I know what you are going to say if you’ve ever been here in the near past. She ages well? The putrid, disgusting, smelly, hot, and downright vile hole in the middle of the Anza Borrego Desert that just so happens to be filled with a man-made lake. The one that with the right wind can stink up the entire Los Angeles basin in the hot miserable summer. Yes this one. Let me explain.

Water runs downhill and one of the main sources for this water is the New River which originates in Mexico and consists mostly of agricultural runoff, sewage, and industrial waste. It is often referred to as the most polluted river in North America. While it is said that The Salton Sea may have more fish in it than any other lake in the United States, each year hundreds of thousands to millions of fish die when the warm water and algae blooms, fed by poop river, suck the oxygen out of the water.

The Salton Sea was at one time a mecca for the glamorous. A place to fish and water ski, or hangout with the likes of the Rat Pack. Things were so groovy in the 40′s and 50′s that the place was on its way to becoming the next Palm Springs. People started buying up lots left and right, all wanting a piece of this new and exciting resort in the desert. Then as water moves downhill, poop floats down stream too.

The salinity of the old Colorado river delta and farmland runoff has turned the Salton Sea in to a body of water saltier than the Pacific Ocean. With the low oxygen levels during the summer months the only fish known to survive the conditions are Tilapia and every year these are the fish that end up rotting on shore; some survive only because they are in shallow waters where wave activity helps the oxygen flow. They must reproduce at an amazing rate because every summer, millions more die and everything stinks again. If you think Dean Martin is going to hangout in a place that smells of rotten fish, think again.

This leads me to where I was going with my statement. Where most would see an abandoned trailer park, or a home that a family clearly resides in covered in graffiti or worse and feel a sense of dread and despair, us photographers find an absolute beauty. A stunner who may have a lot of mileage on her, but oh what she can teach you. When referring to a person who ages well we generally talk about people who age the right way to us visually, but what about those things like the Salton Sea that age best? It isn’t about if it ages right, but that it ages true and with authority. Whole neighborhoods flooded and then left half-buried in sand and dead fish when the water recedes. Once swanky yacht clubs that were hangouts for only the coolest of cats are now fenced up or an empty lot with only the imported palm trees that once served as a decorative beacon swaying in the hot breeze. From their fronds you can clearly hear their death rattle. Wouldn’t this truly be aging to the fullest?

I hope The Salton Sea can be saved, at least for the people who by now don’t have much of a choice but stick with her. They’ve done it for much of their lives. She would be sexy and alluring again. She would attract celebrities and sports stars. The fishing would again bring tens of thousands annually and kids like the young Sonny Bono could learn to water ski here. Yes, she would be the sparkling jewel of the desert, but we must remember she is a fugazi: an accident gone bad. If this happens and we are rubbing elbows with the likes of Snooki while sipping Mai Tais at the North Shore Yacht Club, many of us will be secretly longing for the times when it looked like a wasteland to the rest, because to us she truly is beautiful just the way she is.