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Abstract
This study traces the transition of Slab City, California, from a military camp to a squatter settlement. It explores how the remnant slabs and roads of the former military base now serve as the spatial armature for a more fluid and individualistic definition of territory. To examine this historical developmental, it uses a combination of visual analysis, archival research, on-site interviews, and photographic documentation. Of interest, and what distinguishes this study from past scholarship on Slab City, is its emphasis upon the physical boundaries that demarcate the landscape. The emphasis, in turn, allows this study to illustrate the recursive relationship between landscape morphology and the social production of space, and thus how spatial form structures social relationships, and conversely how social relationships structure spatial form. Observations on landscape and boundary presented by cultural geographer J. B. Jackson in Discovering the Vernacular Landscape (1984) frame the discussion.
Notes
1 Although nominally operating without legal oversight, police and immigration officials patrol slab City, children attend local schools and firefighters respond to calls. however, the legal status of the land as the public property of the state of California prohibits its division into home sites.
2 the first academic publication on slab City is a 1989 master’s thesis by Dorothy Ann Phelps. this thesis, which remains the definitive work on the early history of slab City, tracks the development of the slab City landscape from its geologic history, through its second World War development, to its popular use as a recreational vehicle (rv) campsite. A subsequent study by Wallis and morganstern, notes the continuing popularity of slab City for recreational vehicle users seeking lowcost accommodation and freedom from regulations, and the increased number of economically distressed permanent residents attracted to the site for the same reason. equating slab City to a trailer park, they observe an inexpensive and mobile community lacking solidarity and charm. they likewise argue that objects such as the American flags marking many campsites, the establishment of a flea market and Christian Center, as well as frequent social visits among members of community signal conformance with normative social values and the desire for face-to-face neighbourly relationships. the anthropologists Du Bry and rissolo use an interview methodology to describe the individualism, self-sufficiency, and personal freedom the residents of slab City value and pursue. in contrast, architecture historian Charlie hailey most recently called upon American historian Frederick Jackson turner and French social theorist michel Foucault to cast slab City as a prototypical American frontier community consisting of ‘heterotopic zones of domestic exile, homelessness, and encampment’. For hailey, slab City is a collaged ensemble of incompatible social groups separated into discrete territories by ideological conflict. see: Phelps (Citation1988); Wallis and morganstern (Citation1992); Du Bry and rissolo (Citation2001); and hailey (Citation2008): 180–196.
3 the term bush bunny refers to both overnight transients, whether travelling alone or in groups, and to lone individuals, often male and suffering from mental illness, who live at the edge of the squatter community. residents of the community also derogatorily refer to these individuals as desert rats, mad dogs, and the crazies. see: Wallis and morganstern (Citation1992); and Carone (Citation2015). For the genesis of slab City nicknames see: www.slab-city.com/slab-city-nicknames/.
4 For further discussion of the relationship between territory, boundary, material culture, and the social construction of space see: lamont and molnár (Citation2002).
5 Dorothy Doty, Personal interview, 9 January 2014.
6 For additional reference to the early migrant worker appropriation of the site see also: Wallis and morganstern (Citation1992), who note that ‘fruit tramps’–migrant workers harvesting the crops in nearby farms–camped on the abandoned concrete slabs.
7 hutton no longer keeps this webpage. most of the information moved to the slab City Facebook page, www.facebook.com/slABCitYinFO.
8 Phelps notes that the former military base came ‘close to being an oasis in the desert for all those adventuresome people who call the slabs “home”, temporarily or permanently’, with as many as 6,000 rv campers.
9 According to hutton the reference to the outside world as the ‘Beast’ likely refers to revelation 13:17, which states: ‘And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.’
10 Andrews died on 1 April 2015. slab City residents held a memorial service for her at her former campsite. see: robbi hutton’s tumblr page, ‘slab City Official, sandra Andrews 1950–2015’. http://robihfan.tumblr.com/post/116038060259/ sandra-andrews-1950-2015-sandi-the-slab-city.
11 A map depicting the settlement areas is posted on the slab City Bulletin Board.
12 For an overview of similar communities see: national Coalition of the homeless (Citation2010).
13 For a more in-depth discussion of physical and psychological distancing tactics see: saatcioglu and Ozane (Citation2013).
14 For further information on Burning man and its similarities to slab City see: ‘Burning man, Welcome home’, http://burningman.org/, accessed 27 October 2015. see also: hailey (Citation2008): 191–196.
15 Personal conversation with lt. thomas Garcia of the imperial valley sheriff Department, 20 march 2015.
16 For further information on the history of the loners on Wheels see: www.lonersonwheels.com/#!our-history/c1xkm.
17 Personal conversation emma Wright, 7 January 2014.
18 Personal observation, 7 January 2014.
19 For further discussion of the social dynamics of inclusive public spaces, including issues of class and race, see: Anderson, (2011). Anderson coined the term cosmopolitan canopy to describe urban spaces that foster safe, comfortable social interactions, and observes that such locations allow people to enjoy the company and presence of other groups without being culturally or spatially threatened.
20 A group of slab City residents, including Builder Bill and long-time resident lynne Bright, hopes to purchase the main residential area of the site and legalize their property claims through the creation of a land trust.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Kathleen John–Alder
Kathleen John–Alder is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Rutgers University. A recent Landscape Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks, Kathleen’s work has received numerous awards, including an Award of Excellence from the Van Alan Institute and the National Park Service, and a National Honor Award in Research from the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Andrew Op't Hof
Andrew Op’t Hof holds a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from Rutgers University and is currently pursuing a PhD in Geography. He has held several part-time lecturer positions in Landscape Architecture and is a University Olmsted Scholar and ASLA Merit award winner.