Slab City, California
George Rose/Getty Images
George Rose/Getty Images
Often referred to as “the last free place” or “an enclave of anarchy,” Slab City is an unincorporated community with no official electricity, sewers, trash collections, or water systems. However, it also doesn’t have any taxes or law enforcement. And that’s because this unofficial “town” was never supposed to exist.
After World War II, the U.S. government shut down and abandoned Camp Dunlap, a former Marine Corps base. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, this led a group of squatters to make their homes among the leftover concrete slabs (hence “Slab City”) and create a community of hundreds of survivalists and other fringe residents that persists today.