Social Chaos: Scene Out

A few hours away from San Diego in Niland, Calif. 190 miles southeast of Los Angeles, in the lower desert of Southern California in Imperial County just east of the Salton Sea and about an hour and a half from Palm Springs, you will encounter Salvation Mountain. The artist, Leonard Knight, an Army veteran of the Korean War, discovered God in a life-altering experience in 1967 while visiting his sister in San Diego. He visited her often and decided to settle a few hours away in Niland in 1984 when he began painting the mountain with messages of devotion to God. “I painted the mountain because I love God and I love people,” Knight’s quoted as saying in the on-site description. The first message you read upon arrival is “God is Love”.