The "Mountain Of Paint" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Same as every other day here of late.  I did spend a few hours working at Grebinger Gallery yesterday and after lunch mowed the lawn, but by 2:00 PM I was stretched out on my recliner with my cat Snickerdoodle sitting next to me.  Didn't take long before he jumped down and I grabbed my MacBook Air to read my email and decide what I wanted to type for today.  One of the emails told of five very unusual places in the United States.  One was an unusual science museum in Philadelphia known as the Mütter Museum which houses an extensive collection of doctor's instruments.  Another place was known as the Neon Boneyard in Las Vegas that featured over 200 old neon signs.  One was the Renwick Smallpox Hospital on Roosevelt Island which is nicknamed "The Ruin", since it was built in 1854 and abandoned in the 1950s.  One was the Museum of Death that features serial killers and crime scene photographs.  As I read about that one I couldn't believe people actually visit a museum such as this.  The final place to visit was a place called Salvation Mountain which is located in Niland, California.  Not really a museum, but a massive structure built from clay, straw and lots of paint.  

Salvation Mountain (click on images to enlarge them)

The mountain stands 50 feet high and is completely covered by the owner's artwork.  The "artist" was a guy named Leonard Knight who spent three decades on his "art" project.  He used over 100,000 gallons of paint on his mountain.  Leonard died in 2014 at the age of 82.  He began building Salvation Mountain in the California Desert in 1984.  Mr. Knight wanted the art on the mountain to convey that "God is Love," painting biblical passages and hearts prominently featured in the artwork.  Even if you don't hold Mr. Knight's religious views, the island is still a sight to see.  All I had were photographs that I found when I "Googled" Salvation Mountain, but I was impressed.  Mr. Knight lived in a truck, on the site, and loved to talk with visitors to his mountain.  As I read on I found that Coldplay and Third Day featured his mountain on their albums and in their music videos.  Perhaps you are a fan of one of them and may have seen the mountain already.  I'm sorry to say I haven't the foggiest who they are!   I did find that Salvation Mountain does have a website that tells the story of Leonard's tribute to God and his gift to the world with it simple yet powerful message.  

Another view of Salvation Mountain.

Another site told me that the artwork was made of adobe, straw and thousands of gallons of lead-free paint.  In July of 1994, Imperial County hired a toxic waste specialist to test the soils around Salvation Mountain, with results showing high levels of lead toxicity.  But wait...someone just wanted to have the place taken down, since others hired another party who said tests came back negative supporting Mr. Knight's claim that he used non-toxic paints and that there were no toxins in the soil.  The more I read, the more I found that Salvation Mountain has appeared in movies, in videos, in television productions, etc.  Why had I never heard of this place before?  Might have been a neat place to visit years ago, but I'm not going to fly the entire way to the west coast to see a mountain of paint at my age.  I've gone through so much paint in my life that by now I could have made my own Salvation Mountain.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

One more view of Salvation Mountain.