{"id":484059,"date":"2026-10-03T16:44:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T16:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/484059\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T16:44:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T16:44:21","slug":"long-beach-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/484059\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long before it drew sound bath seekers from around the world, the Mojave Desert\u2019s Integratron<\/a> was one man\u2019s bid to extend human life, guided, he said, by beings from Venus.<\/p>\n

A collection tracing the history of the white-domed landmark built by George Van Tassel and the postwar UFO movement he helped lead has now found a home at the Huntington.<\/p>\n

\"Rows<\/p>\n

The Mojave Desert became a major hub for UFO contactees after WWII.<\/p>\n

(<\/p>\n

McKinney Collection of George W. Van Tassel Papers<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

The Huntington<\/p>\n

)<\/p>\n

How a ufology archive reached an institution best known for its manicured botanical gardens and classical portraits is a story decades in the making, bringing together a pool deck contractor, a historian and a podcaster.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t just a UFO collection,\u201d said Jack Wager, the L.A.-based host of Otherworld<\/a>, a popular podcast examining the paranormal. \u201cThis is connected to the history of the desert, aerospace, and Southern California in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who was George Van Tassel? <\/p>\n

In the 1950s, the Mojave was becoming an important gathering spot for those who claimed contact with extraterrestrials.<\/p>\n

Get a first glimpse at the Integratron archive at the Huntington’s Strange Science event<\/p>\n

When: Oct. 30\u201331, 2026, 6\u201310 p.m.
Where: The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
Cost: $90
More info here<\/a><\/p>\n

Van Tassel had left a career as a flight inspector in Southern California’s burgeoning aeronautics industry for the desert community of Landers where his family operated the Come On Inn cafe by an airstrip, and he organized UFO conventions.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

George Van Tassel and his wife Eva ran the Come On Inn cafe in the Mojave Desert. <\/p>\n

(<\/p>\n

McKinney Collection of George W. Van Tassel Papers<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

The Huntington<\/p>\n

)<\/p>\n

In a 1964 TV interview, he described a close encounter of his own with a crew of humanoids from Venus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were about five foot six,\u201d Van Tassel said. \u201cThey came about to my eyebrows, and they could have walked in our clothes down any of our streets, and we would not have paid any attention to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Tassel said one of the beings, named Solganda, gave him the idea to bathe people in electromagnetic energy to recharge their cells and live longer. <\/p>\n

He began building the Integratron a few miles from his home in the late 1950s, funded by proceeds from his publications and conventions, along with donations. It was rumored that Howard Hughes, for whom he worked as a flight inspector, had contributed $40,000 \u2014 worth about half a million today.<\/p>\n

The building took its unique shape over the desert but was not fully done by the time Van Tassel died of a heart attack in 1978, said La Crescenta-based architectural historian Daniel Paul<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sometimes wondered if he was starting to try certain things on himself, and maybe that messed up his heart a little bit,\u201d Paul said.<\/p>\n

Paul dug into Van Tassel\u2019s life after the Integratron\u2019s current owners \u2014 sisters Joanne, Nancy and Patty Karl, who transformed the dome into a destination for sound baths \u2014 hired him to secure a listing on the National Register of Historic Places.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Integratron is known for today as a destination for sound baths after it was purchased in 2000 by its current owners including Joanne Karl, seen here.<\/p>\n

(<\/p>\n

Robert Gauthier<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Times<\/p>\n

)<\/p>\n

In his application to the National Park Service<\/a>, Paul said he credited the Integratron design to the architect Howard P. Hesse, Van Tassel and, in parentheses, Solganda, \u201cbecause that’s what George Van Tassel always said where this guidance came from.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Park Service officially listed<\/a> the Integratron in 2018. Afterward, Paul got a voicemail from a stranger complimenting him for citing Solganda.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/p>\n

A watercolor illustration of the Integratron <\/p>\n

(<\/p>\n

McKinney Collection of George W. Van Tassel Papers<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

The Huntington<\/p>\n

)<\/p>\n

How a pool deck contractor ended up with the Van Tassel archive<\/p>\n

The caller was Don McKinney, a contractor from Morongo Valley who resurfaced pool decks and, as a side quest, had amassed a vast collection of Van Tassel memorabilia.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Donald McKinney collected the items of Integratron creator George Van Tassel for decades. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that Van Tassel was the most colorful person that I ever knew,\u201d McKinney said.<\/p>\n

McKinney said he met Van Tassel in 1969 when he was 19 and, with friends, visited the older man\u2019s home by a massive boulder called Giant Rock. They went to an underground room where Van Tassel said he received communications from outer space.<\/p>\n

\u201cI pulled a book off the shelf and saw a flying saucer in it and asked, ‘George, if these were real?’\u201d McKinney recalled. \u201cAnd he says, \u2018Absolutely.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

McKinney hasn\u2019t seen a UFO in the years since, but believes those who say they have.<\/p>\n

