Holy City is an abandoned cult compound in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains founded in 1919 by William E. Riker. You’ll find crumbling ruins along Old Santa Cruz Highway where this white supremacist community once thrived as a popular roadside attraction with gas stations, restaurants, and oddity exhibits. When Highway 17 opened in 1940, traffic bypassed the site, causing its decline from 300 followers to ghostly remnants. The stones that remain tell a darker story.
Key Takeaways
- Holy City was founded in 1919 by William E. Riker along Glenwood Highway as a religious commune with controversial white supremacist ideologies.
- The ghost town once thrived as a roadside tourist attraction with gas stations, restaurants, and paid exhibits during the Great Depression.
- Holy City’s decline began when Highway 17 opened in 1940, diverting traffic and causing the community to shrink from 300 followers.
- After Riker’s death in 1969, leadership collapsed, accelerating the site’s physical deterioration through neglect and arson.
- Today, only stone foundations, partial walls, and scattered remnants of the observatory and zoo remain, accessible via Old Santa Cruz Highway.
The Rise of William E. Riker’s Roadside Kingdom
When William E. Riker established Holy City in 1919, he didn’t choose its location by accident. He strategically purchased 142 acres along Glenwood Highway—the only paved road connecting San Jose and Santa Cruz—ensuring a steady stream of travelers would pass through his domain.
You’d immediately notice the physical manifestation of cult leadership in the community’s layout: Riker occupied a two-story house while his followers, whom he callously referred to as “tools,” lived in simple shacks.
The community dynamics revolved around this spatial hierarchy, reinforcing Riker’s authoritarian control. His followers surrendered their assets and worked as laborers to build Holy City’s infrastructure. The roadside attraction featured various businesses including a tourist zoo during its peak years. Among the attractions they constructed was a popular radio station KFQU that helped spread Riker’s message beyond the physical boundaries of Holy City.
A Self-Proclaimed Messiah and His “Perfect Christian Divine Way”
At the heart of Holy City‘s unusual spiritual community was its founder’s grandiose self-image.
William E. Riker, who dubbed himself “The Comforter,” built his power through messianic claims after a supposed divine revelation in his thirties. You’d have found his Perfect Christian Divine Way surprisingly unorthodox, blending Christianity with his own apocalyptic visions.
Riker’s recruitment targeted vulnerable souls seeking meaning. Once you joined, you’d surrender all possessions to the group—a “liberation” from worldly concerns.
Despite facing charges of running a sex cult in 1915 and allegations of exploitation, Riker maintained control until financial troubles in 1960.
The community heavily promoted white supremacist ideology through pamphlets and Riker’s political campaigns for California governor.
The community’s isolation and strict rules kept members under Riker’s influence until, ironically, he converted to Catholicism shortly before his death in 1969, abandoning the very doctrine he’d created. Riker passed away at Agnews State Hospital in Santa Clara, California, leaving behind a controversial legacy.
Life Inside the White-Only Commune
If you’d joined Holy City’s commune under Riker’s leadership, you’d have immediately surrendered all personal property and autonomy, becoming economically dependent on the community’s strict hierarchical structure.
Your daily routine would revolve around communal labor supporting the town’s tourist attractions—including its service station, restaurant, and peculiar peep shows—while adhering to rigid racial segregation policies and public morality codes. Riker’s propaganda promoted the extreme tenets of white supremacy through pamphlets produced at the community print shop. Despite lacking traditional religious characteristics, Holy City functioned as a place brand that attracted visitors through its controversial ideology and roadside attractions.
Women faced particularly harsh conditions, often coerced into polygamous relationships arranged by Riker himself, who regularly separated wives from their husbands to serve his own interests while exempting himself from the moral restrictions he imposed on others.
Daily Routine Realities
Life inside Holy City’s commune revolved around rigidly structured daily routines designed to reinforce white supremacist ideology while extracting maximum labor from its adherents.
