Trementina Base facts for kids
The Trementina Base is a special property in New Mexico, USA. It belongs to a group called the Church of Spiritual Technology (CST), which is connected to Scientology. This base is near a small place called Trementina.
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What is Trementina Base?
The Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) was created to look after the important writings and works of L. Ron Hubbard, who founded Scientology. The main goal of Trementina Base is to keep these works safe for many, many years. Imagine a giant time capsule!
Protecting Important Works
At the base, L. Ron Hubbard's writings, movies, and recordings are stored in a very special way. His texts are carved onto strong stainless steel plates. These plates are then placed inside tough titanium capsules and buried deep underground. This project started in the late 1980s to make sure these materials last for future generations.
The Church of Scientology takes great care to protect these works. They are kept safe behind fences, in deep underground vaults, and watched over by security. The underground storage shows how important Hubbard's ideas are to them, like a promise that his legacy will last forever.
What's at the Base?
Besides the hidden archives, the Trementina Base has buildings where people can live. The archives themselves are inside a network of tunnels underground. The base also has its own paved runway for planes, called the San Miguel Ranch Airport.
How Trementina Base Started
The story of how the Trementina Base land was acquired is a bit detailed. The Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) has owned two different pieces of land in the same area over time. They built the main underground vault on one of these properties between 1986 and 1992.
In 1992, the CST exchanged one piece of land for another with the United States government. Both pieces of land were about 400 acres. The CST had bought the first site in 1986 for over $250,000 and spent millions of dollars building the underground vault there. Even though the land itself was valued at a lower price during the exchange, videos from a TV station called KRQE showed that a large vault was clearly built into the side of a mountain between the runway and a special symbol.
Mysterious Symbols from Above
In November 2005, a photo taken from an airplane showed huge symbols on the ground at the base. These symbols were so big you could only see them clearly from high up in the sky! This discovery created a lot of interest in the news.
A newspaper called the Washington Post reported that the Church first tried to stop the news from being shared. They asked the TV station KRQE not to show its report about the symbols and the large vault. The Church even offered a tour of the underground facility if the station would cancel the story. They also contacted the TV station's owners and a powerful lawmaker to try and stop the report.
The large symbols on the ground are specific to Scientology's Church of Spiritual Technology. Some people who used to be part of the Church have said that these symbols mark a "return point." They believe these points will help Scientologists find Hubbard's works if they travel back to Earth from other parts of the universe in the future.
Other Similar Locations
The Church of Spiritual Technology reportedly has two other similar bases. One is in Petrolia, California, and another is in Creston, California. These locations also serve as places to keep permanent backups of everything L. Ron Hubbard ever wrote or said.
Records from the Internal Revenue Service show that in 1992, Scientologists spent $13 million to preserve Hubbard's writings. They stored his fiction and non-fiction works on 1.8 million stainless steel discs. They also recorded his lectures on 187,000 special nickel records. The same Church of Spiritual Technology symbol found at Trementina also appears at the Petrolia location and in the middle of a track at the ranch in Creston, California, where L. Ron Hubbard passed away.
Images for kids
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ChurchOfSpritualTechnologyLogo.svg
The official symbol of the Church of Spiritual Technology.
