What is Slab City? (www.sccgi.org)

~An area in the desert (northern Sonoran Desert, aka Colorado Desert)

~The Last Free Place in America

~Dog heaven

~Where people are left alone and not harassed

~a Healing Place

~an experience

~like nothing else on earth

~where I am accepted … period

~Where I found love

~Off The Grid

~Desolate arid desert

~A Living Laboratory for 21st Century Pioneers

~Where people can come and live no matter what they have or don’t have

~An intentional community

~For some, Slab City is a place to visit

~For others, Slab City is Home

~Slab City is something different to each person that comes here. People come on foot, by way of the digital highway (hitchhiking), the rails, on a bus, in a van, motorcycle, car, bicycle, or any manner of RV. We have people that come and make their home under a bush and some that bring their million dollar motor homes driven by semi trucks.

~Everyone is welcome here, and here is where you’ll belong.

~Slab City started in the late 1940’s and 1950’s as an “off-the-grid” boondocking community. This area (about 3 miles east of Niland, California) is in the Colorado Desert, nestled up against the Chocolate Mountains and the bombing range. It was formerly known as Camp Dunlap during World War II. It trained hundreds of thousands of young men for combat during that time. At the end of WW II, the Department of Defense decided to consolidate training in other camps, and closed Camp Dunlop. They removed what could be transported, and sold the building frames. There are still houses in Imperial County that are made of Camp Dunlop material. The concrete slabs remain, and thus the name: Slab City.

~Slab City is an off-the-grid community. By that we mean that we take care of our own basic services, like power, water, sanitation, and garbage removal. We want to continue with that tradition. We like that we are not connected to a power grid. Most of our energy comes from the sun in the form of solar panels. Some use generators, and even wind power. We compost most of our waste.

Garbage:

~We are very ingenious at creating ways of getting rid of our garbage at Slab City. We repurpose items, compost, and scrap. There are a number of unique art projects and monuments ~ taking trash to treasure to a whole new level. There is everything from traditional painting, adobe making, to eclectic art sculptures. Our composing is state of the art! Recycling is an honored profession where the term “scrapper” has nothing to do with fighting and everything to do with getting every penny out of metal, glass and plastics.

~Last year, SCCG Inc. put in a dumpster to help with garbage clean up. Unfortunately, Slab City and the surrounding areas are often used by unscrupulous people that cannot afford or will not use the County Dump. We at Slab City, don’t have access to the local County dump. We are forced to come up with some ingenious ways of getting rid of garbage. We recycle, reuse, and repurpose items that most people just throw away. We make art out of it. We use it to make something else, and we recycle it. (Our local term for recycling is “scrapping”).

Land Trust

~Part of Slab City, (not all of it), is on California State Land. We formed a charity: the Slab City Community Group Inc., as a community land trust charity. We are working towards buying Section 36 from the State of California ~ it really has no worth except to us.

~Our plan and purpose is to keep Slab City the way it has been for as long as we possibly can. At the moment, we are illegal squatters on State Land. We are here at the pleasure of the State of California, without color of right. If the State wants us to leave, they can make us go. We want to stay. If we buy the property, we will keep it the way it is. Undeveloped. Off-the-grid.

The Charity

Our charity has five purposes:

1. to address homelessness in a real way by providing access to land for living;

2. to support artistic expression;

3. to educate about and encourage environmental stewardship;

4. to explore agricultural practices; and

5. to provide support for economic development in our local area.

These purposes drive our charity. In our very short existence as a charity, we are well on our way to achieving our goals for the coming years.

• We have been granted s. 501(c)(3) Charitable Tax Status by the IRS and the State of California (we can give tax receipts for donations);
• We have successfully funded a garbage clean up project by removing over 60 tonnes of old garbage from Slab City;
• We have successfully funded a garbage container for one year for Slab City residents to use without cost to them;
• We have held education workshops on various topics, such as composting toilets, charity organizations, public safety (with the assistance of the Imperial County Fire Department), and been involved in the local Chamber of Commerce.

We are now ready for our next step. We need your help. Over the next year, we are going to raise funds for a number of projects, including our charity’s infrastructure. Our goal is a lofty one, of $100,000 by December 31, 2016. This is our initial call out to you for help.

Donate to us (through PayPal, by check or money order, or cash, or in kind). We will be initiating an art drive, along with our regular dumpster fund. We will be writing an on-line journal about “Slab-Tech” solutions for 21st Century Pioneers.

Tell your friends and family and co-workers about our charity. You will be contributing to a unique way of life, off-the-grid and help us push towards being a self-sustaining enterprise.

Help us reach our goal & be part of a very special piece of history. Let us know, and we can issue you a receipt for your donation as we are a registered s.501(c)(3) charity.