Survival retreat

A retreat is a commonly used term for a place of refuge for those in the Survivalist movement. Retreats are also sometimes called Bug-Out Locations (BOLs). Survivalist retreats are intended to be as self-sufficient as pollible and are preferably located in lightly-populated rural areas.

History

While fallout shelters have been advocated since the 1950s, dedicated self-sufficient survivalist retreats have been advocated only since the mid-1970s, The survival retreat concept has been touted by a number of influential Survivalist writers including Ragnar Benson, Bruce D. Clayton, Jeff Cooper, Cresson Kearny, James Wesley Rawles, Howard Ruff, Kurt Saxon, Joel Skousen, Don Stephens, and Mel Tappan.

1960s

With the increasing inflation of the 1960s and the impending US monetary devaluation (predicted by Harry Browne in his 1970 book How You Can Profit from the Coming Devaluation), as well as the continuing concern with possible nuclear exchanges between the US and the Soviet Union, and the increasing vulnerability of urban centers to supply shortages and other systems failures, a number of primarily conservative and Libertarian thinkers began suggesting that individual preparations would be wise. Browne began offering seminars in 1967 on how to survive a monetary collapse, with Don Stephens, an architect, providing input on how to build and equip a remote survival retreat. He provided a copy of his original Retreater's Bibliography (1967) for each seminar participant.

Articles on the subject appeared in such small-distribution Libertarian publications as The Innovator and Atlantis Quarterly. It was also from this period that Robert D. Kephart began publishing Inflation Survival Letter (later renamed Personal Finance). The newsletter included a continuing section on personal preparedness by Stephens for several years. It promoted expensive seminars around the US on the same cautionary topics. Stephens participated, along with James McKeever and other defensive investing, "hard money" advocates.

1970s

In 1975, Kurt Saxon began publishing a newsletter called The Survivor, which advocated moving to lightly-populated regions to "lay low" during a socio-economic collapse, and setting up fortified enclaves for defense against what he termed "killer caravans" of looters from urban areas.

In 1976, survival bookseller and author Don Stephens in Washington (author of The Survivor's Primer & Up-dated Retreater's Bibliography, 1976) popularized the term "retreater" and advocated relocating to a rural retreat when society breaks down.

Writers such as Howard Ruff warned about socio-economic collapse and recommended moving to lightly-populated farming regions, most notably in his 1979 book How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years, a best-seller in 1979.

For a time in the 1970s, the terms "survivalist" and "retreater" were used interchangeably. The term "retreater" eventually fell out of favor.

One of the most important newsletters on survivalism and survivalist retreats in the 1970s was the Personal Survival ("P.S.") Letter (circa 1977-1982) published by Mel Tappan, who also authored the books Survival Guns and Tappan on Survival. The newsletter included columns from Tappan himself as well from Jeff Cooper, Al J. Venter, Bill Pier, Bruce D. Clayton, Rick Fines, Nancy Mack Tappan, J.B. Wood, Dr. Carl Kirsch, Charles Avery, Karl Hess, Eugene A. Barron, Janet Groene, Dean Ing, Bob Taylor, Reginald Bretnor, C.G. Cobb, and several other writers, some under pen names. The majority of this newsletter revolved around selecting, constructing and logistically equipping survival retreats. Following Tappan's death in 1980, Karl Hess took over publishing the newsletter, eventually renaming it Survival Tomorrow.

1980s

Survivalist retreat books of the 1980s were typified by the 1980 book Life After Doomsday by Bruce D. Clayton advocating survival retreats in locales that would minimize fallout and specially-constructing Blast shelters and/or Fallout shelters that would provide fallout protection in the event of a nuclear war.

1990s

Several books published in the 1990s offered advice on survival retreats and relocation. Some influential in survivalist circles are Survival Retreat: A Total Plan For Retreat Defense by Ragnar Benson, Strategic Relocation—North American Guide to Safe Places by Joel Skousen, and The Secure Home, (also by Skousen).

2000-present

In recent years, advocacy of survivalist retreats has had a strong resurgence after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001 and similar attacks in Bali, Spain, and London.

Several books published since 2000 advocate survival retreats and relocation. Some that have been particularly influential in survivalist circles are How to Implement a High Security Shelter in the Home by Joel Skousen, Rawles on Retreats and Relocation by James Wesley Rawles, and Life After Terrorism: What You Need to Know to Survive in Today's World by Bruce D. Clayton.

Online survival websites, forums, and blogs (such as SurvivalBlog) discuss the best locales for survival retreats, how to build, fortify, and equip them, and how to form survivalist retreat groups.

Economic troubles emerging from the credit collapse triggered by the 2007 US subprime mortgage lending fiasco have prompted a wider cross-section of the populace to get their day-to-day homes prepared as well as establish dedicated survival retreats. James Wesley Rawles, the editor of SurvivalBlog was quoted by the New York Times in April 2008 that "interest in the survivalist movement 'is experiencing its largest growth since the late 1970s'”. He also stated that his blog's conservative core readership has been supplemented with "an increasing number of stridently green and left-of-center readers."

Common retreat locale parameters

Common retreat locale selection parameters include light population density, plentiful water, arable soil, good solar exposure for gardening and photovoltaics (the field of technology and research related to the application of solar cells), situation above any flood plains, and a diverse and healthy local economy. Fearing rioting, looting and other unrest, many survivalists advocate selecting retreat locales that are more than one tank of gasoline away from any major metropolitan region. Properties that are not in "channelized areas" or on anticipated "refugee lines of drift" are also touted.

