Thursday, March 20, 2014

My visit to an abandoned Nazi compound

My dear friend from Sophomore and Junior year came to visit!  Bekah and I became friends my first year at WCBC and we've been friends ever since.  She graduated last year so I hadn't seen her in about 10 months or so.  It was so nice to catch up and have fun together.  I got this "great" idea to go hiking on Saturday.  I looked up all of this information about an abandoned Nazi sympathizer compound and how to find it.  Apparently in 1941, a man named Herr Schmidt who lived near Los Angeles convinced a husband and wife that the Nazi's were going to win the war and they needed a compound near LA where Hitler could set up shop when the Nazi's arrived on US soil!...so they built this hidden fortress thing deep in a canyon very close to Santa Monica, which is close to LA. 
 
 
This compound happened to be behind the property of Will Rogers' Ranch.  So we parked at the Will Rogers State Park and hiked down the canyon to find my "ghost town."






 
After the path ended, I started following the directions I found online, written by visitors of the compound, since the Will Rogers State Park does not advertise it.  These directions were somewhat confusing so I led Bekah up the side of the canyon and when we got to the top, the path we'd been following disappeared. 

 
It was at this point we began getting discouraged and thought we might never find our way back.  We'd been climbing for a good hour when I finally decided we should head back down into the heart of the canyon.  This was a dangerous move and I nearly cause Bekah to die, sliding down the canyon side through the mud...but we made it to the creek bed finally.
 
After hiking about another hour, we started coming upon "clues"...such as these old overgrown steps.


Then we came to this artificial dam, and knew we were on the right track!
 




The cacti was tempting...

 
Bekah found this gigantic leaf

 
And then we came upon our first dilapidated building!!!!  The graffiti was not from WWII, but from hippy artists who tried to turn the compound into an artist colony after the FBI closed down the Nazi regime.

 
Another building

 
The unmaintained road that goes to nowhere....

 
The Machine shop! 

 
The entrance to the compound



 
The stable


One of the craziest parts was the MASSIVE amount of steep steps to take you out of the canyon. 


I cant remember being so sore before after all that climbing!  I started counting the steps on the way back down, but started getting dizzy, so I had to stop and just focus on not missing a step and falling to my death. 



 
I had such an amazing time!  The hike was thrilling and a tiny bit eery...just being in the compound where I know Nazi's were planning to take over the United States.  It was a lot of fun...I wish I could say that it was as much fun for Bekah.  I think she knows not to come visit me anymore now, because I plan the weirdest and craziest things! 

We had to get this photo of the 3 music majors too.  Bronner, Bekah and I were in lots of music theory classes together and it was fun to reminisce a bit. 


 
Later, Bekah and I got 20 belows to remember old times sake (we would always get 20 belows on breaks and special occasions when she was in school with me).
 
I had a lovely time with her here....and now I miss her!  Can't wait to see her again.


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