Knight’s optimistically took the collapse as a positive message from God.

Unfortunately he passed away in 2011, the same year Knight was moved into a care facility.Salvation Mountain has faced and continues to face a number of challenges. She is a 2015 Guggenheim Fellow in Photography and the 2012 recipient of the Theo Westenberger Award for Artistic Excellence.

Upon returning home to Vermont, Knight supported himself by picking up odd jobs, such as painting cars and giving guitar lessons. Since keeping the monument in pristine condition is a full time job, many volunteers are needed to keep Knight’s dream alive. In 1994, hazardous waste experts appeared and cited Leonard as creating a toxic site with the lead in his painted mountain.

He began to recite the Sinner’s Prayer, “Jesus, I’m a sinner, please come upon my body and into my heart.” He states that “For twenty minutes I was just saying it over and over again, and it changed my life completely to the good.” This moment began his lifelong, unfaltering dedication to Jesus (Metz 1998:13).Once Knight’s spiritual passion was unleashed, he went from church to church to share his enthusiasm. He has put it this way: “I believe that God is love, and I believe that Jesus is beautiful and pretty, and we should be comfortable talking about God’s love and the prettiness of God” ( Metz 1998:71).

In building his missionary mountain, Leonard has been hailed as a visionary artist, and in 2000 was given a plaque by the Folk Art Society of America acknowledging the artistic merit of the sculpture that is Salvation Mountain.In 2011, five years after I met Leonard, he was placed in a long-term care facility in El Cajon for dementia. We headed further into the desert, the expanse around us studded with molehill-like protrusions of old Army bunkers. As Leonard told someone twelve years later “It’s been a good week.”Leonard gave me a personal Salvation Mountain tour, as it seems he does for every visitor. Since Leonard’s passing, a nonprofit group called Salvation Mountain Inc. has taken over the task of preserving the mountain for future generations to enjoy. The California State Lands Commission is not certain if the state actually owns the land it sits on (nearby Slab City lies on state holdings) so the future of Knight's inspirational earthwork is precarious indeed.We are dedicated to providing you with articles like this one.

The Folk Art Society of America declared his creation "a folk art site worthy of preservation and protection" in 2000.

The material began to rot due to the intense Nebraska heat (Metz 1998:17-25).Knight left Nebraska and headed for Southern California in 1984. Eubank’s goal was to continue to protect the mountain and have it legally preserved. A pickup truck, camper, two motorcycles, and a boat had each been transformed into individual beds of vivid blooms—I buzzed from one to the next, savoring the sweet artistry.A wiry and spry Leonard Knight made a beeline for me from inside the mouth of the Mountain and cried out a warm welcome. Located on an old riverbank in the California Desert, Salvation Mountain is a man-made mountain decorated with numerous murals, Christian sayings and bible verses created by local artist Leonard Knight as a monument to his faith. To this day, thousands of people have traveled annually to this area just to visit Salvation Mountain.The main focal point of the installation is the brightly painted "God is Love" message. Knight has expressed a belief that love is the strongest force on earth and can combat the hate that is so prevalent in today’s world (Metz 1998:63).Salvation Mountain demands a tremendous amount of upkeep for its preservation, and many people have stepped forward to assist Knight in taking care of the mountain.

It’s a good thing that his God is a loving God. Knight has explained that he was something of a loner and that his schoolmates often made fun of him for having a stutter. The creative force behind Salvation Mountain, Leonard was tan and lean, with good teeth and tousled white hair.

In 1996, I had gone south to visit a former teacher of mine who was living seasonally at the Slabs east of Niland. This second effort resulted in the current Salvation Mountain, which stands approximately three stories high. Leonard's mountain grew and grew - 30, 40, 50 feet and more. In 1998, Knight built a Hogan, a domed-shaped home made of adobe and bales of straw that reflects traditional Navajo architecture, which he then covered in paint and decorated. Obviously, he was a man who loved and respected all forms of spirituality.Another beautiful aspect of Knight was how simply he had lived at the mountain. And so I just keep doing it.”And God let him, despite some adversity. Below this statement and within a crimson heart is inscribed: "Jesus, I'm a sinner. A bank sat forlornly on one corner, its cash flow clearly dried up long ago, its still-imposing Ionic columns scarred with graffiti. He said he would start another Salvation Mountain (the current construction) "with more smarts".Before his death, Knight was living in a nursing home; he was able to visit Salvation Mountain for the last time in May 2013;"A visionary ... Leonard worked beyond our concept of time, slowly and methodically without ever wandering from his path. He enthusiastically showed me around his Candy Land-like patch of desert. His goal was to build the largest hot air balloon in the world; it would bear the words “God is Love” in large red letters for all to see.

He had planned on staying in Nebraska for a few days, but he ended up staying for five years.

I didn’t know what I had expected of someone who had wound up here 24 years ago from Vermont and began a new life by slapping adobe on the hillside and painting it with biblical passages. The churches believed that Knight’s ideas were too simple. It was here where he experienced his first religious feelings after he rejected his sister’s attempts to teach him about Jesus.“I was about thirty-six years old and I’d never spent one minute, hardly, thinking about God or the Lord. Kim Stringfellow is an artist and educator residing in Joshua Tree, California.