On Saturday, December 27, 2008, we explored Rustic Canyon Near Will Rogers State Park in Pacific Palisades. The hike began at Sullivan Fire Road.
The destination was Murphy Ranch a plot of land in the Santa Monica Mountains surrounded in history and intrigue. It was purchased in the 1930s under a false name, and then developed into a self sufficient and relatively defensible military style compound. The first improvements made were a tall barbed-wire fence, a power generating station, a 20,000 gallon diesel fuel tank, a 375,000 gallon cistern, a barn, a garage/utility building and terraced hillside gardens used to cultivate fruit and nut trees.
An network of concrete stairways was built around the hillsides and terraces and was used by “silver shirt” armed guards who patrolled around the clock. Sounds of gunfire, attributed to nighttime target practice, routinely echoed through the canyon. Plans were drawn up for a 22 room manor house by a noted architect, but world events precluded its construction.
Sometime around 1940, the authorities intercepted shortwave radio transmissions from the ranch to Nazi Germany. As it turns out, the ranch was intended to be the nerve center for the Nazi party after it conquered the United States- a foregone conclusion to its organizer, a shadowy figure known as “Herr Schmidt.”
On December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, authorities raided the ranch, arrested its occupants, and deported them to relocation camps far from America’s coastlines. Murphy ranch fell into disrepair, though it has been sporadically occupied over the years by artists. It is currently property of the City of Los Angeles and abandoned, but with many artifacts remaining intact.
The main gate. Your first clue that this is something interesting.
The dreaded silvershirts patrolling the stairs.
One half of our raiding party.
Cistern, now empty.
This was a stable at one point, but may have had living quarters as well.
Manson era split windshield VW microbus, minor body damage, surface rust.
Here's a clue of its vintage.
This was a weird structure. It was made out of corrugated metal which was stuccoed and tiled on the inside. There were the remains of a whole slew of bathtubs, kitchen appliances, and more plumbing and wiring than anyone would ever need in a regular house.
Its since burned and partially collapsed.
We spent quite a while trying to date the place from what remained.
This was the power generating station, given over to the graffiti artists.
Inside. You can't see the extensive basement from here, but its weird. Heck, the whole place was weird. In good way.
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