Llano Del Rio was a socialist colony located in Antelope Valley,
California. It was founded in the year 1914 by Job Harriman.
Although it was established as a corporation it was intended to
adhere to the principles of socialism. Each member owned equal
stock in the company, and all were paid a wage of four dollars a
day. The colony was abandoned in 1917.
At the colony’s peak, cultivation reached nearly 2000
acres. Several miles of canals, ditches, and pipelines were used to
convey the live-giving waters of Big Rock Creek. The founders were
confident Big Rock Creek would unfailingly provide the water needed
to alter this parched land into a self sufficient agricultural and
commercial oasis.
The failure of the Llano Del Rio Socialist Colony was the result
of water shortages. In an attempt to assure the dependability of
their only water source, the socialist actually built a tunnel
beneath the stream bed. The water collected in this tunnel
discharged into the main canal which conveyed water to Llano Del
Rio.
The socialists had made a fatal miscalculation of Big Rock
Creek’s water flow. Their measurements were based on run-off
measurements taken from the upstream side of San Andreas
Fault’s porous rock and gravel. The Fault line’s
lateral fracture is permeable, and it actually absorbs a large
portion of Big Rock Creek’s Flow.
It was clear to the socialists, that a thousand people could not
continue living in this water-poor desert. When the Socialist left
Llano Del Rio, local homesteaders dismantled most of the wood and
brick materials to re-use. In fact, several buildings still
standing in Littlerock were made from colony brick and lumber.
In the past 89 years, this colony has been slowly surrendered to
encroaching armies of Joshua trees, and desert shrubbery. Crumbling
Chimneys and melting walls are lingering monuments to a thousand
fervent souls who once labored in this water-scarce desert to
establish a paradise-on-earth. Life was to forever remain
uncluttered by the problems of capitalism. Today the people are
long gone, and silence prevails. Broken relics in fields choked
with desert growth give mute witness to the experiment that
failed.
The actual geocache is located in the old terraced fields, where
the socialists grew their crops. The nearest structure is the ruins
of the horse barn.
Here is the operations map for the Socialist Colony
Other Llano Del Rio geocaches
The Treasure Trove (LDR Farm Operation)
The Treasure (Limekiln Ruins)
The Treasure (Limekiln Ruins #2)
Additional Weblinks
