ABANDONED city in America with NO LAWS | Yes Theory

We've only heard stories about the city we're heading to. Most importantly, it's rumored to be the last city in America with no laws. So I'm going to try to give you my take on what this lost city in the desert of California called Slab City really is. And our friends Justin Escalona, his girlfriend Marissa, and his best friend Nick from the YouTube channel Play the Game Films were too curious not to tag along on the adventure. But before we explored Slab City there was a fascinating place we simply couldn't avoid. All right, listening. So my favorite YouTube video ever, I'll call it, was filmed about this sea right here. So it's pretty surreal to be here. I will link it. Everyone should go watch it because it's amazing. All of this right here, this is not sand. I found an eyeball, like a skeleton of an eyeball. Damn. How crazy is this? This is not a beach. This is not sand. This is dead fish. In the 1950s a catastrophic engineering mistake deviated the Colorado River into one of the lowest basins in the country leading to the unexpected creation of the largest body of water in California, the Salton Sea. But after an entire town was created around it, the water started to dry up and became so salty that barely any living organisms survived. The water turned toxic, the accidental paradise was left abandoned, and the millions of fish dead. It got stuck in the fish net. There's still like some hints that all of this is just fish. Okay, so there's insects everywhere here. This swampy water, it looks like, I don't know, it looks very toxic. It's been dry for a long time. Oh, whoa. Wait, slow down, slow down. This is the entrance. Slab City. Almost there. This is crazy. These guys are back there drinking a beer. This is crazy. Have you been there before? No, I've never been. Oh, ----, yeah, it's right there. Oh, wow. I've seen it on film, but seeing it in person is totally different. Wow. It's surreal. When we arrived, we found what might qualify as the strangest entrance to a town. Salvation Mountain. A man called Leonard Knight spent 30 years of his life building this gigantic art piece. His desire was to spread a simple message he so deeply believed in. God is love. It's one of the craziest things I've ever seen in person. After his first attempt crumbled into the ground after four years of hard work, thousands of people came from around the world to donate paint. And he ended up coating the mountain with 100,000 gallons. He passed away in 2014, and his art has since then been qualified as a national treasure. You know, he was doing this when he was probably between 80 and 82, taking these handrails end over end. Now, as he's pumping them up there and bolting them in, he needs to know when time is running short. But he couldn't do it anymore. He couldn't see. He couldn't barely work. I love this. This is the most inspiring thing I've probably ever seen in my life. These flowers, all of these flowers here, Leonard would take them, put a ball of clay on there, and pow! And punch it with his fist. If nobody remembers my name or sees, you know, mentions me again when I'm done, cool. I don't care. Leonard did this, and it's his baby, and I'm just honored to be the dude that did that. Thank you. Yeah. This is why we do it. Everybody loves this place. It comes from around the world. Now we're going to try and go to Slab City, which is about two minutes away, and we're going to try and meet some locals and see these people living in this lawless city, I guess, that I like. Do you think we'll be able to meet somebody? I don't know. We arrived in Slab City and felt both shocked and weirdly welcome. This is East Jesus. So you see the big statue over there? Oh, ----. All of these things right here are just art installations. Look at this. That doesn't be super hostile, but it's like not. Yeah, it's very welcoming. It's like, come join. Okay, we have arrived at East Jesus. As we rolled in, we realized there's probably not a single city in the world like this one. Originally, Slab City was a military base used during World War II, but after the war ended, it was taken down and left abandoned, but is still located near an active bombing range. Quickly, the rumors spread about the abandoned land, and dozens of squatters arrived and made it their homes for the winters. With no running water or electricity, this alternative living community now hosts thousands of retirees and army veterans every year. Many of the residents are attracted by the feeling of freedom and lack of government that comes with living in an uncontrolled off-grid area in the middle of the desert. How are you doing, sir? First off, I must explain to you that, you know, I am certified insane. I really am. I really know. I have papers. I am certified insane. But this place is a power vortex. It's, you know, you feel this weird kind of, I don't know, charge in the area here. And if you look out there, you see, you know, art everywhere. What brought you here? Bad luck and a poor guide. Yes. This is a sheltered workshop for the work ethic impaired. Work ethic impaired means lazy. Okay. I have two jobs. Okay. I'm a spiritual guide here at East Jesus, and I empty the sh** buckets. I do. So that all over the whole city? Yeah, there's three of them there. And I change them out and clean them out and scrub them out and everything. So basically, you have sh** in one hand and sh** on the other. A lot of people say this slab city is lawless. Would you say it's lawless or would you say? No. No, not lawless. It's very courteous. Very courteous. And if you step over the line of discourtesy, they're just lawless. Yeah, you know, pretty much that, you know. Be courteous to your neighbor or they will shoot you. Attract people who are willing to give more to a project than they got back from it. On paper, I'm a very stable person. I am certified insane. I have papers. Otherwise, I've traveled pretty much everywhere in the world. I'm here for six months and I go to Vietnam for six months. I have a wife and two grown stepdaughters. What was it? Thank you so much. You're more than welcome. Yes. I'll give you a hug. All right. Yes. I thought you'd give a hug and it'd look really good. I'm in love. You have very intelligent questions. Yeah. Those are great answers too. Thank you. Thank you so much. You want to play bowling? No way. This is an actual bowling alley. Yeah. Dude, there's a putter. Call me Tiger Woods back in high school. Sure, whatever. I did. Damn. You built the whole thing? I built the bowling alley, the golf course. Oh, thank you. Decided to quit society and become a driftwood artist. I started traveling around the country and then ended up here. Decided I wanted to be part of this. I used to make high-performance turbocharger machines. Get out. Twin turbos for Corvettes. Leaving the city behind, I mean, this is my backyard. This is my home. You go to your job, you punch the clock so you can pay for your place to live, so you can pay for your vehicle, so you can maybe get a vacation once a year and get up and do it again every day. This place is interesting because it grows from like it is today, where there's seven of us to in about two days, there'll be 120 of us here. And we'll be doing fire bowling and fire soccer and fire volleyball and stupid stuff. What do you mean fire? It's called stupidity. They're literally on fire? They're literally on fire. We got a metal net and a fireball and we're going to wear welding gloves and it sounds really stupid. Safety third. That was the whole point of this place. Recycle it, reuse it, repurpose it. Or set it on fire. That's one of them. Hey, thank you so much, man. You guys are welcome. Appreciate it. Yeah, cheers. It was a great day. You guys are insane. We love your house. I've found my home. You're going to move here, Darren? Dude, I'd love to come here once in a while and just set things on fire. That's so much fun. This is literally insane. Like this is, and that's the best part. There's no logical correlation or association in anything that is made here. That's why it's amazing. So it's hard to have refrigeration here. So it's usually hard to get a cold beer. So we bought some cold beer on the way and we're going to give it to them as a thank you. We have a bunch of beers for you guys, just as a thank you. They're still cold right now. Yeah, they're pretty cold. We just want to say thank you and yeah. Seriously, it's inspiring. So thank you so much for having us. Yes, you guys. Cheers. He got so happy. I know. He hugged the beer. You went for the hug. All right, so we're leaving Slab City. We're going to head home. It was a pretty incredible experience. Just the people that live there are pretty much surrounded and immersed in love. It's a pretty amazing community of people just through the community. There's one thing you should ever do in your life. It's hit that subscribe button.