RIP Leonard Knight of Salvation Mountain

[michael]

I heard some sad news this last Monday.

Leonard White, the guy who built Salvation Mountain out near Niland, CA passed away Feb 10. I visited Leonard quite a few times from 2006 - 2011 before he went to live in an assisted care facility in El Cajon, CA. He was truly a
sweet guy with an interesting personal story. He even managed to talk me into distributing some of his CDs about his message "God Is Love" (he didn't have a CD player himself) to the retirement homes in my area. If you mentioned "keep it simple", Leonard would talk your ear off.

This LA Times article is pretty good:
http://www.latimes.com/obituaries/la-me ... z2tAx0XKez.

Salvation Mountain played a part in the movie "Into the Wild" in 2007 and
has been featured in a other movies and TV shows.

Here is my favorite photo album of Salvation Mountain:
http://www.aaronhuey.com/#/editorial-ar ... untain_018

If you want a more complete history, here is a good bio from the Slab City Times:

http://www.slab-city.com/leonard-knight-short-bio/

or go to the Salvation Mountain website at http://www.salvationmountain.us/

I'm going to miss Leonard. The desert is a necessary place for those people whose dreams don't include stop signs and Starbucks.

[toms]

Michael - thanks for letting us know. I was in that area just about a year ago.

[BorregoWrangler]

I never had the chance to meet him. Sounds like he was a cool cat. My family and I were at Salvation Mountain the day before he passed away. He'll be missed for sure.