In the early 2000s, a potential pool job brought him back into Van Tassel\u2019s world.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Giant Rock, the boulder by where George Van Tassel worked and lived. <\/p>\n

A Van Tassel associate named George Riddle was seeking construction quotes and, in the course of talking, revealed he had a trove of Van Tassel belongings, everything from a model of the Integratron to a photo McKinney remembered seeing at the Come On Inn cafe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just fainted, practically, and bought as much stuff as I could,” McKinney said. <\/p>\n

\"Black<\/p>\n

Archival materials from the post-war ufology movement in the Southern California desert are now part of the Huntington collection. <\/p>\n

(<\/p>\n

McKinney Collection of George W. Van Tassel Papers<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

The Huntington<\/p>\n

)<\/p>\n

By the time McKinney called Paul, he had spent a dozen or so years storing the items in the high-desert home he shares with his wife, Dayle. He later invited Paul to come see it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cI drove down there and met him, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh,’\u201d Paul said. \u201cI knew right away Don was the real deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

A podcast taping and a race to save the tapes<\/p>\n

Several years later, Paul brought the story to a new audience.<\/p>\n

On a May 2025 episode<\/a> of the podcast Otherworld, he joined Wagner to talk about the Integratron. When Paul mentioned McKinney\u2019s desert archive, Wagner wanted to know more.<\/p>\n

After the taping, he called McKinney and found out that he had 120 reel-to-reel tapes of Van Tassel’s channelings. Wagner was instantly worried about their survival.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don’t have a huge lifespan, and the Eaton fires had just happened,\u201d Wagner said. \u201cI remember thinking, \u2018Man, like, there should at least be a digital copy of these tapes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Wagner headed to McKinney\u2019s house to preserve the audio and flew in his producers Theo Schafer from New York and Theo Krantz from New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Otherworld producers Theo Krantz and Theo Schafer joined host Jack Wagner at the home of Don McKinney to preserve his reel-to-reel tapes and other recordings owned by George Van Tassel.<\/p>\n

The trio discovered much more than tapes. They also found Integratron blueprints and materials from Van Tassel\u2019s career in aeronautics. They document their trip in a video posted on Otherworld’s Patreon.<\/a> <\/p>\n

What happens to the collection now <\/p>\n

Wagner told Paul the collection belonged in a museum. Paul agreed and reached out to a friend at the Huntington, Anne Blecksmith, associate director of the library, who then told her colleagues.<\/p>\n

A pair of Huntington curators went out to the desert to see the collection themselves. An appraisal followed, then a purchase for an undisclosed amount.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Aside from audio recordings, the Otherworld team were floored by the amount of other items chronicling the desert’s UFO history.<\/p>\n

For Erin Chase, the Huntington’s associate curator of architecture and photography, said the collection has strong cross appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe it’s about cultural history. Maybe it’s about desert ufology. And maybe it’s about alternative spirituality,\u201d Chase said. \u201cThe hope is that someone will find something in there that’s meaningful to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Huntington’s associate curator of architecure and photography Erin Chase (l.) examines the Integratron model with library director Sandra Brooke Gordon.<\/p>\n

(<\/p>\n

Linnea Stephan<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

The Huntington<\/p>\n

)<\/p>\n

Today, the newly named McKinney Collection of George W. Van Tassel Papers is housed in climate-controlled rooms under tight security as staff prepares it for public access.<\/p>\n

Selections, including the Integratron model, will be spotlighted at the Huntington\u2019s Strange Science<\/a> event on Oct. 30 and Oct. 31. Paul and Wagner will share the stage on both nights to talk about Van Tassel. <\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

In May, Donald McKinney (bottom right) visited the archive he’d kept in his desert home for more than two decades with historian Daniel Paul (bottom right), Otherworld podcaster Jack Wagner and his wife Dayle. <\/p>\n

The Integratron\u2019s current operators welcomed the archive\u2019s arrival at the Huntington. They\u2019ve worked to share the landmark\u2019s history with visitors, but \u201cwe cannot be the museum,\u201d said Kristine Atkinson, who helps run the Integratron for her mother, Nancy Karl, and aunts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe absolutely know that we couldn’t possibly be the end-all, be-all about George Van Tassel,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cIt’s too much. It’s too big.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for McKinney, he got to visit the Huntington for the first time in March with his wife, along with Paul and Wagner, whom he now counts as friends.<\/p>\n

The collection\u2019s new home brings relief and joy.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The leather band Don McKinney hand-crafted will stay on the Integratron model at the Huntington. He points to the “F = 1\/T,” the formula he said was behind the Integratron.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can go to the store and not worry that there’s going to be a fire or theft,\u201d McKinney said. \u201cIt’s just a major blessing all the way around because such good people have control over it.\u201d<\/p>\n

His own handiwork is now part of that history. A leather band that McKinney, a skilled leatherworker, crafted still wraps around the base of the Integratron model for visitors to see. <\/p>\n