Greetings, welcome to my Flickr page dedicated to showcasing images from the Salton Sea. Specifically, this site is intended to showcase my project and show titled: Views from a Broken Dream, which was produced and shown in the early 1990’s around Southern California. That said, I’d be happy to feature other images of the area that might relate to the images I have on the site.

Most of the images on this page were shot between 1989 and 1994 and much of what’s shown in these photos no longer exists or exists in a strikingly different form today. All images were originally shot on transparency film and then digitized at various times between then and now. If anyone has other information regarding the Salton Sea and/or relating the images that’s not mentioned here, please feel free to contact me through Flickr. Also, If anyone doesn’t know where and, or what the Salton Sea is please read the essay below on or visit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_Sea

Please note, this essay was written to accompany a show of photographs in 1993-94. As such, some data regarding lake dimensions, salinity and current depth are reported as of that time and may not be accurate at the present time.

Just east of California rte. 86, about 45 miles south-east of Palm Springs lies a large ominous looking body of water known as the Salton Sea. Originally an even larger prehistoric lake that’s outer banks have long since dried up and and the rich earth cultivated. The Salton Sea is now home to countless thousands of waterfowl, several hundred hardened but friendly residents, and a tumultuous history wrought with grand expectations, dismal failures and many a broken dream.

Views From A Broken Dream:

It was in 1905 that the Salton Sea realized its violent and wholly un-intended resurrection. The story follows something like this: During the three preceding years the California Development Company ( or C.D.C.) decided to build an aqueduct project along the banks of the nearby Colorado river. The project was designed to irrigate the surrounding Imperial Valley using the water diverted from the Colorado. Initially, the aqueduct proved a success, providing the valleys many farmers with much needed water but in time the aqueduct channels began to fill with silt. By 1904 the level of silt brought downstream by the Colorado had risen enough to completely block the head-gate of the main irrigation canal, once again leaving the Imperial Valley without water. Short of time and money the C.D.C. took a chance and dredged a temporary channel with a plan to close it before the summer floods, however, heavy December rains washed away any chance of closing the channel as planned. By the new year, the channel had widened itself to over 2000 ft. and soon after, the entire content of the Colorado river was flowing directly into the valley. The ensuing flood poured 63 Billion Gallons of water a day into the dry lake bed for almost two years straight, and when the flooding was finally stopped, a lake over 30 miles long and 15 miles wide had been created. The present day Salton Sea covers only about half of its original size, but still measures in at over 380 square miles, encompassing 117 miles of shoreline and averaging 40 ft. in depth.

Born as a freshwater lake, the Salton Sea evolved slowly over time into a large and chemically laden salt pond. In 1950 the salinity of the Sea measured 35,000 ppm. (parts per million) roughly that of the Pacific Ocean. Presently the Sea measures close to 40,000 ppm. Over 10% saltier than the Pacific.† The seas increasing salinity can be traced largely to the mineral content of the surrounding soil and the fact that the sea has no natural outlet other than through evaporation. Agricultural run-off from the surrounding fields and farms brings more salt and selenium as well as pesticides and fertilizers, into the sea on a daily basis. This ensures a constant rise in salinity as well as a continuous pollution from agri-chemicals and heavy metals. However, by far the most disturbing polluter to the Salton Sea exists in the form of the New River. This small and geographically insignificant waterway snakes its way north to the sea from the Mexican border 60 miles to the south. From Mexico, the New River brings a multitude of toxic and hazardous chemicals to the sea, chemicals which are dumped into it primarily by American manufacturing plants located just across the Mexican border. And although to this date, there have been no ecological catastrophes or substantial plant/animal die-offs linked directly to agricultural pollution or to the pollution coming from the New River, most ecologists agree that at the time of a catastrophe, it's far too late to worry about who to pin the blame onto.

Looking back to the late 50's and early 60's the Salton sea was seen as the ideal place for a new upscale resort community. Large tracts of homes were plotted and planned near its banks and posh yacht clubs and hotels soon sprang up on both the eastern and western shores. The Navy operated its Salton Sea Test Base on the west shore while the Park Service had almost a dozen separate campgrounds on the east. This region offered much to people at the time, or at least it seemed so then.

During the early 1970's though, the Salton Seas popularity as a sportsman’s haven and resort community began to wane, pollution levels increased to noticeable levels which curtailed sport-fishing & watersports, and investment money stopped flowing in. Without capital, construction dried up and contractors packed up and left leaving only empty sidewalks and driveway aprons that home driveways would never connect to. The Navy closed its test base due to ever more frequent flooding and a lack of useable test area, while the absence of employment in anything other than agriculture drove working people of all types back to the industrial West coast. Businesses began to close all around the Sea and people continued to move away. Perhaps they were lured farther West to San Diego and the Pacific, or possibly they went North to the rich desert havens of Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, but whatever their reasons, they left, and what remains today are mere remnants of what once was. A formerly verdant green golf course has now turned to dust and two once proud yacht clubs sit abandoned succumbing to local vandals as well as the ever encroaching sea.

The Sea and its surrounding banks bear the grim scars of those many failed housing developments and business ventures. In the largest of the seaside communities, Salton City, literally miles of abandoned streets lie paved and named, but their empty gravel lots sit barren, most never to be developed. Purchase price? $5000.00 & down! Nearer to the water, dozens of vehicles, homes, trailers and storefronts lie rotting in stagnant ponds, victims of a fluctuating and unpredictable water level. During the early 1980's Southern California was hit hard with unusually heavy winter rainfalls and the Salton Sea, being 237 feet below sea level, became awash with an enormous input of fresh water. Residents living near the sea saw the waterline rise several feet in just a few weeks submerging or rendering many of those homes, and waterfront businesses completely uninhabitable, claimed forever by the sea.

The Salton Sea and its surrounding communities offer visitors a complete look back into a three-dimensional history book. The rise, fall and subsequent struggle for re-birth of a region early on touted as a great new resort, a paradise to please every outdoorsman, and a sunny vacation spot to escape to during the winter. By day the sea and its communities sit quietly and unassuming, bearing all to any who care to venture in and look. It's here inside and around this destruction that one can find a truly unique beauty, and a vision of a place that once was.

† - as of 2020 the Salton Sea measures about 44,000 PPM