And now for an exciting preview of things to come for those of you who believe that the world is ending next week: Once referred to as California’s Riviera, the Salton Sea — which is the state’s largest lake — resulted from an irrigation accident in 1905. Today, thanks to environmental issues like increased salinity and pollution (which led to massive fish die-offs), the one-time tourist attraction has became an abandoned ghost town, filled with uninhabited, salt-encrusted structures. Filmmaker Ransom Rigg’s has made a beautifully-shot short documenting the rise and fall of what he refers to as his “favorite post-apocalyptic hell-hole.” Click through to check it out, and for more on the topic, add the John Waters-narrated documentary Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea to your queue.
[via Colossal]