impotent vision of luxury tourism was left flaccid. Thanks again, trash!

Today the entire Imperial Valley is an apocalyptic dustbowl in the center of the California badlands. We set out to explore this fetid bouillabaisse. What we found were remnants of the Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range, a half-million-acre plot that was once the practice site for various governmental bombardiers. It is the place of business for the residents of a nearby compound known as Slab City—a mostly insane coterie of fun-hunting drifters, vets, addicts, artists, and crazies who subsist on sautéed snake, lukewarm Tecate, money earned from scrapping bombshell fragments, and what’s left of their wits. It’s pretty much all that remains of the Wild West.

Get to know the cast of the Slab City funny farm this month on Toxic on VBS.TV.