You’d start your day with mandatory “Perfect Divine Christian Way” sermons emphasizing racial segregation and absolute obedience. Daily rituals included property renunciation ceremonies and spiritual “purification” practices while William Riker rode around in a Cadillac exempt from the ascetic demands placed on you.
Communal interactions were constantly monitored through the compound’s surveillance-oriented layout. Regular services were conducted in a redwood grove setting, creating an atmosphere of reverence that reinforced Riker’s authority. The compound functioned similarly to other religious headquarters complexes with centralized control over both spiritual and practical aspects of life.
Your labor would be assigned across tourist facilities—serving alcohol during Prohibition, operating peep shows, or maintaining the zoo—while receiving mere subsistence in return. All profits flowed to leadership accounts.
Despite preaching celibacy to you, Riker maintained different standards for himself, embodying the stark contradiction between Holy City’s utopian rhetoric and oppressive reality.
Surrendering Personal Autonomy
Once you crossed Holy City’s threshold, your identity became William Riker’s property through a process of systematic autonomy surrender. Your personal autonomy disappeared through calculated stages of control:
- You’d surrender all financial assets and property to Riker’s leadership, creating inescapable dependency.
- Your intimate relationships ended through enforced celibacy rules (which Riker himself conveniently ignored).
- Your children would be removed from your care, placed in communal housing under cult oversight.
- Your racial ideology would be reshaped through segregationist teachings embedded in “Perfect Christian Divine Way” doctrine.
Meanwhile, Riker lived lavishly with his fourth wife and multiple Cadillacs, exempt from the restrictions he imposed.
This financial coercion guaranteed you couldn’t leave—your resources now funded the 142-acre compound while you remained trapped in a system designed to exploit your faith. Women faced particularly harsh treatment, with many subjected to forced abortions when pregnancies occurred within the commune. The compound included various structures like a radio station where Riker broadcast his white supremacist ideology to followers and curious tourists alike.
Holy City’s Strategic Location on the Old Highway
Situated strategically along the Old Santa Cruz Highway, Holy City capitalized on its prime location as the only paved route connecting San Jose and Santa Cruz before 1940.
This positioning made the community a natural tourist attraction, offering travelers a convenient stopping point with scenic views of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
You can still find the remnants of this once-bustling site at the intersection of Holy City Road and the Old Santa Cruz Highway.
When Highway 17 opened in 1940, it bypassed the community entirely, diverting traffic and commerce away.
This new route effectively isolated the settlement, triggering its rapid decline into the ghost town status it holds today—a poignant example of how transportation developments can determine a community’s fate.
Tourist Traps and Revenue Streams in the Mountain Cult
You’d have encountered Holy City’s controversial billboards promising to “complete” your marriage, suicide, or crime as you drove the Old Santa Cruz Highway during the Great Depression.
These provocative roadside attractions funneled curious travelers into Riker’s complex of gas stations, restaurants, and paid exhibits like the small zoo and observatory.
While elderly followers surrendered their life savings to live in crude shacks, Holy City’s commercial enterprises thrived off highway traffic, with Riker’s political campaigns for California governor further boosting visibility and legitimacy.
Controversial Roadside Attractions
While religious communities often attempt to remain insulated from outside influence, Holy City‘s founder William Riker took the opposite approach, deliberately crafting the settlement into an eye-catching tourist destination.
His roadside marketing strategy relied on controversy and spectacle to draw travelers from the highway.
You would have encountered:
- Nine towering Santa Claus statues standing in stark contrast to the cult’s supposed religious mission
- Provocative billboards with bizarre messages like “See us if you’re completing marriage, suicide, or crime”
- A small zoo featuring monkeys, designed to entice families to stop
- Peep shows and adult entertainment operating during Prohibition, creating taboo appeal
These controversial attractions served dual purposes—generating revenue while exposing potential converts to Riker’s white supremacist ideology.
