Daryl Peveto

PROJECTS: American Nomads

A central goal of the American Dream is to one day own your own home.  Yet our beginnings were forged out of another, antithetical idea: that of movement and searching for self-determination. Today this idea still exists, but far away from our neatly manicured suburban homes and out of view of the mainstream. In the United States, there exist large communities which have turned their backs on the idea of settling down, opting for a nomadic life. One such community open to this lifestyle is Slab City, located on the Salton Sea in southern California. There are no amenities or services. No potable water, no electricity, no stores, nothing. What this community does offer is a sort of freedom, which for many of them begins with its root: free. No rent, no taxes, no fees. This is a community of barter and necessity, completely anarchic. Not chaos, as it has been associated with, but pure anarchy – or as pure as is possible. It is not a true utopia, as Thomas More envisioned, but it is not dystopia either.

At first glance, this community is both raw and harsh, but there is also much beauty and love. There are thieves and rampant drug use, but also picnics and birthday parties and an always-open door. And much like the rest of the world, they eat and bathe and sleep and marry and die. But they do it on their own terms.

In the bowels of an underground water system for the former Marine base, Camp Dunlap, Larry McCullough takes a drag off of a hand rolled cigarette. He was in the abandoned facility to look for scrap metal, which he sells to the nearby recycling yard. McCullogh has been squatting in Slab City for the last 25 years, making his living off of stealing scrap from the nearby Marine bombing range or wherever he can find it.
  
The nomadic community spreads accross the desert between the Salton Sea and the Chocolate Mountains. The population dips during the warm summer months to around 75, but easily climbs into the thousands during the winter.
  
Borrowing the pool used by his six dogs to keep cool during the summer heat, Willie Reynolds, cools off with his weekly bath. He was given arm floaties for his birthday. He says, "They are good to keep me from drowning." Adding, today is my birthday, so I wanted to take a bath for my party." Willie's friends threw him a barbecue and surprised him with a cake.
     
  
Recent newlywed Jerry Jones kisses his new wife Darla at the slab of Johnny Hilliard. The couple, which found a common bond through their mutual addition to crystal meth and crack cocaine, says that they are meant for each other. Just prior to meeting Jerry, a local drug dealer kidnapped Darla and, she says, "I was anally raped for two weeks before I escaped." Jerry found her walking down the road after her kidnapping and now sees himself as her protector. He added, "I am here to protect her and take care of her. She is my woman now."
   
Judd Jones chokes his best friend Dave Hines because Hines wouldn't share his snuff with him. Both men suffer from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and medicate themselves with anything they can find. Today it was malt liquor stolen from the nearby market. Jones was arrested later that day for an outstanding warrant from December when he raped his mother and set her trailer on fire with her in it. She did manage escape.
   
Willie Reynolds blows out the solo candle on his surprise birthday cake, celebrating his thirty-sixth brithday. He says he celebrated the day by taking a bath and having a barbecue party with his friends. He added, "I got everything I need right here: friends, beer and yummy cake."
     
  
Ben and Moria Morofsky exchange vows before Alan Franklin, and best man, Earnie Loza in front of the Range music venue. The Morofsky's, who have been together for 14 years, are only the second couple to tie the knot in Slab City. Ben says, “Since the County came and stole my kids from me, Moria is all I got left. Without her I would have done killed myself by now. She is all I got now.”
  
After spending days on end inside his tiny trailer, watching his wife, Darla's health deteriorate, Jerry Jones goes out to the local music venue to take his mind off of the pain. Here he convinced his friend Carol Reed to strip naked and change clothes with him so that he could wear her dress. Jerry said, “I just been in that trailer for weeks watching her suffer. I wanted to be somewhere else, mentally.”
  
Ashley Appleby sleeps while her father Robert, far left, mother Crystal Strieker, right, and family friend, Ben Morofsky plan how to get the family out of their squatters' community. The Morofsky's had their three children taken from them by Child Protective Services three years ago. Ben says they took them because of their rough living conditions. CPS has been interviewing the family recently. They all fear CPS is planning on removing Ashley from the family. The Appleby's are trying to move to Washington State where there cousin owns land that they intend to build on. Ben says, "She is our little princess, and we are going to do whatever we can to make sure they don't take her."
     
