For more than a thousand years, the Salton Sink In southeastern California has been home to the largest body of water in the state. It is there because the San Andreas Fault is tearing southern California apart and the bottom is dropping out. Three hundred years ago, it was Lake Cahuilla, a freshwater lake, but changing geology, the whims of the Colorado River, and the negative side of extensive, industrial agriculture have resulted in a very salty and polluted sea.

Once a booming tourist mecca, drought, agriculture, and failed development have produced a nearly dead body of water. All around the lake are fragments of broken dreams. One place, a most unusual one, continues to thrive.