Depression-Era Income Sources
Riker’s controversial roadside attractions weren’t just meant to spread his ideology—they formed the backbone of Holy City’s economic survival during the Great Depression.
While the nation struggled, Holy City diversified its revenue streams through strategic tourism offerings along the main highway.
You’d find depression era tourism trends reflected perfectly in Holy City’s business model. The gas station, restaurant, and soda fountain (which covertly served alcohol during Prohibition) catered to basic traveler needs, while the peep shows, dance hall, and monkey zoo provided affordable entertainment escapes.
Economic impact analysis reveals Riker’s financial genius: followers surrendered possessions and property while tourists paid for goods and services—creating a self-sustaining economy.
Through his newspaper, radio station, and billboards, he maintained a constant flow of curious visitors even as most businesses nationwide faced ruin.
Controversial Politics and Hitler Correspondence
During the 1930s and 1940s, Holy City’s founder William E. Riker revealed the true nature of his white supremacist ideology through his political activities and correspondence.
You’ll find his extremism wasn’t limited to local billboard propaganda but extended to international fascist admiration.
Riker’s controversial activities included:
- Writing letters to Adolf Hitler, addressing him as “Your Excellency” and encouraging him to become “the greatest character since Jesus Christ”
- Distributing pro-German propaganda to U.S. soldiers during World War II
- Being arrested and charged with treason in 1942 (though later acquitted)
- Running for California governor multiple times on his racist platform
Despite Hitler’s influence on Riker’s political thinking, his campaigns gained little traction with voters, who largely viewed him as a fringe figure rather than a serious candidate.
The Beginning of the End: Highway 17 Bypasses Holy City
As Highway 17 cut through the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1940, it diverted the steady stream of travelers that had once sustained Holy City’s peculiar economy.
This bypass impact was devastating—the town had thrived on captive audiences traveling the old Glenwood Highway between San Jose and Santa Cruz.
With traffic now flowing around rather than through Holy City, Riker’s roadside attractions—service stations, restaurants, and peep shows—lost their customer base overnight.
You’d have needed to deliberately exit the new highway to visit the once-unavoidable cult compound.
This isolation triggered rapid economic decline, compounded by the simultaneous cessation of railroad service through the mountains.
From 300 Followers to Abandoned Ghost Town
You’d be shocked at how quickly Holy City plummeted from its peak of 300 devoted followers to a virtual ghost town after Highway 17 diverted traffic away from Riker’s roadside empire.
Where once tourists flocked to the curious attractions and peep shows, the community’s economic lifeline vanished almost overnight when travelers no longer passed directly by the compound.
The bypassing of Holy City proved fatal to Riker’s enterprise, as his ability to attract both casual visitors and potential converts disappeared along with the steady stream of passing automobiles.
Rapid Rise, Faster Fall
Holy City’s meteoric rise and spectacular downfall represents one of California’s most dramatic ghost town stories.
You can trace the community’s collapse through a perfect storm of factors that overwhelmed Riker’s charismatic leadership and exposed the hollow foundations of his spiritual claims.
The town’s demise followed four distinct phases:
- Internal fracturing – Cult disillusionment spread as Riker’s hypocritical behavior contradicted his teachings.
- Economic isolation – Highway 17’s construction in 1940 diverted crucial tourist traffic away.
- Physical deterioration – Arson and neglect accelerated the decay of remaining structures.
- Leadership vacuum – Riker’s death in 1969 removed the final binding element, with only three followers remaining.
What began with 300 devoted members ended as California’s cautionary tale of spiritual exploitation and communal collapse.
Highway 17’s Devastating Impact
The single most catastrophic event in Holy City’s decline came with the opening of Highway 17 in 1940. This new thoroughfare completely bypassed the once-thriving religious community, instantly severing its economic lifeline.
Without regular traffic from the Old Santa Cruz Highway, visitors vanished almost overnight. You can imagine the swift economic collapse that followed—gas stations emptied, tourist attractions closed, and community isolation intensified.
