Col carl jones biography

Along a lonely state highway on central Montana’s high plains, I approach what looks like a ranch entrance, complete with cattle guard.

“The first ace in the hole,” reads a hand-etched cedar plank hanging from tall wooden posts. “In continuous operation for over 50 years.” I drive up the dirt road to a building surrounded by video cameras and a 10-foot-tall, barbed-wire-topped fence stenciled with a poker spade.

Carl jones boondocks

“It is unlawful to enter this area,” notes a sign on the fence, whose small print cites the Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950, a law that once required communist organizations to register with the federal government.

“Use of deadly force authorized.” 

I’m snapping photos when a young airman appears. “You’re not taking pictures, are you?” he asks nervously.

“Yeah, I am,” I say.

“The signs don’t say that I can’t.&#