You're right, Synanon did put up buildings along the strip, and also built a basketball court and tennis courts on it. The air strip hasn't been used since the mid-eighties. Badger is QUIET. If Fuqra were using the air strip, locals would notice immediately.
In fact, I'm going to contact a friend of mine who still lives in Badger, and ask him for the scoop on these Fuqra people.
Interesting. Maybe I've met you, or some of my family has. There aren't THAT many people up there. Do you go there now at all?
In about 1981, I rode with a couple of Synanon kids in a little Cessna on a fun flight around the mountains. You're right, Synanon did put up buildings along the strip, and also built a basketball court and tennis courts on it. The air strip hasn't been used since the mid-eighties. Badger is QUIET. If Fuqra were using the air strip, locals would notice immediately.
That's right. You can see how close the buildings are to the strip in the Terraserver images I linked to earlier. The largest building there is/was the communal center. It has a large commercial kitchen that can feed hundreds of people. Synanon used to take all their meals together. It has two large rooms downstairs and smaller rooms upstairs. The other buildings along the strip were offices for the business and maintenence workshops. There were many more trailers than what you can see in this photo. I think some were sold off, but a lot of them are just hidden by trees.
This compound is large. It is like a small town. I don't want to give too much personal info, but I've been through every non-residential building there numerous times. It was part of my job.
Some of my family still owns land there although they don't live up there any longer. They do visit occasionally. One has told me about being chased away near this compound by a man with a gun, last year. I will get the details from him.