Elohim City, Oklahoma facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Elohim City, Oklahoma
Private community
A sign warning the public
Elohim City, Oklahoma Location in Oklahoma Show map of Oklahoma Elohim City, Oklahoma Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Country	United States
State	Oklahoma
County	Adair
Founded	1973
Founded by	Robert G. Millar
Area
• Total	200 ha (400 acre)
Elevation	390 m (1,270 ft)
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP Code	74960
Area codes	918, 539
GNIS feature ID	2806997

Elohim City (also known as Elohim City Inc. and Elohim Village) is a private community in Adair County, Oklahoma, United States. The 400 acres (1.6 km²) rural retreat was founded in 1973 by Robert G. Millar, a Canadian immigrant, former Mennonite, and "one of the most important leaders" in America's Christian Identity movement, a theology common to an assortment of right-wing extremist groups. The community gained national attention for its ties to members of The Order in the 1980s, as well as with convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in the 1990s.

The enclave consists of approximately one dozen structures, some of them mobile homes and others modernistic dome houses. The center of activity is the church-community center, where residents meet for hour-long sessions each morning.

Robert G. Millar died on May 28, 2001. After his death, his second-oldest son, John Millar, became the leader of Elohim City. John Millar died on February 28, 2019.

History

Robert G. Millar emigrated in the 1950s from Kitchener, Ontario to Oklahoma City, where he established a church. In the mid-1960s, Millar moved to Maryland, where he ran an evangelical camp near Ellicott City. This camp was located in Howard County on Frederick Road about one mile (1.6 km) west of US Route 29, at the former location of St. Charles College, a Catholic minor seminary destroyed by fire in 1911.

In 1973, Millar returned to Oklahoma with around 18 followers, some of whom were related to him by birth or marriage, to found Elohim City.

Customs and ideology

The town is run by a board of directors whose members are called "elders".

Income

According to Robert Millar, Elohim City operates a small sawmill and trucking enterprise on its property. Millar's son, Bruce, owns a fleet of motor-freight rigs that he leases to National Carriers Inc., a hauling company that transports general commodities and hazardous materials.

Religion

Elohim City's particular brand of faith draws heavily from the Old Testament. The community's residents attend daily religious services, and singing and dancing play a large role in the ceremonies. Religious services are held in a meeting center with a domed roof made of polyurethane. An estimated 60% of the community's residents attend these daily 1-2 hour meetings, where they also make announcements or discuss community and family business. Saturday is the community's day of rest.

Robert G. Miller declared that the CSA leader James Ellison was a "prophet full of vision" who would unite the attending groups so they could do battle with the so-called Zionist Occupied Government.

Law enforcement investigations

The US government has monitored the private community since the 1980s due to its alliance with various white supremacist groups and members of the Aryan Nations.

Prior to July 1995, FBI informant Richard Schrum was sent to infiltrate Elohim City, but he was unable to find anything illegal on the compound.

Sometime before the Oklahoma City bombing, federal officials had planned to raid Elohim City. As a precaution, police scanners were monitored by the community and spotters were on the lookout to advise them of approaching suspect vehicular traffic. During this time, Millar also noted an increase in flights over Elohim City.

Recent events

By 2023, Elohim was seen locally as only a small religious town in spite of its past associations.

Population

The total population of Elohim City is unknown, but was estimated in the 1990s to be between 70 and 90.

In 2015, it was estimated that there were about 100 residents, most of them descendants of Robert Millar.

Millar family

Robert Millar had a total of eight children. His four sons all live at Elohim City.

• Dorcas Millar - The wife of John Millar.
• Lorraine Allen Millar - the late wife of Elohim City's founder, Robert Millar.

Other residents

Other individuals who either stayed or lived at Elohim City (some of whom later appeared in national news) include:

• Rokus den Hartog, Millar's protégé who (along with his wife and seven daughters) lived on the compound for a couple of years in the 1980s.
• George Eaton, founder of The Present Truth Ministries and publisher/editor of a right-wing, anti-Semitic newsletter called The Patriot Report, of which Timothy McVeigh was a known subscriber.
• James Ellison, white supremacist leader of The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord.
• Michael J. Fortier, an army buddy of Timothy McVeigh's, who was imprisoned for failing to warn authorities of the Oklahoma City bombing.
• Carol Howe, ATF informant who worked undercover in Elohim City.
• Chevie Kehoe, a self-proclaimed white supremacist and convicted murderer.
• Willie Ray Lampley, a self-proclaimed prophet, leader of the now-defunct Oklahoma Constitutional Militia and the head of the Universal Church of God (Yahweh). For unknown reasons, Lampley had planned to test a homemade bomb at Elohim City, but was thwarted by the FBI. He was also friends with Robert Millar as the two were both firm believers of Christian Identity.
• Dennis Mahon, a former imperial dragon in the Oklahoma Ku Klux Klan and an organizer for White Aryan Resistance.
• Kerry Noble, the second-in-command of The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord. He was part of the plot to blow up the Murrah Federal Building in 1983.
• Zera Patterson IV
• Andreas Strassmeir, German immigrant, head of Elohim City security, phoned by Timothy McVeigh two weeks before the OKC bombing.
• Pete Ward Jr.