In 1905, engineers made a catastrophic mistake while trying to irrigate California's Imperial Valley. The Colorado River broke through a canal and flooded the Salton Basin for two years, creating a massive inland sea in the middle of the desert. The Salton Sea wasn't supposed to exist. But once it was there, developers saw opportunity. By the 1950s and 60s, the Salton Sea was California's hottest resort destination, marketed as the "California Riviera." Yacht clubs, luxury hotels, speedboat races, celebrity visitors, and beaches packed with tourists transformed the accidental sea into a paradise.

Then it all went horribly wrong. With no natural outlet, agricultural runoff made the water increasingly salty and toxic. Fish began dying by the millions, piling up on beaches and filling the air with the stench of decay. Birds by the thousands died from disease and poison. The resorts closed. The tourists fled. The shoreline receded, leaving boat docks hundreds of feet from water and abandoned buildings rotting in the desert sun. Today, the Salton Sea is an apocalyptic wasteland, a toxic dust bowl that threatens to poison the air of surrounding communities as it dries up.

Join us as we explore the rise and fall of California's strangest landmark, from engineering disaster to resort paradise to environmental catastrophe. We'll visit Bombay Beach where artists have turned the ruins into installations, examine the ongoing health crisis, and ask whether this dying sea can be saved or if it's destined to become California's Dead Sea.

Keywords: Salton Sea, California environmental disaster, Salton Sea history, abandoned resorts California, toxic sea, Bombay Beach, California Riviera, accidental ocean, Salton Sea crisis, environmental catastrophe, desert sea, abandoned California, toxic dust, Imperial Valley, Colorado River, dying sea, apocalyptic California