SLAB CITY

Slab City (The Slabs) is a camp in the Colorado Desert in southeast California, used by rvers and squatters. It takes its name from the concrete slabs and pylons that remain from the abandoned WWII Marine Barracks Camp Dunlap. A group of servicemen remained after the base closed, and the place has been inhabited ever since, although the number of residents has declined since the mid 1980s.

Several thousand campers, many of them retired, use the site during the winter months. The temperatures during the summer are extremely hot, 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 and have been driven to the Slabs through poverty; some of the "slabbers" also have a strong desire for freedom from the American government.

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. It is located about 3 miles east of Niland.