The Ashrama Franklin Wolff and his wife Sherifa In 1928, a recently married couple filled with a mutual dedication toward one another and a dedication toward an Ideal felt within, packed their typewriters and supplies onto burros and hiked into Hunter’s Flats outside of Lone Pine, California. This area is now known as “Whitney Portal,” and it leads to the tallest mountain in the continental United States, Mt. Whitney. Franklin Wolff and his wife Sherifa set up camp near the falls that fill a small lake and began writing. Wolff began a book on transcendental philosophy, and Sherfia wrote a number of articles on mysticism, as well as a small Sanskrit dictionary. Given their strong affinity for the area, this two-month camping experience led the couple to decide to spend more time in the mountains. Indeed, they believed that the spiritual center of a country should be near its highest point of elevation (note that this was before Alaska, with Mt. Denali, became a state). The U.S. Forestry Service would lease land for extended periods of camping, but only if a structure was built and maintained on the land. Since building permits were not available for the Hunter’s Flats area, the couple explored nearby Tuttle Creek Canyon for a suitable site. Here the beauty of the pine trees, the clear, cold creek, and the remoteness and quiet of the wilderness would provide the atmosphere they desired. In 1929, Wolff leased a parcel of land from the federal government, and began work on the structure. It would be a building two thousand square feet in size, and in the form of a balanced cross, which was to symbolize the principle of equilibrium. The building was to house a school of the Wisdom Religion, and to serve as a summer camp and retreat. It would be located at eight thousand feet above sea level and would overlook Owens Valley four thousand feet below. Wolff was lecturing at this time in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Des Moines, and the couple had a home in San Fernando, California. Soon others from around the country became interested in joining in on the construction of the building, and summer vacations were spent in days of hard work and evenings with music and study around the campfire. The first thing that was needed was a campsite, which was built down by Tuttle Creek, and at one point housed over thirty people. Next, began the process of building a dirt access road, beginning the effort from the top. Trees were cleared and granite was dynamited away (for this latter task, Wolff designed and made special tools for drilling granite). After the summer’s work, a tractor with a small flatbed trailer could make it up the road to the building site. Today, the road has deteriorated into a footpath. The summer of 1930 saw the ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DarhohyYYXQ

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