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Show PAGE 22 THE ZEPHYR JUNE 89 THE HOME OF TRUTH by Lloyd Pierson Visitors to the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park must wonder what the three groups of rag-t- ag buildings are along the entrance road The rapidly Montlcello to Moab after the leavingHighway. shortly little of and Indication the dreams high holy deteriorating buildings give aspirations of the former Inhabitants for here was founded a religious colony and cult not so modestly entitled "The Home of Truth. Well, Truth In forlorn to this exist somewhere and the great theoretically has spot Colorado Plateau Is probably as good a place as any for the elusive deity to - III suited for Dfe Description of some of the members Indicate they were In God supplying faith more In a high desert country. They seem to have put their needs than themselves. They did have water as a windmill and a couple of concrete tanks still extant on the property attest to, but today there Is no Indication of any great attempts at forming which was to have suppDed their needs. The colony was organized In three groups entitled, as one proceeds west from the state highway, the Outer Portal, Middle Portal and Inner PortaL reside. The colony was founded by Mrs. Marie Ogden, a well educated widow from New Jersey, sometime about 1933 after she had received a spiritual revelation to do so. Mrs. Ogden's husband, an Insurance executive, had died at an early age In 1929 back In New Jersey. In her grief she turned to serious religious study and, guided by an inner Dght, began to seek "the truth and an understanding of Dfe and death. As she delved further Into religion she began to preach and to convince others of the correctness of her beliefs. Her religious activities took her over most of the east preaching and lecturing and at least as far west as Boise, Idaho where she reportedly had the revelation to establish a religious colony devoted to "the truth. , She apparently convinced a number of Boise citizens to accompany her but exactly how, when and why she settled on this remote corner of Utah Is not known. She tried first to make a land deal with Al Scorup who then owned Dugout Ranch on Indian Creek. He offered to sell her the ranch for half a million dollars but the group couldn't ante up that much. Scorup said the deal she counter offered Included his joining her group and a guarantee of He declined. eternal life. The Indian Creek area would have provided Irrigated land for forming which was one of the original foundations of the colony. However when Scorup turned her offer down she settled on the land occupied by the three groups of now dilapidated buildings. The land here was much less suited for growing things but they tried anyway for a while without much success. At best the group probably never consisted of more than 100 people. The group was a communal one, all members gave up their worldly goods, abstaining from liquor and tobacco, eating a diet with only fish for meat The sect believed in revelations and prophecies by Mrs. J)gden who got them through her typewriter and trips to the top of a nearby MIL. Among the revelations were those of reincarnation, resurrection, a spartan Dfe and a form of spiritualism Involving vibrations, spiritual planes, soul language, ric conversations with the dead and other Ideas. As director Mrs. Ogden made the decisions and controlled.. the financial, and. spiritual, matters semi-vegetar- ian astro-esote- of the colony. T ' One of the better buildings at the Middle Portal t . . Marie Ogden lived In what has been called with a fantastic view of the canyons and mountains. ThiB Inner Photograph Gap It Is the Inner Portal where Portal was also the real Home of Truth and on the very axis of the earth according to members of the sect. THE SHOP 33 No. Main 259-862- 3 POTTERY BY ANDREA WINTERS put a little hopi on a bicycle |