Home of Truth, Utah
Home of Truth | |
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Coordinates: 38°03′40″N 109°23′02″W / 38.06111°N 109.38389°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Utah |
County | San Juan |
Established | 1933 |
Abandoned | 1937, empty 1977 |
Home of Truth is a ghost town located in San Juan County in southeastern Utah, United States. The settlement was a short-lived utopian religious intentional community in the 1930s, led by a spiritualist named Marie Ogden. The Home of Truth started in 1933 with an initial population of 22 people, but grew to around 100 at its peak.
During its brief history, the town was isolated from the surrounding community socially as well as physically, its residents keeping to themselves in a strict, simple lifestyle. Ogden took over the local newspaper and used it to introduce outsiders to her beliefs. The crisis that led to the downfall of the Home of Truth resulted from her writings about efforts to raise a woman from the dead. The investigations by local authorities and the intense media attention that followed drove most of the members to abandon the group by the end of 1937. A handful of residents continued to occupy Home of Truth until 1977.
Today the empty buildings at Home of Truth, lying on fenced private land, are little-noticed curiosities along Utah State Route 211, seen mainly by visitors to the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park.
Location
The site of Home of Truth lies approximately 15 miles (24 km) north of Monticello, and some 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Church Rock. The settlement was spread out along Dry Valley, bounded on the north and south by irregular mountain ridges that come close together at the western end, in a place called Photograph Gap. In the image to the left, the "Inner Portal" is on the horizon just to the right of the road.
History
Foundation
Marie Ogden (May 31, 1883 – March 4, 1975)[1] was a wealthy, well-educated widow from Newark, New Jersey. She was prominent and active in community affairs, working for the welfare of the poor[2] and rising to the presidency of the New Jersey State Federation of Women's Clubs. After the death of her husband, Harry Ogden, in 1929, she sought comfort in spiritualism,[3] soon forming an occult group called the School of Truth. Ogden was attracted to the idea that spiritualism could allow her to communicate with her dead husband and learn why he died, as well as to find the answers to life for herself.[4] She briefly joined the early "League of the Liberators" organization of spiritualist William Dudley Pelley, whose esoteric spiritual experiences and millennialist teachings resonated with her. In 1932 she became the largest single financial contributor to Pelley's movement,[5] but she parted ways with him over his developing political extremism. Claiming to receive divine revelations through automatic writing on her typewriter, Ogden toured the country lecturing and gathering followers.[6]
While on her lecture tour in
The Home of Truth was constructed in three sections spread a few miles apart from east to west. The Outer Portal was made up of several buildings, including a communal house and dormitory. The Middle Portal, largest of the three,[3] was planned to include a chapel made of cobblestones,[9] although the foundation was never even finished.[10] The Inner Portal contained barracks and six houses.[9] Marie Ogden taught that the Inner Portal, where she lived with her daughter Roberta,[3] was located on the exact center of the Earth's axis, and that only those who lived here would be spared the coming calamities of the last days.[6] There were at least 23 buildings scattered throughout Home of Truth, most with simple exteriors of unpainted board and batten or tar paper shingles.[11]
Colony life
Residents agreed to a strict code of conduct. They surrendered all personal possessions to the group, which provided food, clothing, and shelter.
All group members were expected to work in common for the settlement. The women did domestic chores, while the men worked the farm[11] and did some prospecting for gold, on a small scale and without much success.[10] Water was scarce, but they installed a windmill-driven water pump and concrete cisterns for irrigating their fields. Members constructed the buildings themselves. There was no electricity or indoor plumbing, consistent with their belief in material simplicity.[7] They also made their own furniture and household goods by hand,[2] supplemented by Ogden's occasional shopping trips to Monticello.[3] Despite this spartan existence, the colony continually added new members, the population growing to around 100 at its height in 1934–5.[8]
Raising the dead
In the beginning, the sect's mostly
Decline and closure
Over the next two years, as the press continued to publish sensationalized accounts of the events depicting the Home of Truth as a dangerous cult,[3] more than half of the colonists left, disillusioned. In February 1937, Marie Ogden made another announcement that Edith Peshak was about to be restored to life. The investigators returned, insisting that a death certificate must be signed. Ogden continued to claim the woman was not actually dead.[6] After being arrested,[9] Ogden consented to sign the certificate on May 4, 1937, but the authorities still could not find the body.[13] Finally, a former member came forward and confessed to having helped her cremate the corpse shortly after the original investigation,[6] in August 1935.[13] All but seven of Ogden's remaining followers abandoned Home of Truth.[10]
Aftermath
Left nearly alone, Marie Ogden continued to support herself by publishing the newspaper and by teaching
As of 2008 there is nothing left of the Outer Portal, but buildings still stand at the other two. The property owner has worked to preserve the Inner Portal,[3] and has announced plans to allow public tours once the site is restored.[13] Both remaining Portals are fenced off from the road, and a sign reading "Marie's Place" hangs over the gate to the Inner Portal, on a ridge just north of State Route 211. A small cemetery holds five graves.[15]
References
- ^ "Burials Database". Utah State History. Utah Department of Community and Culture. Archived from the original on July 19, 2011. Retrieved March 18, 2008.
- ^ ISBN 0-8032-0908-8.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Jensen, Buckley (April 30, 2008). "Giants of San Juan: Marie Margaret Snyder Ogden". San Juan Record. p. 3. Retrieved February 13, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f Campbell, Joel Jay. "Finding a Home of Truth in Utah's Unforgiving Land The story of Marie M. Ogden and her metaphysical world". Academia.edu. Retrieved October 14, 2014.
- United States Government Printing Office. pp. 7274–7275. Retrieved May 17, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Reese, W. Paul (April 1995). "Marie Ogden Led Spiritual Group in San Juan County". History Blazer. Retrieved March 18, 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f Pierson, Lloyd (April–May 2000). "The Home of Truth". The Canyon Country Zephyr. pp. 20–21. Retrieved March 18, 2008.
- ^ ISBN 0-913738-01-8. Retrieved July 16, 2012.
- ^ ISBN 0-942688-01-5.
- ^ ISBN 0-8032-4129-1.
- ^ ISSN 0897-3423.
- ^ Ogden, Marie M. (May 24, 1934). "Metaphysical Truths". San Juan Record. Retrieved October 14, 2014.
- ^ a b c d Smith, Christopher (June 13, 1993). "Desert Compound's Resurrection Reopens Utah Cult's Bizarre Story". The Salt Lake Tribune. p. A1.
- ISBN 0-87480-345-4.
- ^ "Cemetery Database". Utah State History. Utah Department of Community and Culture. Archived from the original on July 18, 2010. Retrieved October 20, 2009.
Further reading
- Thayne, Stanley J. (2009). The Home of Truth: The Metaphysical World of Marie Ogden (MA thesis). Brigham Young University.
- Campbell, Joel J. (December 2013). "Finding a Home of Truth in Utah's Unforgiving Land The story of Marie M. Ogden and her metaphysical world". Academia.edu. Self-published. Retrieved November 25, 2014.
- Adams, Ingrid (Spring 1989). "Marie Ogden—The Mystery" (PDF). Blue Mountain Shadows (4). San Juan County Historical Commission: 62–68. Retrieved March 17, 2009.
External links
Media related to Home of Truth, Utah at Wikimedia Commons