DECO DECOR

On our trip to the Salton Sea, we went to have a look around Slab City. (11-01-28-2717)

Slab City or The Slabs is a camp in the Colorado Desert in southeastern California, used by recreational vehicle owners and squatters from across North America. It takes its name from the concrete slabs and pylons that remain from the abandoned World War II Marine barracks Camp Dunlap there.

Several thousand campers, many of them retired, use the site during the winter months. These "snowbirds" stay only for the winter, before migrating north in the spring to cooler climates. The temperatures during the summer are unforgiving; nonetheless, there is a group of around 150 permanent residents who live in the Slabs all year round. Most of these "Slabbers" subsist on government checks (SSI and Social Security) and have been driven to the Slabs through poverty.

The site is both decommissioned and uncontrolled, and there is no charge for parking. The camp has no electricity, no running water or other services. Many campers use generators or solar panels to generate electricity. Supplies can be purchased in nearby Niland, California, located about three miles (5 km) to the southwest of Slab City.

Decorated pots and bowl
These two decorated pots and a bowl, obtained from Museum of Indian Arts & Culture collections, were found at 17th-century archaeology sites in Nnrthern New Mexico. The pots represent the evolution of 17th-century matte-paint decorative treatment from Sankawi Black-on-cream to Tewa Polychrome. Sankawi Black-on-cream was made during the early 17th century and geatured decorations on the rim, bulge and lower portion of the jar. The later Tewa Polychrome is only decorated on the bulge, while the neck and lower vessel are red-slipped. This is a temporal trend in decoration that may show the influence of the Spanish on Pueblo potters. The third vessel is a glaze-on-red bowl in a traditional 17th-century Puebloan form. Glaze-painted pottery was made for 400 years before phasing out during the first or second generation after the Spanish returned in 1693. Photo by Blair Clark, New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.