Author: satan165

Salton Bay chips are a little less common than Desser House chips. To this day I am still missing the 10 cent chip.

https://chipguide.themogh.org/cg_chip2.php?id=CASCSB&v=2758962885

I took a different route with this one in terms of the construction. I did not drill all the way through, I just drilled recesses. I really need some Blue Tack or something to hold them in place. Becuase I didn’t use acrylic as a cover, this is just a sheet of laminate (for laminating paper). To hold it in place, I hammered T-nuts into the plywood, and used hex cap screws with washers. The postcard I bought on Ebay, and laminated myself.

In other news, there is plenty of info about the Salton Bay Yacht Club out there. But one of the coolest things I ever saw on eBay but did not buy (and I kick myself to this day) was the below photo. The guy was selling a group of photos, this was the only one that had anything to do with the club or Salton City, the rest were of this guy styling and profiling with his new whip. The photos were watermarked but I used AI to remove it. I saved this one – I wish I had just bought the damn thing so I could scan it properly!

Throughout Salton City you will occasionally find wooden street signs. Presumably these are the original street signs when the city was built in the late 1950s. Very few survive today, and for some reason many of the remaining signs are in the air park.

The sign at Air Loop and Air Park had been broken since at least 2021 when I found it in the same state in 2023. The previous Street View on Google Maps is 2008 and it was still standing at that time. When I encountered this, The Air Park Drive sign was no where to be found. The part you see on the ground is the Air Loop sign with the 45 degree support still attached with a large carriage bolt.

I do not support vandalizing or the theft of anything from Salton City or anywhere in Imperial County. But as this had been rotting into dust for years by the time I came along, I could not resist but to take it all home with me.

I took it all to the UPS Store and let them carefully package it all in tons of bubble wrap to ship it back to Chicago. It was too large to fit into my suitcase and too fragile anyway. I paid a preimum but I knew it would be worth it.

When I got home and recieved the package from CA, I got to work. The glue up was not easy – the breaks were not clean and were highly splitered. So with a number of weights and clamps, I was able to get it together. But I knew this would still be extremely fragile so additional steps would have to be taken.

Using a salvaged piece of plywood, I attached it using construction adhesive.

It is missing a couple shards from the face but this is the price for nearly 75 years in the desert. It shall be safe forever more in my bedroom!

Back in 2021 I stopped at the Alamo in Salton City for a burrito and I saw a stack of West Shores News on the counter. I grabbed one and read it as I ate my lunch.

In writing it, I hoped that it might reach some Salton City residents who have seen me cruise around year after year, and let them know that I am there to mind my business and stay out of the way. The article was cut off at the very end due to an printing error, but here it is in it’s entirety.

When I got home I started corresponding with Roni Hewitt who is the editor and all around boss who puts this thing together month after month. I sent her a donation (which she desperately needs) and asked if I could write a guest column and she was happy to oblige me.

I never understood people who ride a bicycle with headphones on.  Besides the danger that you distract yourself and get hit by a car or befall a similar fate, in the words of Bruce Lee, you will “miss all that heavenly glory”.  Open your eyes, open your ears and take in what is around you.  There is beauty in everything, no matter where you find yourself.

In early August I made my fourth trip from Chicago to Salton City to spend a few days riding a bike around town.  I have biked all over the country and I have logged thousands of miles at home, but there is no place I enjoy more than Salton City in the hottest part of summer.  On my last day this year, I watched the mercury climb over 120F but I still knocked out 15 miles.  In those conditions, you have to ride on what I call a ‘moon patrol’.  Slowly but surely, conserve your energy and keep your heart rate low.  And what better place to do that kind of riding than in a huge city with open streets and plenty for the eyes to feast on! 

Since I was a little kid, I have been intrigued (obsessed?) with maps and streets.  I learned how the Chicago address system worked long before I could even drive, or was near old enough to explore the city on my own.  Besides the beauty of the desert, Salton City offers a nearly infinite maze of streets.  The complexity is mind bending – I love riding but my second favorite pastime (which I use to occupy myself the other 11 months of the year) is studying the map and determining various routes around the city.  In literature, Don Quixote fancied himself a brave knight, but the giants he slayed were only windmills.  I suppose I am not much different, as I imagine myself to be an explorer on the edge of humanity, exploring quiet streets alone in the oppressive heat, hiding under a palm as I check the map and plot my next turn.

