Abandoned Towns
A long cobblestone wall marked with graffiti at the Llano del Rio ruins

Farm and ranch town

Llano del Rio

In 1914 a socialist lawyer from Los Angeles founded a cooperative colony in the desert. It grew to about a thousand people, ran short of water and moved to Louisiana four years later. Its cobblestone columns and walls still stand by the highway.

34°30′23″N 117°49′37″W · ≈3,190 ft

Photo: Binksternet, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Ruins · 2024 visit

SFGATE visited in April 2024 and found stone columns, fireplaces and foundations just off Pearblossom Highway (CA 138), with no signs or plaque. It reported that Los Angeles County Parks owns about 66 acres in five parcels and private owners hold the rest, including the columns of the main community building, and that the county doesn't maintain its land. We found no visitor rules from the county or the private owners, so view the ruins from the roadside and respect any fences or posted signs.

Overview

A socialist city in the desert

Colonists outside the machine shop, 1914
Colonists outside the machine shop, 1914 · Photo: The Western Comrade, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Llano del Rio stands on the alluvial plain below the San Gabriel Mountains, beside Highway 138 near 165th Street East. It was the idea of Job Harriman, a Los Angeles lawyer who had run for vice president alongside Eugene Debs in 1900. After he lost the 1911 race for mayor of Los Angeles, Harriman set out to prove that a cooperative community could outdo capitalism on its own terms.

His group bought the land and water rights of a failed temperance colony and opened the Llano del Rio colony on May Day, 1914. Members bought $2,000 in stock, much of it on credit, and were promised $4 a day. Applicants had to be sober and industrious, and only white people were admitted. The colony grew quickly. It had over 150 residents by early 1915 and about a thousand by 1916, with a hotel, a dining hall, a dairy, a laundry, a rabbitry, orchards and some 2,000 acres of alfalfa, with water from Big Rock Creek.

The water was the problem. Big Rock Creek runs only part of the year, and the state refused the colony a dam. Late in 1917 most of the colony decided to move to Louisiana, and about 60 families founded New Llano there. The desert site was abandoned in 1918. Stone columns and fireplaces from its hotel and social hall still stand beside the highway, with the foundations of other buildings around them.

Timeline

Four years on Big Rock Creek

  1. Job Harriman, a socialist lawyer, loses the race for mayor of Los Angeles and turns to building a working socialist community instead.
  2. Harriman and his backers buy the assets of the Mescal Water and Land Company, a failed temperance colony, with its water rights. Stock goes on sale in the fall.
  3. The colony opens to members on May Day with five residents, a team of horses, a cow and five pigs.
  4. Over 150 residents.
  5. The peak. The landmark plaque says a thousand members in 1916; Wikipedia gives more than 1,100 in summer 1917. The colony has a hotel, dining hall, dairy, laundry, print shop, rabbitry and about 2,000 acres of alfalfa.
  6. Until May, planners keep the water shortage from prospective members. In November The Western Comrade announces the move to Louisiana.
  7. About 60 families leave for New Llano, Louisiana. The California colony is abandoned and goes bankrupt.
  8. California Historical Landmark No. 933. The plaque was stolen. Los Angeles County Parks owns part of the land and private owners the rest, including the main ruins.

What's here

Cobblestone walls by the highway

Stone columns and a fireplace at the colony site, 2009
Stone columns and a fireplace at the colony site, 2009 · Photo: Binksternet, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

The colonists built with local granite boulders and lumber, and what survives is mostly the stonework. When SFGATE visited in April 2024, six crumbling stone columns stood just off the highway, two of them holding brick fireplaces, on the foundation of the hotel and social hall, with a short staircase at its northern end. The foundations of other buildings, covered in graffiti, sink into the ground nearby, and the article says several kilns still stand.

The landmark covers only the county's parcels, not the columns of the main building, which are on private land. The bronze plaque was stolen soon after it went up, and there are no plans to replace it or to put up highway signs.

The historic maps below begin with the 1930 Llano sheet, drawn twelve years after the colonists left. It shows the road across the plain that is now Highway 138, with Desert Relief to the west and a place called Llano to the east, but doesn't label the colony. Later sheets mark a few buildings along the highway.

  • Six stone columns, two with brick fireplaces
  • Hotel and social hall foundation
  • Foundations of other buildings
  • Kilns
USGS topographic map of the Llano del Rio site beside Highway 138
USGS The National Map, topo. The site on CA 138 between 165th and 172nd Streets East, west of Llano.
Aerial view of the desert plain around the Llano del Rio ruins
Aerial imagery, same area. Highway 138 crosses the middle; dirt tracks loop through the scrub north of it.

The colony

Shares, wages and The Western Comrade

The Luckel Camp building, 1914
The Luckel Camp building, 1914 · Photo: The Western Comrade, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Joining took money and references. Each member bought 2,000 shares at $1, and could buy up to three quarters of them on credit. Applicants needed three references, ideally from union officers, and answered questions on their commitment to socialism. The promised $4 daily wage was mostly held back until the colony made a surplus, which it never did, and was later replaced by a promise to meet everyone's needs.

Harriman bought a magazine, The Western Comrade, and used it to sell the colony to readers across the country. Its rosy picture raised expectations the desert couldn't meet, and the gap fed discontent in the colony.

Historic maps

Llano del Rio on USGS maps, 1930–1982

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Llano del Rio, 1930
Llano sheet, 1930, 1:24,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Palmdale is half an hour west. From Los Angeles, CA 14 heads north toward Palmdale; leave it at the Pearblossom Highway exit and follow the highway (CA 138) east to the ruins.

USGS topographic map of the Antelope Valley between Palmdale and Llano del Rio with both routes drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From central Palmdale19.7 miabout 29 min
  1. From Sierra Highway, head east on East Palmdale Boulevard (CA 138).3.3 mi
  2. Turn right on 40th Street East, then left on East Avenue R.1.3 mi
  3. Turn right on 47th Street East (CA 138), which becomes Fort Tejon Road.2.4 mi
  4. Continue east on Pearblossom Highway (CA 138) to the ruins on the left.12.7 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • SFGATE describes the ruins as just off Pearblossom Highway, with no highway signs to mark them (April 2024).
  • Pull well off the highway before you stop.
  • There are no services at the site.

Photos

Llano del Rio in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Llano del Rio?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Llano del Rio

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our California index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Llano del Rio", retrieved October 2026: Harriman, the Mescal company, membership rules, wages, population, buildings, the dam refusal, the move to Louisiana, landmark No. 933, land ownership, the stolen plaque.
  2. Digital-Desert, "Llano del Rio": a thousand members in 1916, ruins visible from State Route 138.
  3. SFGATE, "It was supposed to be a California utopia. It turned into a ghost town" (June 2024, visit of April 30, 2024): the columns, fireplaces, foundations and kilns, land ownership, the county's 66 acres, no signs, the stolen plaque.
  4. Angeles Adventures, "Llano Del Rio": ruins visible from Pearblossom Highway, the 1982 plaque stolen two weeks after it went up.
  5. Elevation from a USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Status checked against the sources above on October 19, 2026.

Photo and map credits