Squatters living in a Death Valley environment on a former Marine base without water, sewage, and power are mostly damaged refugees from civil society or the elderly, retaining shreds of dignity and independence. They would otherwise be living in doorways, parks, under bridges and overpasses. Most will claim to be there for the freedom of this virtually ungoverned 631 acres. All have come because there is no rent at this ‘Last Free Outpost in America’. Only 40 miles from the border with Mexico, Slab City is just up the road from where the ‘Migrant Mother’ in Dorothea Lange’s remarkable photograph had worked during the Great Depression, where Steinbeck found the inspiration for ‘The Grapes of Wrath’. Slab City is where Mad Max meets the Joads.