  
Salvager Larry McCullough packs up his prize find - 300lbs. of 50mm brass shell casings - on the Marine bombing range next to Slab City in the Chocolate Mountains. McCullough has been salvaging brass and aluminum from bombs and shell casing in the range for the last 25 years. Asked if he felt this was dangerous work, he replied, "Well they bomb nearly every day, but I feel I know their routine. Besides this is good for them, me cleaning up all of this junk." He added, "Whoa, tonight I hit the motherload." Tonight's find will net him somewhere close to a thousand dollars.
  
Fighting for food and water, residents of Slab City, beg for goods provided by the traveling ministry, Church on Wheels, which delivers food and dry goods, as well as sermons, to the community every month. The service, which is a staple for many of the poorest families in the community, often devolves into a chaotic grab-fest, as residents fight for the items they need.
  
Jerry Jones takes a hit from his pipe, while friend Ben Morofsky teases his wife Moriah by hiding her pipe in his pants. Jerry says that he uses the drugs to escape the pain of his wife dying. Adding, "It hurts, man. I mean, sitting here watching your wife dying and not being able to do nothing. It just kills me."
     
  
Piecing the mesh netting over his front porch Larry McCullough works with his wife Sherry to fix their sun cover damaged by a recent wind storm.
  
Resting in the sun, Larry McCullough’s dog Chocolate, looks up from a nap next to one of McCullough’s six cars. He uses the cars for spare parts and to salvage. McCullough says, “Life out here requires a little ingenuity and a whole lot of patience.”
   
Following her last wishes, Jerry takes Darla down to a watering hole near the irrigation canals so that she can sit in the water. She said, “I love the water, this is what I have been waiting for.” Jerry added, “I just want to make her last days here peaceful and happy.”
     
  
With a beer in hand Willie Reynolds drops by to see his friend Johnny Hilliard. Reynolds suffers from schizophrenia and chronic headaches. He says the heat, which reaches to 120 degrees during the summer months, makes it worse, adding, "The beer helps cool me off and makes my headaches go away."
   
Judd Jones sits on his couch with his dog Coco while best friend Dave Hines kisses his dog, Blackie. Both men suffer from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and medicate themselves with anything they can find. Today it was malt liquor stolen from the nearby market. Jones was arrested later that day for an outstanding warrant from December when he raped his mother and set her trailer on fire with her in it. She did manage escape.
   
Squatter, Jesse James washes his hair in the hot spring just outside of Slab City. The spring well was developed in the 1970’s as a school project by a student studying at the University of California, San Diego. It is now the central bathing area for the community of squatters and nomads that inhabit Slab City.
     
  
Dave Hines, rear, helps friend Tom Spider, block the wind as Tom smokes a pipe of crystal meth at the Range, another music venue. The two friends recently reconnected after not seeing one another for fifteen years.
   
Tumbleweed (his only name given) sits on the couch with his best friend’s wife, Moria Morofsky, in the Morofsky’s trailer. Weeds, as he likes to be called by his friends, visits the couple daily to watch movies and smoke pot. He says of Moria, “If Ben had not married her, I surely would have.” The coment generated an uncomfortable laugh from Moriah.
  
With a little ingenuity, Mark Miller rolls his own cigarettes from spent butts he collected from nearby construction sites.
     
  
Inside one of the bunkers on the fringe of Slab City, Justin Davis, right, stands watch for his friends who play in a local band called Air Racket. The band, which usually plays on a makeshift stage nearby, relocated to the bunkers to get away from a storm blowing in. The bunkers, which once held munitions for the Marine base Camp Dunlap, are now a popular place for seasonal squatters and those looking to escape the intense storms from the Salton Sea.
  
Hitting the road, Justin Davis pushes a motorcycle he traded for some mechanic work.
  
With his wife Darla near catatonic, Jerry Jones mentally resigns himself to her fate, saying, “There is nothing left I can do. God tell me what else I can do. All I got is wait.”
     
  
The graves of past friends, both human and animal, lie in the desert on the edge of Slab City. The makeshift cemetery is now home to many past residents.