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All Music Guide:
The industrial dance outfit Spahn Ranch was formed in 1992 by Matt Green and Rob Morton. The two had been writing songs together for nearly five years prior and had signed to Cleopatra to release a self-titled four-song EP that same year. In 1993, Athan Maroulis joined Spahn Ranch as vocalist and completed the group to issue their debut album Collateral Damage. Their sophomore effort, The Coiled One, appeared two years later in the midst of Morton leaving the band due to creative and logistical differences. Christian Death drummer David Glass (born Parkinson) stepped in for his departure, and former Screams for Tina guitarist Kent Bancroft and Maroulis's former mate and drummer Harry Lewis also joined the band in order to capture a fuller, more diverse industrial/darkwave sound. Spahn Ranch continued to release albums throughout the late '90s; 1997's Archictecture featured collaborations with Killing Joke/Prong bassist Paul Raven and 1998's Beat Noir showcased work with Bauhaus bassist David J. Toward the close of the decade, Spahn Ranch found themselves as a three-piece with Green, Maroulis, and Lewis. They endlessly played gigs across North America with Switchblade Symphony, Electric Hellfire Club, Type O Negative, and Kevorkian Death Cycle prior to issuing Closure in early 2001.
Wikipedia:
Spahn Ranch, also known as the Spahn Movie Ranch, was a 500-acre (2.0 km) movie ranch used for filming generally Western-themed movies and television programs. With mountainous terrain, boulder-strewn scenery, and an 'old Western town' set, Spahn Ranch was a versatile filming site for many scripts. No longer in use, the entrance to the historic Ranch was at 12000 Santa Susana Pass Road (street numbers have since been changed) of the Simi Hills and Santa Susana Mountains above Chatsworth, California. Now part of the Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park, Spahn Ranch is notoriously and best known as the primary residence of Charles Manson and his followers, the 'Manson Family', for much of 1968 and 1969.
History
Movies
The ranch took its name from dairy farmer George Spahn who purchased the property in 1948. Silent film actor William S. Hart owned the ranch prior to Spahn. Many western-themed movies and television shows were fimed on the ranch, including Duel in the Sun (1946) and television episodes of Bonanza, The Lone Ranger, and Zorro.
The Manson Family
Spahn was 80 years old and living at the ranch when he allowed The Manson Family to move in, rent-free, in exchange for labor. The family did daily chores and helped run the horse rental business, which had become Spahn's main source of income. Despite this arrangement, Spahn was never accused of any role in the many murders for which members of the Family were later convicted, the most infamous being the Tate-LaBianca murders committed on August 9th and 10th, 1969. In late 1969, Robert Hendrickson began filming the Manson Family at the ranch for his documentary film Manson. There he filmed Spahn, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, Bruce Clayton Elliott, Nancy Pittman, Catherine "Gypsy" Share, Sandra Good, Paul Watkins and others. It is the place where the 'family' lived while committing the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders in Los Angeles. The 'family' also stayed at Barker Ranch, which is located in the Panamint Range between Death Valley and the Panamint Valley in the northern Mojave Desert.
Later history
A wildfire destroyed all of the Spahn Movie Ranch's film sets and residential structures on September 26, 1970.
In the book The Family, the character of Ed Sanders of the 1960s rock music group The Fugs uses the Spahn Ranch old telephone number of '(213) DI1-9026'. The number has the old prefix system of a word's first two letters — DI = Diamond, a 'Telephone Exchange Name.' It was replaced by the corresponding two numerals in the early 1960s.
Jim Thirlwell recorded and released a song about the Manson murders, called "DI1-9026", and released it under the name "Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel" on the 1985 album Nail.
George Spahn died on September 22, 1974, and is buried in Eternal Valley Memorial Park in nearby Newhall, California.
State Park
The Spahn Movie Ranch is now part of California's Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park, with the "Devil's Slide" section of the historic Old Santa Susana Stage Road on the park's northern side. Many hiking trails give access to the natural beauty and the panoramic views of the San Fernando Valley.
