SPECIAL REPORT: Treasures of the Desert Southwest: Salvation Mountain

SLAB CITY, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - In the southern desert of California near Imperial County lies Slab City, a place where you can find bright-colored fantasy, Salvation Mountain, where everyone is loved and accepted.

All of the art was done by one single person, Leonard Knight, who thought the message, “God is love” would always triumph over hate.

Ron Malinowski, Salvation Mountain's live-on-site caretaker, describes Knight's process of building the mountain.

“One gentleman named Leonard Knight spent 28 years digging the clay out of the hill, turning it into this beautiful structure that we see here today," said Malinowski.

Before deciding to create a 50-foot tall mountain, Knight attempted to take a different approach.

He tried to get a big and bright red hot air balloon with the message “God is love” on it.

When the hot air balloon didn’t inflate, Knight went on to try and set up a billboard.

Soon after that didn't work out, he started building Salvation Mountain.

“It was never gonna be a fly balloon," said Malinowski. "It was always just gonna be a fly-up billboard. A fly balloon would have the inflator right on the balloon, there was no basket. He just wanted everyone to see it and go, ‘Yay!’”

This multi-colored mountain has brought people from across the world to Slab City.

The city with “no laws” is no match for the good energy Salvation Mountain gives people.

“Everyone, at the beginning, thought Leonard was crazy building a thing out of dirt out here. As the decades have gone by, we are now a worldwide phenomenon," said Malinowski. "Everybody loves this place, people come from almost every continent out here.”

Although the mountain is covered in bible verses, the site itself is non-denominational.

Many come to the mountain to celebrate any type of milestone in life.

“Over the last two weeks we’ve had someone come through celebrating getting her master's degree and two days later here comes some, a lady, who her doctorate and she had this super graduation outfit. We have all the high school kids come out for graduation and stuff out here quite a bit. Families come and celebrate birthdays and stuff and Mother’s Day," said Malinowski.

Although “God is love” is the main message from the builder of this mountain, the caretakers want everyone to feel like they belong.

They have established that you don’t need to be a part of a religion to visit, saying their only goal is to spread love.

“If you feel alone, come out here and we’ll show you some love. Whether it be myself or our docents or you can find love with any of the other visitors usually," said Malinowski.

The overall message the caretakers at salvation want you to leave with is:

“You know, what it is, is “‘love is universal’. Leonard built all of this out of his love for God," said Malinowski.

The stairs leading to the top of the mountain and other areas are currently closed for upkeep and maintenance, but Ron says he hopes to have it all open by the end of the year.

You can find where to donate to preserve this man-made mountain here.