Once a celebrity playground, this ghost town is now a bohemian art sanctuary.

Cultures · Published 10 October 2026 · Updated 25 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Bombay Beach was a 1950s luxury destination attracting stars like Frank Sinatra and the Beach Boys. Today, it sits 223 feet below sea level as a decaying, post-apocalyptic landscape. Yet, this desert settlement has found a strange new life as an unlikely hub for artists, intellectuals, and avant-garde filmmakers.

Located on the shores of the Salton Sea in California's Sonoran Desert, Bombay Beach was once a thriving resort town. During the 1950s, it drew half a million tourists annually, rivaling Yosemite National Park. However, the town's fortunes shifted in the 1970s and 1980s as agricultural runoff increased the lake's salinity, destroying the ecosystem and causing a mass die-off of fish. The resulting odors, health concerns, and fluctuating water levels drove away businesses and residents, leaving behind a landscape of abandoned trailers and crumbling, graffiti-covered structures.

Despite its status as a ghost town, the area has experienced a recent cultural resurgence. Since 2016, the community has hosted the annual Bombay Beach Biennale, an art festival that invites academics, writers, and artists to create installations and host lectures. This influx of creative energy has transformed the town into a living gallery, featuring works like the 'Bombay Beach Drive-In,' an installation of abandoned cars. The town's surreal, derelict aesthetic has also made it a popular location for filmmakers, musicians, and photographers, appearing in projects ranging from documentaries like Alma Har'el's 2011 film 'Bombay Beach' to episodes of television series like 'The Mentalist' and 'S.W.A.T.'

Today, the community remains small and isolated, with the nearest gas station 20 miles away. According to the 2020 census, the population is 231, with a median age of 60.2 years. While many residents are long-term inhabitants attached to the area's history, the rising popularity of the town has led to increased property values, with some bungalows selling for tens of thousands of dollars. The town sits at the southern terminus of the San Andreas Fault, a geological reality that occasionally surfaces in local lore and media, underscoring the precarious, fascinating nature of this desert settlement.

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