Secrets of Scientology’s most secretive branch, part 2: CST’s property holdings
We’re always encouraged when an Underground Bunker reader takes a deep dive into Scientology’s arcane depths, and this time a reader has come forward with some eye-opening research on Scientology’s most secretive branch, the Church of Spiritual Technology, which operates vaults for storing Hubbard’s writings and lectures in order to last for thousands of years, and also operates the compound where we believe Shelly Miscavige is being kept out of sight. Today, part two: CST’s property holdings.
The last official report of the Church of Spiritual Technology’s wealth came from IRS documents filed in 2012 showing a book value of $447 million. While its overall wealth is no longer officially reported because of changes to its profit reporting practices, the current value of its properties in the United States and the United Kingdom alone is now estimated to have a tax assessed value of at least $78.5 million. Its property footprint grows almost every year.
We group these properties in three segments: the vaults, the Heritage Properties and “Under-the-Radar” properties.
The vaults
Scientology’s four underground vaults include three facilities in California and one in New Mexico. A former CST official reported these sites were originally modeled after the Granite Mountain Records Vault in Utah, built in 1965 by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These sites are secret to Scientologists themselves and have long been reported to hold the teachings of L Ron Hubbard on etched steel plates kept inside titanium boxes.
1. The vault at CST headquarters in Twin Peaks, California
This is the location where the actual work CST does archiving Hubbard’s works on media designed to last thousands of years. There is also a vault on this property. In 2016, the Underground Bunker first featured drone video of the facility, and locations in it were identified with the help of former CST employee Dylan Gill.
2. The vault at the Lady Washington Mine in Tuolumne, California
This vault was built into an existing underground mine in the California gold country. Very little is ever reported about it, but the Bunker also got a drone flyover it for the first time in 2016.
3. The vault near the northern California coast in Petrolia, CA
Our drone pilot documented some construction work at this vault, which has a spaceship-like entrance structure, and exists near some troubling earthquake faults.
4. The vault in Trementina, New Mexico
This one tends to get the most attention by the press because of its double-circle CST logo carved into the New Mexico desert. This one has also gone through some kind of upgrading in recent years.
The Scientology vaults themselves are reported to range in size from 100 to 700 feet in length. Yet property records show total land purchases for the “Archival Project” now spans almost 10,000 acres…equivalent in size to most of Manhattan. This assessment includes the approximate 3,800 acres of land in Rock Springs, WY still owned by CST, where local officials refused to grant permits for the creation of a fifth vault in 2015.
The Bunker also featured drone footage of that failed project.
There are no records indicating CST has attempted to create any additional vaults in the United States since this Wyoming attempt. In fact, the New Mexico-based engineering company hired to complete the fifth vault has not been in good standing with New Mexico officials since this effort.
These four vault sites are owned outright by the Church of Spiritual Technology itself and have a combined tax assessed value of over $37 million. Local jurisdictions only tax a fraction of this value in yearly property taxes. The most valuable of these properties is CST’s Headquarters in Twin Peaks, CA, valued at over $26 million by itself.
Heritage Properties
Separately, the CST-managed non-profit Heritage Properties International, LLC owns multiple properties in the US it refurbishes as museums. This set of properties now hold an estimated tax value of over $10 million.
The US properties grouped under this legal structure include the L. Ron Hubbard House Museum in Washington, DC, the L. Ron Hubbard Dianetics House in Bay Head, NJ, and the Camelback House in Phoenix, AZ. CST takes great pride in developing these sites, especially when they are added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Camelback House presents an example of how properties change legal ownership. Until 2000, this property was owned by Scientology’s Building Services Management. From 2000-2016 it was owned by the CST company Mile High Inc. In 2016, ownership transferred again, this time to CST’s non-profit, Heritage Properties International LLC.
The movement of such properties between for-profit and non-profits managed by the same CST executives brings into focus specific questionable transactions that have the potential to trigger self-dealing inquiries.
The most recent additions to this property inventory include another former L Ron Hubbard home in Elizabeth, NJ (where the first Dianetics Foundation was formed), purchased in 2018, and an additional property in Phoenix, AZ, purchased in 2022, another former L. Ron Hubbard home.
Internationally, CST also owns at least one overseas location in the United Kingdom, which it values at over $17 million. The former Hubbard property in South Africa may also roll under CST control.
Under-the-Radar Properties
Property records show CST owns additional properties inherited from the estate of L. Ron Hubbard. These tax-exempt properties have a combined 2022 estimated tax value of almost $7 million, but are not open to the public. Each of these properties are currently owned by CST outright and do not currently fall under the control of its subordinate companies or non-profits.
Perhaps the most well-known of these properties is the 162-acre Whispering Winds Ranch in Creston, CA, where L. Ron Hubbard died in 1986. Caretakers at this location are known to donate tax-exempt funds to the local rodeos. The Bunker also featured a drone flyover of this property in 2016.
L. Ron Hubbard’s former house in La Quinta, CA, was once a location where many Scientology films were shot. CST purchased this property in 2009, yet its use today remains a mystery.
CST’s inventory also includes a small strip of land originally purchased by L Ron Hubbard in Manassas, VA. No known buildings exist on the site.
Separately, Los Angeles County records indicate CST manages the buildings housing both the Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE) and Author Services Inc. CST uses the Author Services building as its own official mailing address.
One last property worth noting is a tract of 42 acres in San Antonio, TX apparently once part of estate of L Ron Hubbard. Records indicate CST first attempted to lease this land to a spa company and then ultimately sold it in December 2000 to a property developer for $450,000. It is not immediately clear why CST choose to sell this property, while electing to keep other locations in its inventory.
In part three, we take a closer look at the Church of Spiritual Technology’s Headquarters and personnel.
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I was curious about that Manassas, Va property and found this 1984 article from their local paper http://www.xenu-directory.net/news/library-item.php?iid=1858
Evidently he attended Swavely, a short-lived military prep school there, for a year (1929-30).
“ The school operated from 1924 through the 1929 school year, and was primarily a preparatory institution for boys studying for the entrance examinations to West Point and Annapolis, according to Don Wilson at the Prince William Central Library.
Prince William County Schools took the property over with the idea of using it for a vocational school, but it was not suited for that purpose, and the county abandoned it in 1935.
After a series of fires, the buildings of the former Swavely School were torn down in 1960.”
I think the Petrolia, CA 'repository' looks more like a prison than a spaceship. How many other inconvenient people are stuck in those mausoleums?