The Backstory to the Mountain Compound:
In 1933, records show that mining fortune heiress Jessie Murphy bought 55-acres in Rustic Canyon from Will Rogers. But the name Jessie Murphy is fictitious, it appears no where else in any records that match up. The Stephens are the couple that actually owned the Murphy Ranch. A man known only as Herr Schmidt, possibly a German spy, convinced Norman and Winona Stephens to spend $4 million 1930s dollars (more than $65 million today) to build the Murphy ranch. It was to be Hitler and the Third Reich's headquarters in America.
The heavily guarded compound was designed to be self contained, said to include:
- a 375,000 gallon spring-fed water tank
- a 20,000 gallon diesel fuel tank
- a diesel power plant with twin electrical generators that could power a small town
- a vegetable garden
- hills terraced for as many as 3,000 nut, citrus, fruit and olive trees with built-in irrigation
- livestock stables
- dairy and butchering facilities
- a meat locker
- a four story mansion with 22 bedrooms (which may or may not have actually been built)
- an incinerator
- a bomb shelter
- an electrified fence encircling the complex
- a rumored radio system that could send and received coded messages
- and there are rumors of underground tunnels.
The group that built it were members of the Silver Legion of America and were known as Silver Shirts. They intended to later add a swimming pool, several dining rooms, a gymnasium and five libraries, all funded by Germany.
The Silver Shirts planned to seize control of the United States after Europe fell to the nazis; they imagined Europe's collapse would plunge the United States into chaos. In real history, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor the FBI arrested the 40 to 50 Silver Shirts living at Murphy Ranch. With the exception of briefly being an artists colony, and even home to Henry Miller the novelist at one time, the compound has been abandoned ever since. In 2012 plans to bulldoze the ruins were made.
pictures from a trip there today
pictures from an earlier visit
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