Rustic Canyon Nazi Camp – Winona Stephens Complex

This past weekend Constantine and I explored a few different areas of abandoned LA. First we went to the Griffith Park Old LA Zoo. On Sunday we went to the Rustic Canyon Nazi Camp up in Pacific Palisades.

In the early 1930’s Winona Stephens, a heir to a mining fortune created the Murphy Ranch on 50 secluded acres near what is now Topanga State Park. The person in charge of building all this was a Nazi spy named Schmidt. Herr Schmidt persuaded Stephens to invest more than $4 million to create a self-supporting community where a chosen few would live until the day anarchy fell on the United States after a presumed Nazi victory over England.

By 1940, they had built a garage with living quarters overhead, a huge concrete water tank, a diesel fuel tank and a dual-generator power station. Stephens, Schmidt and 50 other future master racers lived on the site, cultivating a vegetable garden and waiting for the New World Order. Guards stood at the gates, and the sounds of military drills often rang through the canyon.

The day after the United States entered World War II, Schmidt was arrested by the FBI and the community soon began to disintegrate. Now the buildings lie in ruins, littered with the remains of bonfires and plastered with graffiti, including swastikas. The canyon walls above are cut by four staircases of crumbling, treacherous concrete.

To get to Murphy Ranch, park at the corner of Capri road and Casale. Hike down the dirt/paved fire road which can been seen google maps here. You wil have to go around a gate to Camp Josepho.

The main gate to the complex is about a mile up the road from where the fire road starts, however if you keep an eye out you will see a set of stairs heading down into the canyon about 7tenths of a mile from the start. You can either take these or continue on to the main gate. You can easily walk around the gate and follow the road down behind. About .2 mile down the road will split. You can take either direction to get to the camp. We went to the left which lead to the main pumping/power station and an old garage/house.

You can still see many of the flowers and trees which were planted by the group back in the days. They continue to bloom on their own each year. It really is pretty amazing how well this is all being preserved even though it’s open to the elements and human destruction. The power plant is COVERED in graffiti, and the pits where pumps were once housed are now home to mounds and mounds of trash and empty beer cans.

Someone has even gone to the trouble of creating an artistic sculpture out of a bunch of old trash and building parts. Continue following the small trail past the old garage and once it ends, follow the river for a while. You will come across a very well preserved building which is enclosed in fencing. Here you will find the other end of the main gate’s road. You can either take this back up or continue to explore.

We didn’t have any more time once we got here, so we headed back up the road. But you can be sure that I will be back there soon to finish exploring this huge Nazi complex!

You can download or tracks for Google Earth here, and see just how easy it is to see. This is easily a 3 mile hike, but you could make it much much more. Take your time and enjoy it. We even saw a few people having a picnic down there!

Our pictures of the Rustic Canyon Nazi Camp are here. Or you can view the GoogleEarth GeoTagged photos here. Lastly you can view the other hard data from the weekend here.

Here’s some more references:
Nazi Commune Ruins
Rustic Canyon Local Hikes
I Hate Illinois Nazis

Old LA Zoo and Nazi Camps!

What a weekend! Been very very busy!

Friday afternoon was just a gorgeous day here in LA! I got out of work and it was 77 degrees so I came home and did a quick 10 mile bike ride. It’s been SOO long since I’ve been on my bike! It felt great to get back out there. I sure hope this summer brings a lot more biking! The new chain was working great, on Tuesday I am hoping to try and get it out so I can do some hill climbing to see how the chain holds there.

Friday night we went out with a bunch of Constantine’s co-workers to the Grove in Orange. The thing said to be there by 7:30 because we were eating at 8. Well we got there at 8 and we weren’t going to get into the restaurant till 9:30! Thankfully the birthday girl pulled some strings and got us a table earlier which we had drinks and stuff at. Then when our real table opened up we went there. It was at Koji’s Shabu-Shabu. I didn’t really like the place, but I really enjoyed meeting his co-workers and stuff. Sadly we were both very tired so after dinner we came home and missed the bowling fun.

