In the early 1970s , mass in the rural husbandry community of Cabery , Illinois , looked on with curiosity at what was hap in the corn field surrounding their townsfolk . Ranch - style house beganpopping upwhere stalks once grew , and began spreading out far enough to forge street blocks . moldable and paper factories were being erected . Well - dressed men and women orbited the ontogenesis . The newcomer ' intentions were orphic , leading locals to begin excogitate that their new neighbors might be part of a religious furor , or even laboring to build spaceships . Some longtime occupier were so disturbed by the new arrivals that they ’d drive by and fire weapon in the neck of the woods , hoping to scare them off .
But the people of Stelle , as the town came to be known ( the word is German for " the spot " ) , would n’t be so easily rattled . They believed the end of the macrocosm was looming , and they were cook accordingly . Community friction would blench in comparison to the earthquake , floods , and volcanic eruption that would announce the dayspring of a new refinement . As the rest of the world scrambled for resources , Stelle would manage its own water , sewerage , and communications furrow before relocate to a Pacific island — a sprawling collection of Adams and Eves who wouldsurvivethe death of the world , which they believed would come on May 5 , 2000 .
The appointment was given to them by their drawing card , Richard Kieninger , a former locomotive engineer from Chicago who had prophesied the Revelation and ready them on a path of readiness . HepredictedStelle would grow to 10,000 indweller in just a few years .
He was off by about 9800 people .
brusque , bespectacled , and soft - spoken , Kieninger was no one ’s idea of a charismatic conductor of a new civilisation . He evenrejectedhis role at time , insist he never seek out such an important function as beau monde ’s savior . Instead , he claimed , it had been bestowed upon him .
In 1963 , Kieninger indite a Scripture titledThe Ultimate Frontier , a quasi - autobiography published under the pen name Eklal Kueshana , in which he describe being visited as a spring chicken by a “ Brotherhood ” of scientists and philosophers who instructed him to set up for pending catastrophe by erecting a self - reliant society that follow the Golden Rule . For good step , they stigmatise his second joint with their symbol . ( Kieninger would later turn down to show journalist validation of his marking . )
reader ofThe Ultimate Frontier , though few in number , adopt Kieninger ’s message . By 1973 , he and several others had pooled $ 169,000 to corrupt 320 acres of farmland in rural Illinois , roughly 85 miles in the south of Chicago . The flat , distant orbit seemed like an ideal berth to look out the pending topsy-turvydom ; Kieninger claimed he was order by the Brotherhood to focalize his efforts there .
Residential housing and a water discourse plant were among the first construction line . Next get schools , sewage treatment facilities , and telephone set lines . ( Stelle would eventually fight a nine - year court conflict to have their own independently - mesh telephone set service separated from the major carriers . ) Would - be residents idled in conterminous neighborhoods , wait for an chance to link up the community of interests .
Space was n’t the lone settle factor of Stelle citizenship . Kieninger did n’t actively raise anyone : He had a pool of concerned parties who had read his Bible , then sieve through them to see if they meet the requirements for his bud Sion . Residents had to be at least 21 class old with some background in stage business , as Stelle would have to return its own economy through entrepreneurial efforts . He turned away citizenry he weigh to be of less than intelligent psychological mind . He also required tithing of 10 percent , with the funds fueling the continued growth of the town . Kieninger said he accepted only about 25 percent of those who applied to become occupant of Stelle .
Once accept , Stelle occupants were bear to follow the behavioral mandates laid out in Kieninger ’s Quran . There would be no drinking or intoxicants of any kind ; smoking would be prohibited if hoi polloi nearby ground it unpleasant ; man were required to plane and wear off business sector attire even if they labored in grammatical construction , swap to their work wearing apparel on website ; women could not wear pant . Mothers were learn not to work , as raise a kid was considered of paramount grandness ; they wereexpectedto extend one - on - one instruction for the first three years of a small fry ’s schooling .
In return , Stelle ’s citizen embraced one another . Doors were keep unsecured and lost $ 20 broadsheet were pin to community bulletin boards . Children brandish , interpret at age 3 and writing by long time 4 .
As the 1970s wore on , Stelle blossom out , growing to domiciliate more than 200 resident and erecting solar - panel buildings that would allow its citizens to thrive if galvanizing services shut down in the Wake Island of a collapsed society . Kieninger told curious journalist that Stelle would shortly have its own self - contained shops and service , with resident walking into stores and set items on credit to cut down on paper currency . Work was also moving along on dirigible that would relocate the biotic community ’s entire population to a Pacific island when the instinctive disasters begin .
There was just one problem : While Stelle was a united community , their collective faith in Kieninger was starting to wane . Lacking the kind of fiery personal appeal seen in other coercive cult leaders , Kieninger throw little sway over the residents he once entice to the country . When arguments broke out over the futurity of Stelle , his community did what any ego - sufficient neighborhood would do when faced with a prophet who could n’t deliver any prophecies : They kick him out .
Kieninger ’s departure from Stelle in 1975 was never explain in full . Some attribute it to a power battle that broke out between Kieninger and his own married woman , who stay on in Stelle when Kieninger left to initiate a new community , Adelphi , in Texas . He return to Stelle on a monthly base for group meeting as a kind of remote soothsayer before part ways with them for good in 1986 .
In the interim , residents of Stelle had begun to abandon some of the tenets that had brought them there in the first place . When 1976 passed without Kieninger ’s predicted economic discord , faith in him was shake . Citizens balked at being deemedsurvivalistsor perceived as weird by their fellow Ford County resident . build up airship to transport them to new demesne wasgoing nowhere . Why , people wondered , could n’t they just survive as a conjunctive residential area without a looming sense of dread ?
So the behavioral requirements were mostly dropped . There would be no more tithing . Instead , Stelle would focus itseffortson being a green residential district , expanding its use of solar vigour , and using a 21 - substructure flatus turbine for its piss treatment plant .
By 1997 , only a third of Stelle ’s 100 or so occupants still believe in Kieninger ’s pedagogy ; another third were reform ; the ease survive there simply because they like it .
Today , Stelle is still on the map andpromotingits eco - well-disposed habit . There are conjunct groups for gardening , tool - sharing , and meal homework . The community lays claim to a number of U.S. kickoff , include the first solar - power telephone company and the first solar - powered wireless internet service . The further they get from Kieninger ’s predicted world dying on May 5 , 2000 , the more Stelle has distanced itself from its former identity as a eschaton sect .
That ’s hunky-dory by Kieninger , who never seemed totally comfortable with his appointed role as a prophet . After years had buy the farm without tragedy , he narrate a local newsprint that herald the death of the human beings was n’t as easy as it seemed .
" I ’m make kind of burned out attempt to put a precise prison term on these things , " he said .
