Salvation Mountain


Salvation Mountain is a hillside visionary environment created by local resident Leonard Knight in the California Desert area of Imperial County, north of Calipatria, northeast of Niland near Slab City, and several miles from the Salton Sea.
The artwork is made of adobe bricks, discarded tires and windows, automobile parts and thousands of gallons of paint. It encompasses numerous murals and areas painted with Christian sayings and Bible verses, though its philosophy was built around the Sinner's Prayer.
The Folk Art Society of America declared it "a folk art site worthy of preservation and protection" in the year 2000. In an address to the United States Congress on May 15, 2002, California Senator Barbara Boxer described it as "a unique and visionary sculpture... a national treasure... profoundly strange and beautifully accessible, and worthy of the international acclaim it receives".
In December 2011, the 80-year-old Knight was placed in a long-term care facility in El Cajon for dementia. Leonard Knight died on February 10, 2014, in El Cajon.
Concern was raised in 2012 raised for the future of the site, which requires constant maintenance due to the harsh surrounding environment. Many visitors were bringing paint to donate to the project, and a group of volunteers was working to protect and maintain the site. In February 2011, a public charity, Salvation Mountain, Inc., was established to support the project. In 2013, the Annenberg Foundation donated $32,000 to Salvation Mountain Inc. for materials and equipment to "improve security and strengthen operations". A 2014 article stated that Salvation Mountain Inc. was operated by the nine volunteer members of its board. It still exists in 2020 and arranged to close the site for some months during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Paint toxicity concerns

In July 1994, Imperial County hired a toxic waste specialist to test the soils around Salvation Mountain, with results showing high levels of lead toxicity. Knight and his supporters gathered signatures for a second test to be done by an independent party of his choosing. That test came back negative, supporting Knight's claim that he used non-toxic paints and that there were no toxins in the soil.

Formations

In 1998, Knight wanted to expand the mountain. He gathered ideas from the Navajo who settled in the area around Salvation Mountain. Their pueblitos inspired Knight and he then began forming the Hogan. It is a dome-like structure made of adobe and straw that insulates from heat. Knight intended to live in it, though he always preferred to live in a shack on the back of truck and did so for 27 years. For some years, he had help with the project from a friend, Bill Ammon.
An article about Leonard Knight stated that he was a "visionary American folk artist" whose message was "unconditional love to humankind". Knight "arrived accidentally... immediately recognized an opportunity to continue his large-scale gospel message. He made a mountain with his bare hands. Leonard built Salvation Mountain".
Knight also began another formation, what he liked to call "the museum". It is modeled after a semi-inflated hot air balloon Knight tried to create before Salvation Mountain; the balloon is on view at the American Visionary Art Museum. He intended the balloon to be seen by all below it, as it stated "GOD IS LOVE" in bright red on a white fabric. This ideal carried over to Salvation Mountain. The museum is a semi dome structure in the mountain that contains several small items given to him by friends and visitors. Each item has a significance and more often than not, visitors seek out Salvation Mountain to pray and leave an item at the mountain as symbolism of giving themselves to God. The museum is held up by adobe and straw, but also by car parts and a tangle of trees that twist within the dome and reach through the top.
The work is a 50ft-tall piece of religious folk art "an unofficial centrepiece for the community and the area's anarchic creative identity", according to a 2020 report.

The Second Mountain

The current Salvation Mountain is actually the second construction to occupy the site; Knight began the first Salvation Mountain in 1984, using highly unstable construction methods that allowed the mountain to collapse in 1989.
Knight was not discouraged; he rather saw it as God's way of letting him know the Mountain was not safe. He said he would start another Salvation Mountain "with more smarts". He did so, this time, using better materials and engineering, including adobe mixed with straw. After completion, the "mountain" was several stories high and was about a hundred yards wide according to a book published in 2016. Over the last ten years of his life, Knight planned to repaint the mountain twice a year to ensure that the paint layer would be very thick. He was unable to achieve that because of an injury sustained near the end of 2011.
Leonard Knight was featured in Sean Penn's Into the Wild, released in 2007. An obituary of Knight stated that he "spent almost 30 years building the colorful mountain... Built out of adobe and donated paint, Knight and Riddle worked on the mountain all day, every day. He even slept at the mountain's base in the back of a pick-up truck, with no electricity or running water while Riddle walked home to live in the same conditions with her family in the bus”.
Before his death, Knight was living in a nursing home; he was able to visit Salvation Mountain for the last time in May 2013; the visit was recorded by KPBS.
A National Geographic article published after Knight's death provided this insight into the creator of Salvation Mountain.
"A visionary... Leonard worked beyond our concept of time, slowly and methodically without ever wandering from his path. His sole purpose in this endeavor was to spread the message that 'God is Love'. He shared this with everyone who came to the mountain..."

Media appearances