The Salton Sea is a husk of a place now. But it wasn’t always that way.

Between the 1940s and the 1960s, small resort cities bloomed around the sea’s shoreline, boasting swimming, water sports, fishing, and seemingly endless adventure, a true miracle in the desert. Speedboat races and regattas drew huge crowds. It became a hot spot for celebrities like Jerry Lewis and the Marx Brothers, who had boats at the North Shore Beach and Yacht Club.

When the nearby Camp Young was in operation as a desert training center during World War II, as many as 500 soldiers per day stopped by to swim or relax. Major General George Patton, commanding officer of the camp, was a frequent visitor.

The waters were healthy — the sea was a favorite spot for anglers, and saltwater-tolerant fish like corvina, sargo, and Gulf croaker flourished, making the Salton Sea one of the most productive fisheries in the entire state. It became a backdrop for movies. Tourism thrived.

Things began to go bust in the 1970s, when a series of storms flooded the banks. Chemicals and pesticides contaminated the water, leaving it unsustainable for most sea life, and every flood seemed to leave behind a fish kill. Fish bodies littered the banks. They rotted in the sun. The air reeked of decay. The sand where people used to walk around barefoot and sunbathe disappeared under a layer of barnacles and crunchy fish bones.

The resorts shuttered. Boat frames and marinas rusted. Most people left and never looked back, leaving their homes and businesses abandoned. The little cities became heavy with the ghosts of the past.

But there’s another side to the Salton Sea, a side that is extraordinary. Some people never see it. But for those who get it, they fall hard.

On days when the air is still, the placid water becomes a slick mirror for the clouds. Sometimes the horizon is utterly indistinguishable — sky becomes sea becomes sky again. During migration, the birds are a wonder, with preening pelicans, sandpipers, cranes, and egrets as far as the eye can see. When the flocks take to the sky, it looks like people tossing rice into the air after a wedding.

There’s also a particular beauty in the brokenness. In a place of capsized, washed-up boats, gutted houses, and overgrown shores, that’s where endless possibility exists. It was spectacular once. It could be again.

In 2011, Kerry Morrison was living in Long Beach and managing a production studio in Burbank. Then he came to the Salton Sea to film a music video.

“It was a place I didn’t know anything about, but I was intrigued by it,” he says.

While he was supposed to be creating that music video, Morrison stopped by the Salton City Chamber of Commerce and spoke to some of the local leaders and researchers. He met with the residents.

“I found this place needed more help than any place I had ever seen,” he says. “But it was so beautiful at the same time.”

Now a resident of Salton City, Morrison created The EcoMedia Compass, which aims to use science, music, and art to create awareness about environmental issues, and has become one of the most vocal activists for Salton Sea restoration.

“I came to make a video and got sidetracked by starting a nonprofit,” he says with a laugh.

Something similar happened with Geraci, and it’s the reason he’s here today. He grew up in the Coachella Valley and was always intrigued by the Salton Sea. He watched the sea prosper, then decay in his lifetime. When it became clear the problems plaguing the lake weren’t going away, Geraci studied environmental science, determined to be part of the solution.

“I thought somehow I could save it,” he says. “If not me, then who?”

Odigie and Geraci lift a hulking piece of rock from the sea and place it in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife airboat, where they can get a better look at the sample. It’s about three inches thick and craggy, about the size of a large cast-iron skillet. It’s not concrete. It’s crust, and this is the first time it has been located in the southern part of the sea.

“It’s here,” Geraci says. He smiles and then says softly, almost to himself, “I knew it.”

Nearby, the underwater volcanic mud pots continue to burble and belch. The Salton Sea Authority says this part of the lake is the richest source of geothermal energy in the United States and possibly the world.

Geraci believes this geothermal activity has something to do with the process of how the crust formed: According to his hypothesis, sulfides in the water become oxidized, growing and becoming dense. When this calcium sulfate eventually sinks, it binds with other materials along the seabed.

Unfortunately, this discovery won’t solve the Salton Sea crisis, he says. But it might help mitigate dust particles tainting the air. This hits particularly close to home for him, as the father of children who suffer from asthma.

“That’s why this crust is so important. It will prevent these toxic particles from becoming airborne,” he says. “And because the crust is so extensive, it’s a game-changer.”

There are other reasons to have hope. The state is taking tentative but positive steps toward solving some of these issues.

Over the last 40 years, numerous ideas and proposals for Salton Sea restoration have been brought to the table by various entities. None of them have

been implemented, for a variety of reasons: lack of a shared vision, reduced inflows, and funding constraints. For instance, one idea was a pipeline or canal, linking Mexico’s Sea of Cortez to the Salton Sea, and pumping in water to cover the exposed seabed. However, an idea like that is costly, is geographically daunting, and requires an agreement with Mexico.

The state’s current Salton Sea Management Program, unveiled in 2017, consists of multiple phases, both short and long term. The initial 10-year phase, which comes with a price tag of $383 million, consists of a significantly smaller lake (about one-third of the current Salton Sea), surrounded by shallow feeder ponds to support migratory birds and mitigate dust.

For the first time, this new plan offers details of the number of acres to be restored each year, as well as how much it will cost over the next decade. What remains unclear is where those funds will come from.

As far as how Geraci’s discovery will play into this, that is another unknown. But it’s an angle that deserves further investigation.

“We’re talking about major areas that could be potentially untouched, saving tons of water and money and effort, and focusing those on another area where it’s really needed,” Geraci says. “I have a lot of faith.”