Salvation Mountain, Niland, California

Leonard Knight was born 1931 Burlington, Vermont. He attended a one room school house.  At 20, the Korean War was on. He was drafted but the war ended shortly after and he came home. He painted cars and taught guitar. At the age of 35 sitting alone in his van he was saying the Sinner Prayer, “Jesus I’m a sinner, please come upon my body and into my heart’. He accepted Jesus into his heart and was never the same again. 

Seeing a hot air balloon, he decided that was the way to have people see the Sinner’s Prayer. Working odd jobs and with a second hand sewing machine he attempted to make a Hot Air Balloon with “God is Love.”  In 1984 he moved to Niland Southern California with his home built inflating furnace. He never got his balloon aloft. It kept ripping so after 14 years he admitted defeat with the balloon and proceeded to make his first mountain monument with cement and paint.  When this collapsed he made a second mountain with adobe cement and straw . People donated paint and Leonard figured he’d used 100,000 gallons on his mountain

The mountain was at the site of Slab City, a place where squatters from the north snowbirded south into the area of the Fort Dunlap Training Base.  The county decided to charge a user fee to camp there but didn’t like a ‘religious monument’ at the entrance of a county campground. They hired a toxic waste specialist who declared the mountain a ‘toxic nightmare’ before taking samples. He said there was  a high level of lead.  They were going to haul the mountain off to a toxic dump.  The community and Leonard responded by taking the samples from the same sites  and sending them to an independent lab. This found no toxicity. Leonard continued to work on the mountain

Eventually the Mountain received recognition as a “national treasure”

The Christian Rock Band , Third Day featured Leonard Knight and Salvation Mountain on their Revelations CD.  

These are excerpts from the Salvation Mountain pamphlet . Also the salvationmountain.us internet site. Leonard Knight died 2014 but a caretaking group continued to maintain the site.  The volunteers I met were kind and helpful.  

It was odd for me. I love Christian art and have been to St. Petersburg, Constantinople,  the Cistine Chapel,  Golgotha and the Church of Nativity, Bethlehem.   Here at Salvation Mountain I too felt the presecnce of God and was moved. .  What a monument of love!!

Leonard believed “we’ve got to start loving God more. god’s love is the strongest force. Hate is going to get smaller, and love is going to get bigger.’

He often said “Love is universal. Love God, love one another and just keep it simple.”

The sinner’s prayer, “Jesus, I’m a sinner. Please come upon my body and into my heart’. God is love.