Seaworthy

From its very creation, the Salton Sea was trouble. Formed in 1905 when the Colorado River burst through shoddily built irrigation canals and put farms, railroad tracks and a salt works under water, the sea served as an agricultural sump until ‘50s postwar prosperity propelled it as the working man’s Palm Springs.

Yet what had been touted as “California’s New Mediterranean” turned into an environmental disaster. Foul-smelling algae blooms tainted the air and killed the fish. Thousands of birds died from yet undiscovered causes. The Alamo and New rivers, flowing north from Mexico, dumped industrial toxins, pesticides and bacteria into the water. The land boom went bust. Today, Salton City boasts 250 miles of roads and road signs, street lights, sewage lines and rows of palm trees--and acres of empty lots selling for a song.

But the Salton Sea’s day in the sun may be at hand. Three weeks ago, federal officials proposed a plan to save the sea. And a film, photo show and new book, “Salt Dreams: Land & Water in Low-Down California” (University of New Mexico Press), are bringing the sea’s story to a wider audience.

“I see the story of Salton City’s rise and fall as a monument to the California promise of utopia,” says documentary filmmaker Paul Alexander Juutilainen. “The attempt to conquer the desert and transform it into an artificial and prosperous paradise was in many ways the basis for such cities as Los Angeles, San Diego and Palm Springs.” Juutilainen’s current project, “Salton City--Miracle in the Desert,” examines how this expression of the California dream went so awry.

As does “In Search of Eldorado: The Salton Sea, Photographs by Christopher Landis,” an exhibit of black-and-white photos that opens this weekend at the Palm Springs Desert Museum. “I want to engage a wide audience in the aesthetic, scientific and environmental issues at work in this important,” Landis says, “and sometimes forgotten place.”