Saturday morning we got up and went to the Old LA Zoo, which I’ll write about in a separate post. But it was lots of fun. After that we we spent HOURs looking for the right birthday gift for Jason and still did not find what we wanted. We know exactly what we want, just can’t find one that we like. Stopped at the pet store for a minute to play with the puppies and ended up buying my cats a new comb. Soooo after the shopping we came home and had a good clean fun of brushing the cats! What a MESS! Oh my god!

Saturday night we headed up to the valley and hung out with Constantine’s friend Tal. He’s a really cool guy and we watched The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.. Which is a really messed up movie but I thought it was funny! If only I was a person who got high. Then it’d be really funny! Anyways, Tal and I discussed biking and hopefully this summer he and I can go biking some!

Sunday morning we got up early and headed up to the Nazi camp in Rustic Canyon (again, I’ll write about this later). We hurried home from there and then showered and headed to a recital thing which was put on by one of Constantine’s friends. Really good, one guy, Andrew, wrote one of his own songs and it was really good. I just wish he had told us all the lyrics!

We got home from that about 5 and then const left. It was really nice to FINALLY meet some of the people in his life! Now if only I could see the inside of his HOUSE! 🙂

Next weekend we are going to NAPA! So PLEASE tell me where good places to go are that are not crazy expensive!!!!

Royality

What an excellent weekend!

Let’s see, Friday we were going to go to GGB. But Jason talked me out of it because he said that the line was going to be too long. Either way, Constantine and I ended up staying in and watching a movie called Driving Lessons. It was pretty entertaining.

Saturday we got up and went shopping. I spent the last of my Best Buy gift card. I really hate that store. Such over priced Crap. Constantine bought a new Apple Macbook! Yay for him! I also got a new mouse for my computer and bought the new Futurama Movie. We watched it on Sunday and it was pretty good.

After that we headed to Inglewood to look at an apartment complex that was for sale. Sooo ghetto. That night we had a dinner party at Jason’s, his cousin was there and we played Catch Phrase. I came up with the word “Royality” and to answer “Dime a dozen” I said, “Hookers!” Very funny times!

Sunday Constantine and I went hiking looking for this Nazi camp called Murphys Ranch where some crazy lady built a hige mansion with tons of neat underground stuff. We never did find it. Googled it when we got home and found out that we were on the wrong side of the canyon. Stopped at El Burrito on the way home and ran into Jason and his cousin again.

Obama Wins Iowa!

Good job Iowa… with the whole Obama thing. Not so much on the Huckabee…. WTF were you thinking?

I’m glad that Obama won there and that Hillary was in second, although if things continue like this, that probably means Hillary would be vice-president… Anyways, I really don’t like that woman, I don’t want to see her in the White House.

But the whole Hukabee? WTF! I’m glad to see that Ron Paul got 10% of the votes, 6% more then Giuliani got. Ron Paul is great. lol

I found this thing on Digg yesterday about companies that helped and were built by Nazi Germany, pretty interesting read.

The last few days have been interesting. I worked in Temecula yesterday. Annoying ass drive! 180 miles in one day for a commute! The office out there is disgusting as well! Only two people work there, but there’s 6 computer terminal/desk things. There’s soda can’s and water bottles piled everywhere and nasty stains on the carpet! The two room office has only a SMALL window in the corner, which was covered up so basically no sunlight gets into the office at all. I sure hope I _NEVER_ have to go back to that gross place!

Constantine comes back tonight which is exciting, and tomorrow we have a dinner party with some of his friends. That will be fun to meet more of them. Then next weekend we are heading out to Vegas to meet up with Zach and Amanda, that will also be exciting. I’m really looking forward to it!

I’ve found some other fun articles lately.
1) 50 ways to be romantic
2) 41 ways to melt a women’s heart
– I know, I’m not a woman, but I still like the suggestions! 🙂

Adios!