Salvation Mountain thriving thanks to donations
Salvation Mountain is making a comeback of sorts. Recently featured in pop singer Kesha’s latest music video, “Praying.”
“Oh yeah I met her. She was nice. You know I truly, I didn’t know who she was. Cause they wanted me to sign an agreement if I don’t say nothing and I don’t sign nothing, I live here and so I met her and ‘hey what’s up’ and back and forth, she was cool,” said caretaker Ron Malinowski.
Malinowski said this isn’t the first time Hollywood has shown interest.
“Well it started with National Geographic, they gave us our first spread. Then ‘Into the Wild’, that movie and everybody still mentions it, almost daily here. Then we started getting a few more videos,” Malinowski said.
While the colorful spot has always been popular, it’s not been easy to keep it up. After creator Leonard Knight passed away there was no one to give it the attention it needed. Until Malinowski became the caretaker.
“You know, when we repair things now, we repair them. We take big hollow spots and take them down. Rebuild the artwork to a ‘T’. All this area we’re sitting in has been redone from pictures,” Malinowski said.
He’s been the caretaker for more than a year and says the mountain is looking better than ever, thanks to generous donations of latex paint. He said more people are coming after seeing Kesha’s music video.
“Well the visitorship has like grown tremendously since then. Because people are seeing the colors are coming back, the spirit of God and love is still here,” Malinowski said.
More: I-Team and Stands for You investigations
Find us on Facebook: KESQ News Channel 3 & CBS Local 2
Follow us on Twitter for breaking news updates: @KESQ & @Local2
We’re on Instagram! @KESQ_News_Channel_3 & @CBSLocal2
Noticias en español: Telemundo 15
