According to the CST, an entity formed to manage the
writings, films and recordings for future generations. Hubbard's texts have been engraved on stainless steel tablets and encased in titanium capsules underground. The project began in the late 1980s.[1]
The Church of Scientology protects Hubbard's writings with “extraordinary zeal.” Copies of Hubbard's text are preserved and hidden behind fences, in deep vaults, guarded by tight security. The underground compound “stands as a symbol of the timelessness of Hubbard’s texts and as a three-dimensional manifestation of the ‘purity of Hubbard’s legacy.”[2]
The base includes a number of dwellings and the archives themselves, the latter in a network of tunnels. The base also has its own private, paved airstrip, the San Miguel Ranch Airport (NM53).
History
The property history of Trementina Base is complex. The Federal Register shows that CST has owned two properties in the same area at different times. The one they originally built the underground vault on, between 1986 and 1992.[3]
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management Number: G-910-G3-0006-4210-04; NMNM 83264
The United States issued an exchange conveyance document to the Church of Spiritual Technology, a California corporation, on August 24, 1992, for the surface estate in the following described land in San Miguel County, New Mexico, pursuant to section 206 of the Act of October 21, 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1716).
New Mexico Principal Meridian T. 15 N., R. 22 E. ...Containing 400.00 acres (1.6187 km2).
In exchange for the land described above, the Church of Spiritual Technology conveyed to the United States the surface estate in the following described land located in San Miguel County, New Mexico:
New Mexico Principal Meridian T. 17 N., R. 23 E. ...Containing 400.00 acres (1.6187 km2).
The values of the Federal public land and the non-Federal land in the exchange were appraised at $28,000.00. The public interest was served through the completion of this exchange.
According to a June 1992 Claims Court ruling CST had purchased the original site in 1986 for $250,976, then had invested millions in building an underground vault on the property.[4][5] The Federal Register record says both properties were valued at only $28,000 at the time of the land swap in August 1992. However, footage from KRQE TV shows the presence of a vault built into the mountainside between the runway and the CST logo.[6][7]