Llano del Rio Story

Llano Del Rio

Article and photography by Natasha Petrosova 

I visited Ghost town, LLano del Rio.  It is located in what is now LLano, CA east of Palmade in Antelope Valley.  Its not hard to spot  brick structures driving down from the freeway.  I saw them, stopped the car and went in there to look for the remains of this  socialist community that less than a century ago was an optimistic vision of the future .  As i walked around I run in to some locals.  We got into conversation.  Locals call the remains of the structure a "brick  house".  I asked them if they knew about historical significance of the ground we stand on and what this "brick house" represents. They laughed shrug their shoulders and said " Its just a brick house, someone built it and it fell".   I learned that the remains of the brick  structure is visited by local youngsters  often.  It is a spot where teens hang out in the evenings, telling a joke , smoking a joint and having a beer.   But the story of LLano del Rio is significant one and it is a lot of history behind that story.   It is a very spot where social programs that were considered  Anti-American had developed a nearly century ago .   Today this historical site stands in ruins.  Regardless of its historical significance, this site  have been looted, vandalized and allowed to decay. Unfortunately, a Los Angeles County proposal seeking $100,000 in state funds to preserve the site was rejected . Scholars, as well as many Antelope Valley Residents fear that the last remains of this historical landmark that was found a nearly century ago will disappear and fade into history.   

LLano Del Rio Story 

If you will join me and a few other friends, we will build a city and build homes for many a homeless family. We will show the world a trick or two they do not know." 

- Job Harriman 

Most people have never heard about the old Californian socialist community, Llano Del Rio, or the name of its founder, Job Harriman, and even fewer  are aware of Harriman’s ideas and the impact they have had on American society . Llano Del Rio was small, short lived community implementing the social programs that  were then considered unAmerican .  Llano Del Rio developed and implemented the minimum wage, eight-hour work day, low-cost housing, social security, welfare, and strides toward universal health care .  The community's founder, Job Harriman sought to solve problems of unemployment and homelessness, and provide a better quality of life to  average citizens. He advocated free education and health care as well as  social reforms that continue benefitting the average man, to this day.   In his book “The Gateway to Freedom” Harriman wrote:

  "The average man is sustained through youth and early manhood by the illusion that ability or good fortune ultimately will reward him with a large share of wealth. Disillusionment comes when he awakens to the futility of his efforts. Frequently this comes after a struggle that has broken him in body and spirit before he has reached middle age.Years of unceasing toil result at best in only a few material rewards at the end of life. No one is secure against the hazards of possible, financial failure. No one has a guarantee against disemployment,poverty and suffering for their loved ones.In the turmoil of life the modern city is a battlefield    where the fierceness of competition crushes, maims and kills. Men and women gather day after day in such strife that only those whose instincts and raining fit them for successful trickery, or whose natures render continual vigilance possible, meet with any degree of success. Fort he masses failure is inevitable".

The Llano Del Rio story begins with a bomb explosion behind the Los Angeles Times Building in October 1910, which killed 20 employees and seriously injured 100 more. LA Times owner and publisher, Otis Chandler had been involved in a long and bitter fight with organized labor unions, and he immediately suspected that union members were behind for the crime. Chandler hired a detective who found evidence that labor organizers Ortie McManigal and McNamara Brothers were involved in the bombing. McManigal and Brothers were arrested and both plead not guilty. Socialist lawyer and Indiana politician, Job Harriman served as their defense counselor while also running for a mayor. His assistant, Clearance Darrow eventually took over the case, as  Harriman was busy running his mayoral campaign. Darrow convinced the accused to plead guilty in order to avoid the death penalty. They plead guilty just days before the election, and some contend that the timing ruined Harriman's chance of becoming mayor. After losing the election, Harriman and his supporters decided to establish a socialist colony. They purchased  land and water rights in the Mojave Desert, about 20 miles east of Palmdale, and in 1914 established the Llano Del Rio colony.  Harriman personally solicited individuals and families to become members of his new colony, and he bought advertisements in Western Comrade and the California Social-Democrat. To become colony members, participants had to purchase 2,000 shares of stock in the company; in the return they were promised a job, a home, a living wage, education, and health care. Over the next few years the colony grew rapidly, and by 1917 there were nearly 1,000 members. Members lived in tents as buildings were constructed that first year.  Community structures were designed by self-taught architect, Alice Constance Austin, also a feminist-socialist. Austin designed a circular community which included childcare facilities and homes without kitchens. Llano Del Rio was a self-governed community that consisted of 60 different committees reporting to a government board. By 1916 the community included two hotels, a boot factory, post office, print shop, and 75 acres of gardens, including hundreds of fruit trees, alfalfa, and grain. In just a short time, Llano Del Rio produced 90% of everything they needed to support the community. The colony also maintained the first and largest Montessori school with both a theater and orchestra. Llano Del Rio had a  rich cultural and intellectual life, and it became a home for artists, poets, musicians, writers and debate groups.  By 1917 it became apparent that their choice of location in the Antelope Valley was a mistake, since it was so remote; an earthquake that year left the community with an inadequate water supply, and they decided to find a new location. Later that year the entire colony was moved to a Stables, Louisiana, a former lumber town. They established the New Llano in Louisiana, and adapted to  new social and economic conditions there. New Llano remained in Stables for 22 years, but in 1939 a series of financial problems forced the colony into bankruptcy.   Llano documentary reminded us that neither republicans nor democrats originated socialist ideas such as welfare, universal health care, minimum wage or social security but rather, they were introduced 72 years prior at a remote desert socialist colony. In fact, decades before these issues became politically popular, many faced risks of jailing, beatings, or even deportation for promoting concepts which nowadays are fully integrated in to American society. Harriman believed that the United States would never implement any social programs or reforms unless it had an economic model such as Llano Del Rio on which to base them. He was right, and while many history books call Llano Del Rio an old Utopian community (faded and failed ideas, in essence) the social changes and reforms that eventually took place in United States occurred as a direct result of the   contributions of labor unions, socialists, and cooperative communities such as Llano Del Rio. 

References:

I.  Foster John and Alex Kirkish: Another Look at The Llano Del Rio Colony.   SCA proceedings, Volume 23, 2009 

II.  Harriman  Job: The Gateway to Freedom: Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony.  Colony Press     

      Department, Los Angeles, California, 1914

III. Lewis Beverly and Rick Blackwood:  American Utopia. Video-recording. 1995

Ruins of LLano del Rio