Fortitude Ranch: Survival camp sees tenfold jump in takers, owner says resort is ready to handle any disaster
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is turning out to be very revealing of society's needs and wants and one survival camp is seeing a tenfold increase in the number of people who have signed up for it. Fortitude Ranch was established around seven years ago by Dr Drew Miller, a retired Colonel with the US Air Force.
The ranch was designed to withstand any kind of disaster that results in a collapse or loss of functioning economy and loss of longterm law and order. MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) reached out to Miller who uses the term "trigger event" for what might lead to a collapse in society.
He says the trigger event could be a pandemic and that he and his peers of Fortitude Ranch have been warning the ranch's members for years that pandemics are on the rise. However, he is more worried about bioengineered pandemics which are created by people who are deliberately modifying viruses to make them more human transmissible.
He says the trigger could also be the loss of the electric system or some major disaster that could overwhelm the police and cause food supply flow to cease. Miller says Fortitude Ranch is designed to keep members safe in the event of any disaster that leads to a collapse.
Miller said that since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the ranch has seen a tenfold increase in people wanting to join the ranch, with them having sold out in two existing locations. As such, the ranch is now raising equity and looking for investors to expand to more states nationwide.
Fortitude Ranch is dual-purpose — most of their locations are in mountains and forest areas, so people would also use their membership for vacations. However, during survival training, members also have to work assignments and work guard duty.
For example, weapons are stored onsite on the ranch's location to keep members ready for "a marauding group of gang members or criminals who will steal food and harass people." Members will grab their weapons and are assigned to parts of the line. However, Fortitude Ranch is not just stocked up on weapons. Crops are grown on the ranch and there is the availability of chicken. Hunting and fishing are common activities.
Before the current pandemic, Miller says most of their members tended to be former military or law enforcement. However, now, many from different walks of life are signing up for survival training.
He also points out that the current pandemic is not a bad one. He says bioengineered viruses would be more transmissible and more lethal and "will eventually be released, and when that happens, you'll have an economy that's not functioning." He also says, "Law and order will be lost, and our members will need to get to Fortitude Ranch to survive."
Miller believes there are several threats that are likely. He says bioengineered avian flu will be one to look out for. He said, "Studies have been done showing it's not hard to modify and make it human transmissible — terrorist groups are going to do it, or Iran, or North Korea, and they could release it over here. They might develop a vaccine before they've released the virus here so they could be protected."
Another threat that people need to worry about is the country's electric system. He says that the United States' electric grid is very fragile, adding that either solar flares or a nuclear weapon detonating high in the atmosphere could take it out.
He says the event of the electric system going down is worse than a pandemic because the municipal water system would collapse without electricity. He said, "There'll be no law and order, police won't be able to handle a mess like that. The national guard will be called up but you just won't be able to deal with that."
Miller says it is necessary for people to have a bug-out location — an area in a rural location so that people can get out of cities or suburbs in the event of a disaster. He also says that it has to be stocked up on food, water, and ammunition. He adds that the part people tend to overlook is how many guards are on duty — he stresses that a group of people are required to guard your bug-out location.