“Rustic Canyon Ruin May Be a Former Nazi Compound,” Los Angeles Times, September 4th, 2005, by Cecilia Rasmussen:

Southern California has been the cradle to many odd cults, credos, utopias and dystopias. Among the most mysterious are the ruins of a Rustic Canyon enclave once known as Murphy Ranch…

…Wrapped in canyon lore, the remnants are believed by one local historian to be those of a small, short-lived colony of Nazis. Although no one can say with certainty who lived there or what they did, Randy Young, a former commercial photographer turned book publisher, said his research indicates that it could have been home to up to 40 local Nazis from about 1933 to 1945…

… According to Los Angeles County records, a Jessie M. Murphy purchased the 50-acre parcel in Rustic Canyon in 1933. That’s how the place came to be known as Murphy Ranch.

Young suspects that Murphy was a front name used by the Nazi group to buy the property. There are no other records of Murphy, nor does the name surface in stories passed along by old-time canyon residents, Young said.

A man known through oral histories only as “Herr Schmidt” supposedly ruled the place and claimed to possess metaphysical powers. He purportedly used the ranch to introduce his Nazi-inspired political philosophy.

Full text.

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November 30th, 2008.

This is where you enter:

Here are mountains, which make a man feel as though he has entered the Land of the Lost:

One may continue on to the main gate, or descend these stairs:

The first thing you’ll see is a big ol’ stupid gas tank, then there will be more stairs with weird mechanical boxes along the railing:

Five hundred or so more steps down, and a brisk walk along a crappy road, you come to the abandoned power station. It is covered in graffiti and empty. It has a crawl-space for a basement, like every other building in Sunny Southern California.

Travelin’ farther on the path, you come to the devastation of former living quarters. Note that the bathroom tiling has been subject to classy graffito, simulating a glory hole in white and blue. Also DEATH PIRATES graffiti featuring a circle with an A in the middle. Lots of piping and junk.

Assorted debris along the way. Hell Run, a fireplace in a ditch and a crashed-out hippie Van with an UCLA gate pass from 1969:

Further along are the stables. Gated and abandoned.

Walking uphill, one comes to the backside of the front gate. But first there is the water tank:

Goodbye, Goodbye: