A community of society-shunning Americans launched a survivalist haven in the Utah desert after finding themselves alienated from the modern world.
Hundreds of people have set themselves up to live off the land under ‘Operation Self-Reliance,’ feeling that getting off-the-grid is the solution to a crumbling culture.
The commune was established by Philip Gleason, 74, a former general contractor who felt a calling to allow people to grow their own food, pump their own water and rely on nothing but themselves.
He admitted to Deseret News that while some choose to live there for environmental or health reasons, its intended purpose was to evade the ‘craziness’ of the modern world and the current political climate under the Biden administration.
‘We seem to be undergoing a cultural revolution in the U.S.,’ he said. ‘When we first came out here, we thought it might be too far away… Now, with everything that’s happening, we wonder if it’s far enough.’
For those looking to escape the constraints of society and America’s crumbling institutions, the OCR co-op in Riverbed Ranch in Juab County, Utah, has seen hundreds of residents choose to live off-grid
Residents at the OCR co-op in Riverbed Ranch in Juab County live almost entirely off-the-grid.
Tenants each buy their own two-acre plot, where their only choice is to grow all of their own food, as the estate has no municipal power system and no sanitation utilities.
A share of the co-op costs at least $35,000, but that is before residents need to fill the obligations Gleason mandates, including building your own home from scratch.
Residents must also build a barn, install a septic system, produce their own solar energy, dig a well to the freshwater dozens of feet below and build a greenhouse.
These costs, OCR’s website admits, could run up at least another $235,000, which the organization blames on ‘the Covid insanity driving the cost of building materials up significantly.’
For Gleason, his two-acre patch is his opportunity to put his lifelong obsession with survivalism to the test, including planting sunflowers to provide shade because the Utah desert can barely sustain any trees.
He told Deseret News that he got the sunflower seeds from a friend who lived in Germany after World War II, who warned him that a lack of oil was a severe issue in their postwar rations.
Showing his doomsday attitude, he quipped, ‘we’re not that far off here.’
One of the homes built from scratch by an OCR resident, which could cost upwards of $235,000 that the organization blames on ‘the Covid insanity driving the cost of building materials up significantly’
Residents cautioned that if their worst doomsday fears come true, they feel the most prepared because ‘the people that control their food are the ones that come out on top’
Gleason said he fears a variety of apocalyptic scenarios could play out in the coming years, from a power grid failure taking down America’s electricity, to nuclear war and cyber attacks.
‘This is just history repeating itself,’ he cautioned. ‘At the start of any cultural revolution, the people that control their food are the ones that come out on top.’
As Americans consistently share that they are losing faith in the nation’s institutions, those that have made a new life on Riverbed Ranch have essentially set up their own self-surviving nation state.
OCR residents vote and assume roles on its own Board of Directors, and have a court-like system to solve arguments through the Committee of Disputes.
Like many in Utah, a majority of those in the commune are followers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
And the co-op has even found a way around using cash, as many also trade in their own produce such as bread and livestock.
More than 70 children reportedly live at the commune, who are all homeschooled by their parents looking to raise the next generation of anti-society residents.
However, without any hospitals nearby in the barren deserts, medical emergencies appear to be a challenge.
Gleason said he has suffered two heart attacks since establishing the base, and only one resident is a registered nurse for house-calls while another is a midwife, who has delivered three babies so far.
Residents buy two-acre plots for $35,000, where they are expected to live entirely off the land and even build their own homes and solar generators
The survivalist commune was set up by Phillip Gleason, 74, who said he decided to launch the initiative because America is ‘undergoing a cultural revolution’
And while some choose to vote by mail at a town two hours away, many residents purposefully avoid politics – with one shareholder admitting she took her children from California to the commune because their former vice principal ‘was gay and openly promoting it.’
Another couple said they fled Democrat-run Portland for the same anti-liberal sentiment, saying the city ‘lost their minds’ and they ‘needed to get out.’
But Gleason insists that despite the residents’ distaste for society, they are far from anarchists – stressing that ‘we’re not tax protesters, we don’t have a militia, we just want to live off the land.’
He ended with a chilling warning of what might happen if his predictions – and preparations – come true.
‘When we have this all built out, we might be the third or fourth largest community in the country,’ he said.