Month: January 2019

In 2002, the Miss USA pageant was held in Gary. During the event, Donald Trump decided to renovate the front of the theater using sheets of plywood to cover the windows. The plywood was painted to depict a false interior, and a marquee was mounted outside the front. The marquee then read “Jackson Five Tonite.” In 2009, after Michael Jackson’s death, plastic signs reading “Jackson Five Forever” were placed on both sides of the marquee.

In 1878, Two Guns became the site of a mass murder of Apaches by their enemies – the Navajo. In an attempt to hide out, and avoid detection, the Apaches crawled into a cave at Two Guns. Unfortunately, the Navajos took notice, and lit sagebrush fires at the cave’s exit, shooting any Apaches that attempted to escape. 42 other Apaches that were not shot were asphyxiated by smoke from the fire. They were then stripped of their valuables. The murder site became known as the “death cave.”

Bombay Beach is surely one of the most interesting towns I have ever visited. The town is situated on the Salton Sea, 4 miles west-southwest of Frink in Southern California’s Sonoran Desert. The entire area is full of oddly calming post-apocalyptic views and various interesting projects left behind by artists, utilizing vacant spaces for creation in numerous expressive ways.