The salty sea is 30' deep on average, the deepest bit about 43'. The USS Enterprise CVN65 has a draft of 39'. Will it float?

The untrue believers think there may be a town or an atomic bomb at the bottom of the sea. It's an airplane graveyard though, with at least 24 Navy planes having crashed in it killing more than 36 crew members. Divers found an Avenger torpedo bomber in 1999, but the Navy still keeps the serial number secret... The sheriff divers who found the Avenger want to tell you to stay away from it, because the water is dark.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jun-15-mn-46677-story.html

The Salton Sea Naval Test Base SSTB was commissioned in 1942 and closed in 1987. It's owned by the BLM now, AKA "us.".

https://www.bracpmo.navy.mil/brac_bases/california/former_salton_sea_test_base.html

Finding the old base presents a challenge. The road ends before you get there with a raised, fenced holding pond between it and the end of the road. By jiggering the phone map a bit, using the shape of the shoreline you can find the road to ruin and use AWD to go around the holding pond.

In the cool 99F evening I headed for the remnants, the Border Patrol truck toddling behind, watching from a rise as I stopped to photograph along the access road. It felt like Indiana Jones in the warehouse looking for the box with the government drones overseeing. I knew I should have had one of those photographer hats... “Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory.”

On base waiting for the sun and moon. The remains suit this existential seaside. Hope the conservators don't make a Bodie theme park with a parking lot and port-a-potties...all carefully to pose past relics safely, well scrubbed in appropriate compliance with the accepted foundation myths. “Look at this. It’s worthless — ten dollars from a vendor in the street. But I take it, I bury it in the sand for a thousand years, it becomes priceless. Like the Ark.”

Darkness, darkness... Pointed the car towards the ominous trees to the west left and headed back. Enough tire tracks and memory that way to make back to the "main road." Border Patrol was at dinner I guess... “It’s a leap of faith.”

And a good night. “And what did you find?” “…Me? Illumination.”