While perusing on-line Conspiracy media I found the following story on Wild
Billy Gates' MSNBC site:
CULT BUILT AN 'EARTH SHIP' OF OLD TIRES
Manzano, NM (AP) -- An "earth ship" of old tires, a little wooden elephant
and mystified people still serve as reminders that the Heaven's Gate cult
tried to build a New Mexico home before moving on to California.
"These were wonderful people," said Jim Thorsen, a leader in the New
Mexico patriot movement who bought the cult's 40-acre compound last year.
Then, peering at a long, mazelike wall of symmetrically stacked tires, he
admitted he had other thoughts: "OK, they were screwed up. But they were
wonderful."
Heaven's Gate members bought the land 55 miles southeast of Albuquerque in
June 1995, and began building an environmentally sensitive, fenced and
gated retreat center, apparently intending it as a permanent monastery.
About 25 members worked the land, while five or six commuted about 10
miles in Jeeps and Cadillacs to work in rented offices next to Gustin's
Hardware store in Mountainair.
Patsy Gustin, who rented the three small offices for $250 a month to a
group calling itself "Computer Nomads," cried when she saw her ex-tenants
on television, giving videotaped goodbyes before last week's mass suicide.
"It's shocking. They were very, very, very nice people. They were always
smiling," she said, lightly tapping a table where Heaven's Gate members
once worked.
The kind, peaceful cult members with cropped hair planned a thriving
commune on the remote property, Thorsen said. The land, a former youth
camp dotted with pine trees, sits two miles up a dirt road from the tiny
dilapidated village of Manzano.
They drew up plans for a self-sustaining community, laid gas and electric
lines and installed a vast septic system.
"They planned on attracting members, but they thought they would be
subject to something like Waco or Ruby Ridge. That's why they came here,"
he said.
It appears to have been incredibly arduous work.
Group members milled lumber one tree at a time, mixed and poured their own
concrete, and stacked hundreds of tires by hand. Pre-dawn laborers were
rewarded by the chalking of "EB" (for early bird, said Thorsen) on the
tires they placed.
When they suddenly decided to leave in April 1996, they had: A partially
completed, 3,700 square-foot building walled with old, stacked tires filled
with dirt and chinked with empty soda cans.
A 4,000 square-foot metal building, which included a dining hall, kitchen
and office. It was surrounded by another tire wall.
Two smaller prefabricated metal cabins, and two graded sites where Thorsen
said cult members were housed in two 60-square-foot Army surplus tents.
Architectural plans they left behind include drawins of an infirmary, a
lookout tower, a "cyberlab", a "nutrilab" and a "consuming area."
Heaven's Gate also left behind about 300 sacks of cement and mortar,
ladders, dozens of folding chairs, generators, heaters, tanks of butane
gas, a small sawmill and a large sign at the gate reading "Monastery."
Gustin said the Heaven's Gate members were friendly, warm, thoughtful and
neat. One member, 54-year-old Susan Elizabeth Nora Paup-listed as among
the dead-befriended 11-year-old Rachel Heard, whose mother worked across
the hall.
Rachel said she would sit by the computer while "Nora" worked, and they
would chat about UFOs.
When it came time to go, "Nora" gave Rachel a small, black wooden
elephant.
----------------------------------END OF
STORY----------------------------------------------
Hmm...a few things come to my mind right off the bat:
1. Good thing they built that "vast septic system" considering the nature
of the band of kooks that took over the place after Heaven's Gate left.
2. All this talk about "incredibly arduous work" shows just how
slack-less these dupes were. I would have put "AB" on my stacked tires to
indicate "After Beer".
3. These people are just TOOO NICE. It's like a religion where Rosie
O'Donnell and Martha Stewart are considered part of the Pantheon. What a
bunch of saps.
What The Hell Do You Think?
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From: dflync01@homer.louisville.edu (David F Lynch)
Newsgroups: alt.slack
Subject: Re: Tire Home of The Heaven's Gate Gang
Date: 3 Apr 1997 00:44:57 GMT
Organization: Syd Barrett's Other Room
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Bossum (orange@tng.net) wrote:
: While perusing on-line Conspiracy media I found the following story on Wild
: Billy Gates' MSNBC site:
:
: CULT BUILT AN 'EARTH SHIP' OF OLD TIRES
You know, when I was living in Montville, New Jersey, the entire town
embarked on just such a project. I remember helping.
--
Dave (not David) Lynch/Mutant Uebergeek etc./Founder, Church of Eternal Man
dflync01@homer.louisville.edu "Ja, ja, tis weer sokken in de lucht!"- Peart
For a bad time see http://www.rlabs.com/lynch (.)(.) Please email followups
PERFECT SLACK FOREVER|ROUND THINGS ARE BORING|I'M SERIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*
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