How Lawless Is Slab City? Here's What You Should Know (2024)

Slab City is a bizarre squatter camp in the Sonoran Desert, only a short drive out of the desert oasis Palm Springs. Slab City calls itself the "last free place on earth" off the grid. Folks living here need to bring their own water and supplies. The Sonoran Desert is beautiful and an icon of the Wild West.

Slab City prides itself on off-the-grid and as an alternative lifestyle community. But most of its population are snowbirds coming there in the winter months to escape the cold of other climes. It attracts people who want to live away from mainstream society. It is disputable just how off the grid it really is - e.g., can a community really be considered off the grid if it is well-connected to the road network?

Slab City Is Built On An Abandoned Marine Corps Training Base

Slab City is unincorporated and took its name from concrete slabs left behind after the Marine Corps abandoned the camp (it was a World War Two Marine Corps training camp called Camp Dunlap). By 1956, the Marines had abandoned the base and removed the buildings except for the concrete slabs.

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Slab City

With the base abandoned it soon became a destination for free camping outside of Palm Springs. Today the contrast between the snowbird oasis resort town of Palm Springs and the desert snowbird resort community of Slab City couldn't be greater.

Slab City is worth a visit (although there are things to know in advance). It is a bizarre community with a range of novel and artistic dwellings and gardens. The most notable landmark of the community is Salvation Mountain - an eye-catching art installation on the road to Slab City.

Another very bizarre resort to discover in the area is the epically failed resort city of Salton City on the Salton Sea.

Squatter's Camp in Slab City

Related: Go Off The Grid With These Costa Rican Forest Accommodations

Is Slab City Actually Lawless?

The lawless frontier has held a romantic notion in American mentality for a long time. The Old West or Wild West is routinely romanticized in media and film - places like Tombstone with the famous Gun Fight at the O.K. Corral have long captured the imagination. The 1860-90s are sometimes remembered as a time of wild outlaws without gunned county sheriffs struggling to assert law and order (or sometimes they are part of the criminal gang themselves).

The buccaneer age of pirates is similarly romanticized. But the buccaneer age and the Wild West have long since passed.

Perhaps those with a nostalgia for the past find Slab City as a squatters' paradise and a place they can consider one of America's last free places.

Squatter's Camp in Slab City

So is Slab City actually lawless? Well, no. Slab City is very much part of California, and police can come if and whenever they choose to. And police do go there (often over camping boundary disputes, according to the New York Times). There are sometimes reports of burglary, but perhaps the biggest problem is crystal meth. There was a murder in Slab City in 2016, and the police duly came and arrested the murderer before he could flee.

So no. Slab City is not lawless (even if the police tend to avoid it). It is also not really off the grid (it is very much connected to the nation's road network). It is also served by the Imperial County Sheriff's Department and the Niland Fire Department (only the residents don't pay taxes for those services).

Slab City is located around an hour and a half drive from Palm Springs, about half of the way to Mexico. It is located close to the Salton Sea and just on the edge of the Imperial Valley and the rich farming areas. It is off the beaten track - but only just removed from civilization.

Related: America's Wild West Vs. Canada's Last Best West: How They Compare

Slab City May Not Be A Free City For Much Longer

The land of Slab City is owned by the state of California, and the residents are swatters. This means the state can choose to re-purpose the land as it chooses. There have been reports for years that California is seeking to sell the land.

Potentially the land could be sold to energy companies - perhaps it would become a solar farm.

Residents of Slab City have fought back and have campaigned to purchase the land for themselves to preserve the community. Ironically, there is criticism that if the residents did buy it, it would become a landlord-like situation which is completely opposite to what the whole idea of Slab City is about.

Related: Spooked Off The Strip: 10 Ghost Towns To Visit Near Las Vegas

So if one would like to see Slab City, perhaps one should visit sooner than later; otherwise, one may be greeted with forests of wind turbines or rows of solar panels.

Is Slab City Safe To Visit?

The question of whether Slab City is safe is that it kinda depends. The folks who live there are often those who want to be away from the restraints of normal life. This means it can attract a number of drug addicts - including some who may use harder drugs. Slab City may not be a good destination for families or for those at risk of relapse.

That being said, not everyone there is necessarily on hard drugs and many of the residents are welcoming to visitors. Many of the people just stick to themselves and will not bother visitors (after all, Slab City does attract the more reclusive type).

Anyone can visit during the day and drive around and have a look around - that is safe, even for families. But staying overnight is different.

Junk & Stuff In Yards At Slab City

There is a hostel of sorts at Slab City for those who would like to spend the night there and really see what the swatter camp is all about. The rate is around $30 per night - but note that some people staying in the hostel may be taking drugs. As the hostel on Airbnb notes "Slab City hosts a collection travelers, gypsies, outcasts, and eclectics and my hostel is a reflection of that."

Slab City is not lawless. While the police may not routinely patrol it, if the police are called in an emergency, there is every reason to believe they will duly come.