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What It’s Like to Live in Slab City

Weird History | March 15, 2026



For most people in America, access to running water, sewage treatment, and electricity are a given. But for those who can’t afford a home, want to live outside modern society, or just need an escape from the snow every winter, Slab City might be an attractive place to call home. Located about 190 miles southeast of Los Angeles and built on an abandoned military base, Slab City has become a tourist destination and a residential community.

Far from being one of the most beautiful cities in the world or even the United States, Slab City has its own unique appeal for those who live there and call themselves Slabbers. It takes a certain kind of person to be willing to endure 120-degree days in summer, live miles from the nearest grocery store, and get by without running water. People do it, however, and many of them are proud of their self-reliance and endurance. What’s it like to live there?

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Written by Weird History

Comments

This post currently has 34 comments.

  1. @oscarphile

    March 15, 2026 at 6:05 pm

    Here's an idea for a future video: I'd like to know what it's like to live in Whittier, the town of 272 (as of the last census) in Alaska where, famously, almost the entire population of the town lives in the same 14-story apartment building, Begich Towers Condominium.

  2. @kensmith2839

    March 15, 2026 at 6:05 pm

    I spent a night at Slab City last week on my way from San Diego to Pittsburgh PA. The next morning I visited Bombay Beach which is 20 miles away. I recommend visiting both.

  3. @JacobDean88

    March 15, 2026 at 6:05 pm

    Its a very cool place… went there a few times in the 90s, when we use to hitch around the country. Nothing wrong with slab city nor its people

  4. @petermontoya1796

    March 15, 2026 at 6:05 pm

    IDK why people choose to live in Slab City. It is a SLUM. Worse than India !! Trash everywhere. The people who do live there are outcasts. I get that, but most are addicts and users. If you're a dealer then there you go. Who wants to live here ?? IDIOTS !!

  5. @Grunt-pr7od

    March 15, 2026 at 6:05 pm

    Their so full of shit no one wants them living anywhere decent and that's a fact they've been ran out of everywhere else so they have to live there.

  6. @jballssmyrl1452

    March 15, 2026 at 6:05 pm

    Interesting as a mf, if I become homeless especially in winter time I'd find my way there. Seems if you were in a bind of whatever this looks like pretty solid for most part. Alot of good people there it seems

  7. @Liquid188

    March 15, 2026 at 6:05 pm

    What do they eat? Hunting coyote and snakes?
    Looks decent to me if you are absolutely done with everybodys shit.
    America is truely the most free country in the world. Done with deep state? Move to the desert.

  8. @jivangill

    March 15, 2026 at 6:05 pm

    Nah bruh that is nasty place to be and live man nah fuck that I rather work hard and live in my clean new house with the modern technology and amenities and how can someone lives like this

  9. @ajf5823

    March 15, 2026 at 6:05 pm

    I live full time in my trailer and have the ability to be off the grid and go off road. The last place l would go to get away from it all is this place

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