Llano del Rio Colony

 interesting place, ghost town, autonomous community, historic landmark, historic ruins

On May 1, 1914, the Llano del Rio Colony, a socialist utopian community, was established north of Los Angeles in the southeast Antelope Valley. Among its founders was Indiana native Job Harriman, an idealistic and charismatic young lawyer who had unsuccessfully run on the first-ever Socialist Party platforms for Vice President in 1900 and mayor of Los Angeles in 1911. Thwarted by political efforts to effect social change, Harriman and his fellow visionaries instead thought they could accomplish their utopian goals via the colony's cooperative economic system. Llano del Rio was promoted nationally by the socialist magazine The Western Comrade, and the cooperative thrived for several years-its population exceeding 1,000 people in 1916-until its long-term water supply was diverted by an earthquake fault.

In 1917 about 200 participants moved the colony to Stables, Louisiana, a defunct lumber town, and renamed it New Llano. Despite numerous internal hurdles and external criticism, the colony for more than two decades made its mark as a social experiment. It had one of the country's first Montessori schools; it was renowned for the production and sale of high-quality food and other items; it was where the national socialist paper The American Vanguard moved its headquarters; it hosted a fertile intellectual and cultural climate, replete with orchestras and theater groups; it set up satellite colonies in Gila, New Mexico, and Fremont, Texas; and its innovative social services-including low-cost housing, Social Security, minimum-wage pay, and universal health care-were decades ahead of their time. Though financial woes and infighting forced the colony into bankruptcy in 1939, Llano del Rio is today considered Western American history's most important non-religious utopian community.

CalTrans has thoughtfully decided to preserve the ruins of the main Llano del Rio site during their expansion of Route 138 by shifting the widening alignment to the south. The ruins of the Llano del Rio dairy barn are located one half mile directly to the south of this location, and the lime kiln ruins are located in Bob's Gap.

The former socialist colony is California Historic Landmark #933.

Further reading:
www.dustyway.com/
www.lpb.org/programs/utopia/colony.html
exuberance.com/photos/deserts/LlanoDelRio.html
www.colapublib.org/history/antelopevalley/faq.html#q1
www.dot.ca.gov/dist07/Publications/Inside7/index.php?pg...