Sometimes I don’t follow a route at all, and just try to get lost.  Then when sufficient miles have been logged, I check the map and find my way back.  The main arteries of the city are great starting points for any ride.  Before my first visit, my only goal was to navigate Marina Drive (connecting with Azure Ave).  I thought if I can pull this off and I never get to go back, I’ll have something to be proud of.  On my last trip I did it again – but I did two laps around the city (about 17 miles).  Salton Drive is a great road: well paved, beautiful scenery and one of the longest stretches in the city.  Dolphin Drive isn’t as straightforward but an entertaining loop back to California Ave and eventually South Marina Drive.  No week would be complete without doing at least one figure-8 around Loop Drive and one should never neglect the barren beauty of the air park.  There is an ATV trail that connects the end of the frontage road in Truckhaven with Airport Ave if you don’t mind getting stuck in the sand in Arroyo Salada.

I make sure to wave to everyone I see during my rides.  I usually get a wave back.  I just want people to know that I am just a quiet cyclist and I don’t mean to bother anyone.  I suppose I might seem a bit odd riding all alone in the hottest part of the day.  If you see a guy hiding under a tree drinking water with a large brim camouflage hat on, don’t be concerned.  It’s just a visitor from Chicago, on another moon patrol.

A while back I saw an auction on eBay for some old 8mm films marked as you see above. So I went ahead and ordered them, then immediately sent them off to be converted to digital.

Before they can make from the conversion house, I already had plans of what to do with the footage. So I ordered a CD which had a song that I thought would be perfect. I could have easily gotten a free copy of the song online a variety of ways but instead I ordered a copy from the artist.

The result is the video you see below. I couldn’t have been much happier with the results.

Sometime later, I came across this song and I knew I had to pay it tribute as well. I had some leftover footage so I went through it and put this one together as well.

Here is the raw footage straight from the film cans.

For Christmas 2022 I got a wonderful gift from a close friend. It is a print block, used to print maps. Specifically of Imperial County.

Here is a close up of a portion of the block itself. Above, you can see I did manage for find a way to print some with a homemade press. But this map has an interesting history.

Here you can see a short credit which is part of the block. No date can be found anywhere. It is notable that Salton City is not listed, which likely puts it to the mid 1950s at the latest. But even Salton Sea Beach is not listed, which puts it even further back.

But I later found some other examples of this map online and they contain an interesting detail:

Here you can see it is identical except for a date is listed (11/17/41) and the county clerk’s name. 1941 certainly is long before Salton City and Salton Sea Beach. But it makes me wonder, if this info is missing from my print block, does that mean it was added later (meaning my block is even older than 1941) or that it was removed (if so, why?).

I would come across poker chips from Desser House here and there on eBay over the years, and eventually decided I start to track them all down. Once I did, I knew I had to build some kind of proper display for them.

First thing I did was print and laminate the ad seen above. I found this in some local newspaper on CDNC. I took an old piece of plywood and after laying it out digitally, I cut it to size, then mounted the ad in the center.

My goal was to recess the chips by drilling all the way through, then mounting additional wood on the back to keep them from falling through.

After that it got a coat of green paint (to emulate the felt top of a poker table). I went down to the local hardware store and got a piece of acrylic cut to size as well.

The rest was simple. I drilled and screwed the acrylic into place. On the back I just used two small screws and a heavy piece of wire to use as a way to mount it.

I later found that there was is a 9th chip ($20). Even if I had known, it would have been difficult to incorporate an odd number of chips into my display. Part of me will remain tortured by not having it!

The above is taken from “Queen of the Salton Sea”. I never dreamt I’d get my hands on an original but dreams come true! I got one on ebay for……well….how much is ‘too much’? Too much is never enough!

I immediately scanned it then sent it to Sticker Mule to have some stickers created. Very happy with the results! Want some? Email me, rat at saltonseastory dot com.