In 1898, an adventurer abandoned the sea for California's desert and built a home on a volcanic island; his strange settlement later became known as Hell's Kitchen

The Salton Sea has long attracted people drawn to its strange landscape, but few embraced its isolation quite like Captain Charles E.

Davis.

Born into a wealthy Massachusetts family, Davis left home for a life at sea and earned the title “captain” by the age of 18.

His adventures eventually brought him to California, where he settled on a volcanic butte that became Mullet Island after the Colorado River flooded the Salton Sink.

There, he built a cabin and created Hell’s Kitchen, an unusual cafe, dance hall and boat landing surrounded by boiling mud pots and extreme desert heat.