Post #537860 by MadDogMike on Sun, Jun 20, 2010 4:29 PM

A little off topic but I have a story about the golden age of the Salton Sea. About 20 years ago I was driving from the Salton Sea to Borrego Springs, a small high desert community about 30 miles west of the sea. I came across an abandoned casino out in the middle of the desert. I knew that there had been some development in the area in the 50s but this was remarkably well preserved. I parked in the paved parking lot and went to check it out. The door was opened so I went inside. The lobby was empty of furnishings but was in great shape except for no ceiling, it all looked very mid-century. I open the door at the back of the lobby to do more exploring and there was nothing but desert! Moreover, the back was unfinished and there were plastic paint buckets out there.

Now I was really curious. What I thought was a stone wall was really a rubber panel and the dead grass in front was rolled out sod, neither of which are very mid-century. Turned out it was the set for the movie Bugsy starring Warren Beaty :lol:

It was built on BLM land with the understanding that the area would be returned to it's former state. I drove by there monthly on business for several months. They torn down the building, ripped out the parking lot and foundation, and replanted desert vegetation. At the end of 6 months, you couldn't tell where the casino had been.