Spotlight: Can You Stand the Smell

Hey All!

I moved to California at the end of the summer 2005. I was living with some friends in North Shore California, which is near Palm Springs, Palm Desert, but actually it was right there on the shores of the Salton Sea.

I’ll get into the Salton Sea in a bit. First though a little more background to this story.

I visited my friends in North Shore back in 1990. At the time the Salton Sea was starting to decline due to increasing salinity, fish dying off, bird deaths, odor issue, and lack of tourism.

There were also issues of hazard water dumping that weren’t being addressed at the time, and actually were never resolved.

Sonny Bono worked hard to reclaim the Salton Sea and bring it back to its former self. After his death all things working fizzled out.

That’s the key word, former self to this story.

See, my friends had lived there all of their lives and their Mom was in charge of the Yacht Club there. That’s correct, that nasty smelling sea had a yacht club that was famous for hosting parties and celebrities at those parties years before.

My friends Mom even had old videos from back in the ‘60s and throughout the ‘80s of the parties going on as well as how the sea was being used by so many. It was the oasis of the valley for so many.

Then issues began as stated above and everything went to shit.

When I arrived here in 2005 I was greeted at my friends not by just a few dogs to welcome me, but a stench I couldn’t put my finger on. It was a cross of the worst low tide I had ever smelled and rotting corpse of animals.

After settling in my friends told me the story of the downfall of the Salton Sea. They took me on a drive around the sea and even went off road to drive a little along the water break just to see what was going on.

The sand was full of dead fish and bird bodies drying out in the sun. Flies surrounded them and you if you dared to go on the sand.

We walked over to the yacht club that is now rat infested, if they can lice long enough and board were breaking under our weight as we tried to go inside. Not a great idea.

All of this leads me to tell you that even though the Salton Sea has lost its appeal as a destination for visitor, I still believe it’s something you should see.

I’m not trying to tell you it’s the best place to visit, but if you go there and close your eyes for a minute, forget the smell you’re going to smell, and visualize what it was like back in the olden days of sun and fun. Boating, swimming and families enjoying days at the Salton Sea.

There’s a ton of information on the web about the Salton Sea and it’s history that I thought I’d let you check out. It’s worth a read and a visit when you have time.

Thanks for Reading

Mark & Patti