Trementina Base
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The Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) maintains a large base on the outskirts of Trementina, New Mexico. The actual name of the base, which is patrolled by armed guards, is unknown.
Its stated purpose is storage for an archiving project to preserve founder L. Ron Hubbard's writings, films and recordings for future generations. Hubbard's texts have been engraved on stainless steel tablets and encased in titanium capsules underground. The project began in the late 1980s. [2]
Complicating the issue of the Trementina Base and its actual purpose, the Federal Register shows that CST has owned two properties in the same area at different times. The one they originally built the underground vault on, between 1986 to 1992, was traded to the U.S. government on 24 August 1992:
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management Number: G-910-G3-0006-4210-04; NMNM 83264
The United States issued an exchange conveyance document to the Church of Spiritual Technology, a California corporation, on August 24, 1992, for the surface estate in the following described land in San Miguel County, New Mexico, pursuant to section 206 of the Act of October 21, 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1716).
New Mexico Principal Meridian T. 15 N., R. 22 E. ...Containing 400.00 acres.
In exchange for the land described above, the Church of Spiritual Technology conveyed to the United States the surface estate in the following described land located in San Miguel County, New Mexico:
New Mexico Principal Meridian T. 17 N., R. 23 E. ...Containing 400.00 acres.
The values of the Federal public land and the non-Federal land in the exchange were appraised at $28,000.00. The public interest was served through the completion of this exchange.
This image shows the two parcels of land in New Mexico:
According to a June 1992 Claims Court ruling [1] CST had purchased the original site in 1986 for $250,976, then had invested millions in building an underground vault on the property. But the Federal Register record says both properties were valued at only $28,000 at the time of the land swap in August 1992. There is no record of CST actually building a second vault, so though the vault they built is on the original property—now in the ownership of the federal government—CST's logo (see below) is displayed on the second property that CST received in trade from the U.S. government at a loss. It is unknown what, if anything, was in the vault when it was conveyed to the ownership of the federal government.
Just a little over a year after the trade, on 1 October 1993, the U.S. government granted tax exemption to Scientology.
An aerial photograph showing the base's enormous Scientology symbols on the ground caused media interest and broke the story in November 2005. According to a Washington Post report, the Church's first reaction was to attempt to suppress the information:
The church tried to persuade station KRQE not to air its report last week about the aerial signposts marking a Scientology compound that includes a huge vault "built into a mountainside," the station said on its Web site. ... Based in Los Angeles, the corporation dispatched an official named Jane McNairn and an attorney to visit the TV station in an effort to squelch the story, KRQE news director Michelle Donaldson said.
The church offered a tour of the underground facility if KRQE would kill the piece, the station said in its newscast. Scientology also called KRQE’s owner, Emmis Communications, and “sought the help of a powerful New Mexican lawmaker” to lobby against airing the piece, the station reported on its Web site. [3]
The huge symbols on the base, distinguishable only from an aerial view (35°31'28.56"N 104°34'20.20"W), are specifically those of Scientology's Church of Spiritual Technology. Former members of the Church have admitted the symbol marks a "return point" for Scientologists to help find Hubbard's works when they travel here in the future from other places in the universe. [4]
Reportedly, two similar bases maintained by the Church of Spiritual Technology are located in Petrolia, California, and Crestline, California. [5], both for archiving permanent backups of Hubbard's every written and spoken word. [6] Internal Revenue Service records show that Scientologists spent $13 million in 1992 to preserve Hubbard's fiction and non-fiction writings on 1.8 million stainless steel discs, and recorded his lectures on 187,000 nickel records. [7]
[edit] References
- ^ CHURCH OF SPIRITUAL TECHNOLOGY, Plaintiff, v. The UNITED STATES, Defendant. No. 581-88T. United States Claims Court. June 29, 1992. An unofficial transcript of the ruling is at [1]
[edit] External links
- About.com: "Scientology Compound Marks Return Point After Intergalactic Travel"
- Washington Post: "A Place in the Desert for New Mexico's Most Exclusive Circles"
- Photos of "Scientology Secret Base"
- Albuquerque Journal: "Mountain of Mystery"
- Google Map of the location shows the logo on satellite image.
