Salvation Mountain was created by local resident Leonard Knight (1931–2014). You can find the man-made Mountain northeast of Niland, CA, and several miles from the Salton Sea.

The artwork is made of adobe, straw, and thousands of gallons of lead-free paint, most of the material was donated.

The surrounding areas includes numerous murals. Some walls are painted with Christian sayings and Bible verses.

In December 2011, the 80-year-old Leonard Knight was placed in a long-term care facility in El Cajon for dementia. Leonard Knight died on February 10, 2014.

In the year 2000 The Folk-Art Society of America declared it “a folk-art site worthy of preservation and protection”.

In an address to the United States Congress on May 15, 2002, California Senator Barbara Boxer described it as “a unique and visionary sculpture… a national treasure… profoundly strange and beautifully accessible, and worthy of the international acclaim it receives”.

In 2012, Salvation Mountain, Inc., was established to support the project, it is a private charity.
Today the future of the site, which requires constant maintenance, due to the harsh surrounding desert environment, is uncertain. Many visitors are bringing paint to maintain to the project.

A group of constantly changing volunteers are working to protect and maintain the site since the death of Leonard.