When Lucile Riker died in 1950, Holy City lost its pragmatic leader, accelerating the exodus of remaining followers who’d once numbered 300. Buildings were abandoned, many later destroyed by arson or bulldozers.
What Remains Today: Exploring Holy City’s Ruins
Nearly all traces of Holy City‘s once-thriving commune have succumbed to time and neglect, leaving behind only fragments of its unusual past.
If you’re planning ruins exploration, you’ll find a landscape that tells a haunting story of abandonment:
- Stone foundations and partial walls remain where buildings once stood, with underground rooms and basements now dangerous without proper lighting.
- The old observatory sign and zoo area are identifiable only by scattered remnants and weathered stonework.
- Natural overgrowth and tumbleweeds have reclaimed much of the site, with safety barriers long removed or vandalized.
- Most historical artifacts exist only in private collections, with no on-site historical preservation efforts.
Access via Old Santa Cruz Highway reveals a ghost town that Highway 17’s construction effectively erased from public consciousness.
The Complicated Legacy of California’s Strangest Cult Town
Beneath the crumbling ruins and overgrown paths of Holy City lies a legacy as complex as it’s disturbing.
When you consider William Riker’s cult leadership, the contradictions become apparent—he preached temperance while selling alcohol during Prohibition and demanded celibacy from followers while exempting himself.
The community dynamics reveal an economic prison disguised as spiritual salvation. Riker stripped followers of possessions, exploited their labor without compensation, and targeted vulnerable populations during the Great Depression.
His white supremacist ideology, support letters to Hitler, and segregationist views further complicate any nostalgic interpretation of Holy City.
Behind Holy City’s faded façade lies Riker’s darker truth: white supremacy, Nazi sympathies, and racial segregation.
What began as a roadside attraction became something far more sinister—a place where children were separated from parents, dissenters mysteriously disappeared, and one man’s charismatic authority went largely unchallenged for decades.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Any Holy City Members Ever Leave or Escape the Cult?
Yes, members did leave, though you won’t find many escape stories or member testimonies documented. Financial exploitation and Riker’s legal troubles likely created opportunities for some followers to break free.
Were Any Supernatural or Paranormal Incidents Reported in Holy City?
Yes, numerous ghost sightings and paranormal experiences have been reported at the site, including apparitions near the observatory, unexplained voices, shadow figures, and temperature drops. You’ll find these claims lack scientific verification.
How Did Authorities Respond to Alleged Abuses Within Holy City?
You won’t find investigation reports or survivor testimonies because authorities rarely intervened. Law enforcement occasionally monitored Holy City but never conducted sustained investigations into alleged abuses within the remote compound.
What Happened to Riker’s Accumulated Wealth After His Death?
With $100,000+ vanishing mysteriously, you’ll find Riker’s assets largely disappeared without documentation. His legacy dwindled to a Victorian home and converted post office, leaving his wealth’s fate undocumented after 1969.
Did Holy City Have Any Connection With Other California Cults?
You’ll find Holy City operated independently from other California cults. Riker’s compound maintained no documented connections, affiliations, or shared leadership with contemporary cult movements, despite employing similar control mechanisms and financial exploitation tactics.
References
- https://losgatan.com/the-strange-saga-of-holy-city/
- https://www.santacruzghosthunters.com/holy-city.html
- https://santacruzlife.com/santa-cruz-ghost-towns/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7pn2EZ7l8E
- https://www.santacruztrains.com/2019/09/curiosities-holy-city.html
- https://www.sfgate.com/sfhistory/article/holy-city-santa-cruz-father-william-riker-13035533.php
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_E._Riker
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_City
- https://calisphere.org/item/b3f5c62995c7f70d0fed14f4067841dd/
- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/holy-city-the-perfect-christian-divine-way-episode-55/id1446283807?i=1000505352398
