Editing Church Universal and Triumphant (section)

====Entering a survivalist strategy====

[[File:Taylor Meadows fuel spill 1.jpg|thumb|right|A leaking fuel tank being removed at a bomb shelter on the Royal Teton Ranch in 1990]]

In the late 1980s, the CUT entered a survivalist strategy.{{sfn|Whitsel|2003|p=2}} Prophet stated that the world had entered a "danger period of accelerated negative karma" and that this would precipitate a Soviet nuclear strike against the United States.{{sfn|Whitsel|2003|p=1}} She insisted that the liberalising ''[[glasnost]]'' project of Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] was a propaganda front and that his government was planning a nuclear attack.{{sfn|Whitsel|2003|p=105}} In a 1986 [[Thanksgiving]] message that she claimed came through her from Saint Germain, Prophet stated that the Church must start preparing underground shelters to survive a nuclear war.{{sfn|Whitsel|2003|pp=86-87}} It subsequently began construction of a multi-acre underground nuclear shelter near Mol Herron Creek on the Royal Teton Ranch;{{sfn|Whitsel|2003|p=102}} costing over $3 million to build, it would provide shelter for around 750 people and was called "Mark's Ark" after the Church's founder.{{sfn|Whitsel|2003|p=105}}

Emily Harnett describes the compound:
{{blockquote|Made of steel and concrete, the structure consisted of multiple underground passages arranged in the shape of an H and divided with submarine-style doors. The largest of its shelters was big enough to fit a semitruck. Each was equipped with decontamination chambers at its entrance—shower stalls, landlines within reach—to wash off radioactive fallout. The church built bunk beds with purple seat belts on them. There were infirmaries and laundry facilities. Radiation suits and Geiger counters and body bags. Huge armored trucks designed for transporting military combat crews. They had enough food to last them seven years—floor-to-ceiling grain supplies, nonperishables. According to Erin, they had a tractor trailer’s worth of Isuzu pickup trucks. Beneath the bunker, in a chamber, they had more than five million dollars’ worth of gold and silver bullion, as well as twenty-five thousand dollars in pennies. (Paper currency, they suspected, would have little use in the postapocalyptic world.) And they had guns: fifty AR-15s and thousands upon thousands of rounds of ammunition, for defense against roving bands of marauders.
All told, the church spent around $12 million on the project.<ref name="Harnett-Failed-June-2024-56-7" />}}
The residents of Glastonbury also created around 45 smaller fallout shelters for their own use.{{sfn|Whitsel|2003|p=105}}

The group began stockpiling food, survival equipment and other material, believing that after a nuclear war began they would be forced to hide underground for a period lasting between several months and seven years.{{sfn|Whitsel|2003|pp=1-2}} In July 1989, senior Church member Vernon Hamilton was arrested after trying to buy weapons in Spokane, Washington. Although the purchase of these weapons was legal, he had tried to do so under a false name, which was against the law.{{sfn|Whitsel|2003|p=106}} Federal agents seized over $100,000 of weaponry and 120,000 rounds of ammunition from Hamilton.{{sfn|Whitsel|2003|p=106}} The CUT's acting vice president, Edward Francis – who was also Prophet's fourth husband – also admitted involvement in Hamilton's scheme and received a short prison sentence.{{sfn|Whitsel|2003|p=106}}<ref>{{cite web|last=Eng|first=James L.|title=Montana Church Member Spared Jail Time for Illegal Weapons Purchase|url=https://apnews.com/81fcca81a2400cde0d904cc881dcff3f|work=AP News Archive|publisher=Associated Press|access-date=15 April 2013}}</ref> Prophet met locals in Montana to calm fears that her community planned to attack others; she denied any knowledge of Hamilton's plans, although many observers did not believe these denials.{{sfn|Whitsel|2003|p=106}} Environmentalist concerns were also raised about their activities and the impact they had on the adjacent Yellowstone National Park.{{sfn|Palmer|Abravanel|2009|p=176}} In April 1990, CUT storage tanks leaked, spilling 21,000 gallons of diesel and 11,500 gallons of gasoline.{{sfn|Palmer|Abravanel|2009|p=176}}