One of the key goals of retreats is to be self-sufficient for the duration of societal collapse. To that end, plentiful water and arable soil are paramount considerations. But just behind these comes isolated, defensible terrain. Typically, retreats do not want their habitations or structures jeopardized by being within line of sight of any major highway.

Because of its low population density and diverse economy, James Wesley Rawles and Joel Skousen both recommend the Intermountain West region of the United States as a preferred region for relocation and setting up retreats. Although it has higher population density, Mel Tappan recommended southwestern Oregon, where he lived, primarily because it is not down-wind of any envisioned nuclear targets in the United States.

Mel Tappan was disappointed by the demographics of southwestern Oregon after the survivalist influx of the late 1970s. "Too many doctors and lawyers" relocated to Oregon, and "not enough plumbers, electricians, or carpenters."

Evacuation to a retreat

While most authorities recommend living at a rural retreat year-round, most survivalists cannot afford to do so. Therefore, they rely on keeping a well-stocked retreat, and plan to go there "at the 11th hour", as necessary. They keep a bug-out bag handy, and may have a dedicated bug-out vehicle (BOV). This is a vehicle that the owner keeps prepared in the event of the need for an emergency evacuation. Typically a BOV is equipped with a variation on the bug-out bag that includes additional automotive supplies, clothing, food and water. Survivalists tend to favor four wheel drive trucks and SUVs due to their greater off-road abilities. In the event of a nuclear catastrophe, survivalists may opt into maintaining an older vehicle since it most likely lacks critical electronic components that would otherwise get fried by an electromagnetic pulse. Evacuations in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita stimulated interest in the use of dual-sport or on/off road touring motorcycles as BOVs due to the massive traffic jams and fuel shortages.

Vehicles that can achieve at least 30 miles per gallon or with extended range fuel tanks are gaining popularity because of the lessons from events like Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Gustav in which publicly available commercial fuel supplies were quickly exhausted.

Retreat organization

Most survivalist retreats are organized by extended families, but some "group retreats" or "covenant communities" are formed along the lines of an Intentional Community.

Retreat architecture and security

Jeff Cooper popularized the concept of hardening retreats against small arms fire. In an article titled "Notes on Tactical Residential Architecture" in Issue #30 of P.S. Letter (April, 1982), Cooper suggested using the "Vauban Principle", whereby projecting bastion corners would prevent miscreants from being able to approach a retreat's exterior walls in any blind spots. Retreat building corners with this simplified implementation of a Vauban Star are now called "Cooper Corners" by James Wesley Rawles, in honor of Jeff Cooper. Depending on the size of the group needing shelter, design elements of traditional European castle architecture, as well as Chinese Fujian Tulou and Mexican walled courtyard houses have been suggested for survival retreats.

In both his book Rawles on Retreats and Relocation and in his survivalist novel, Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse, Rawles describes in great detail retreat groups "upgrading" brick or other masonry houses with steel reinforced window shutters and doors, the excavation of anti-vehicular ditches, warded gate locks, constructing concertina wire obstacles and fougasses, and setting up listening post/observation posts (LP/OPs.)

Bruce D. Clayton and Joel Skousen have both written extensively on integrating fallout shelters into retreat homes, but they put less emphasis on ballistic protection and exterior perimeter security than Cooper and Rawles.

Retreat logistics

Anticipating long periods of time without commerce in the future, as well as observing documented history, retreat groups typically place a strong emphasis on logistics. They amass stockpiles of supplies for their own use, for charity, and for barter. Frequently cited key logistics for a retreat include long term storage food, common caliber ammunition, medical supplies, tools, gardening seed, and fuel. In an article titled "Ballistic Wampum" in Issue #6 of P.S. Letter (1979) Jeff Cooper wrote about stockpiling ammunition far in excess of his own needs, keeping the extra available to use for bartering.

In their books, Joel Skousen, Mel Tappan and Howard Ruff all emphasize the need to have a one year supply of storage food.

Even mainstream economist and financial adviser Barton Biggs is a proponent of well-stocked retreats. In his 2008 book Wealth, War and Wisdom, Biggs has a gloomy outlook for the economic future, and suggests that investors take survivalist measures. In the book, Biggs recommends that his readers should “assume the possibility of a breakdown of the civilized infrastructure.” He goes so far as to recommend setting up survival retreats: “Your safe haven must be self-sufficient and capable of growing some kind of food,” Mr. Biggs writes. “It should be well-stocked with seed, fertilizer, canned food, wine, medicine, clothes, etc. Think Swiss Family Robinson. Even in America and Europe there could be moments of riot and rebellion when law and order temporarily completely breaks down.” Some people, even many who are otherwise very critical of Biggs' works, cite the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the chaos in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 as proof of Biggs being correct in this area.

Survivalist retreats worldwide

Survivalist retreats, both formal and informal are popular worldwide, most visibly in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany (often organized under the guise of "adventuresport" clubs), New Zealand, Norway, Russia,Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Further reading

The text of some books discussing survivalist retreats can be found online:

• Fallout Protection (1961)
• Nuclear War Survival Skills by Cresson Kearny (1979, updated 1987 version) ISBN 0-942487-01-X
• Survival Under Atomic Attack (1950)
• Tappan on Survival by Mel Tappan (1981) ISBN 0-916172-04-X
• Textfiles.com archive of articles that circulated online during the BBS era, includes several Kurt Saxon articles from his old newsletter.

See also

• Blast shelter
• Bug-out bag
• Fallout shelter
• Intentional Community
• Survival kit
• Survivalism