Filling in some of the earlier history, before Bruce was there - when I arrived as an RPF member in 1983 we lived at the same location, then called Happy Valley. Happy, as in the Funny Farm, from the famous song "They're coming to take me away, ha ha!" A reference to the practice of sequestering people there who needed to be isolated from the general population of Sea Org. Imagine being too nuts for the Int Base!

At that time there were the ruins of the earlier uses of the valley, some old movie sets and a ramshackle old house. There was a library, still stocked with shelves and books. In back was a swimming pool, that was never filled with water. They put bunks in the library and that was my first home at the Int Base. Heaven for me, with my head next to my beloved books. It was the Biography section. I rocked out with the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini using my flashlight.

The RPF at that time was a little odd, even for the Sea Org. It is literally impossible to escape the RPF legally unless you are allowed study time. Even by Sea Org standards it is considered cruel to disallow study time, during which one confesses all one's crimes and becomes sincerely repentant. But the Int Base RPF was purely a work force to get the base ready for Hubbard's return, working almost 24/7. There were course rooms and student graphs, but nobody ever used them. We spent weeks at a time never even seeing our bunks, catching catnaps in the Monotherm insulation in the attic or in a random closet.

There is a Hubbard dictum, called an "Advice", about the Int Base. One of the statements in it is something like "There is no RPF there". Hence the move to Happy Valley. Busses brought us in through the Soboba Indian Reservation, who viewed us with understandable suspicion. Especially after one of their children was killed by a bus.

But even the need to build houses, music and film studios, audio and film production lines was not enough to justify a purely slave work force forever. Finally they allowed some of us to accept the 1983 amnesty and become staff of a sort. Called the Gold Construction Team or GCT, we were sort of staff members so no need to give us five hours of study time. Same schedule, same living quarters, but sometimes a day off! It was Gary Wiese, as Chief Officer Gold, who asked us in a big meeting in the Garage about what we would call ourselves. We came up with the name.

After that, time went on and more staff were assigned to the RPF. So it was a mixed bag at Happy Valley, some GCT and some RPF. Then somebody got bent out of shape about the two groups living together and moved some of us to the Base. The Library became the courseroom for the RPF. It was too hot to close the doors and windows, no AC, so often tarantulas would wander in to join us.

Bruce didn't mention the rattlesnakes. A $5 bonus to kill one, though really they were here before we were.

After Hubbard died the thrill kind of went out of the idea of getting the Base ready for his return, but lots of staff still worked on the strange projects of the Gold Base. Making movies that no-one will see, people writing songs that voices never shared - no one dared - disturb the sounds - of Silence (Sorry Paul Simon),

Mostly vanity projects for Dave, and as an excuse for not doing his main job. He was the one who was supposed to achieve the "All Clear", the legal handling for Hubbard's issues so he could come out of hiding. As long as that was hopelessly bugged, he could still hide behind the notion that the "base is not ready". Like the famous Winchester Mystery House, construction could go on endlessly to prevent anyone from turning an accusing gaze on Dave himself.

Just an example - Hubbard said he would need to produce ten music albums. One for each of the volumes of his science fiction epic, "Mission Earth". So, of course, we needed a real Music Studio. Four floating slabs on vibration isolators, a mix board by the famous George Massenburg, echo chambers, all kinds of expensive vintage equipment, enough to make any modern-day musician laugh their heads off as they cut tracks in their converted bedrooms.

Hundreds of people worked thousands of hours to make this happen. One of the Mission Earth albums was produced. It is a total joke, despite the excellent performances of Edgar Winter and so on. As we say in the electronics design field, it was a Dumb Idea in the First Place.

In the 90s the story of Happy Valley continues on as Bruce laid out. Never a truly happy place, but at least today no slaves or children.