A community of society-shunning Americans launched a survivalist haven in the Utah desert after finding themselves alienated from the modern world.

Hundreds of people have set themselves up to live off the land under 'Operation Self-Reliance,' feeling that getting off-the-grid is the solution to a crumbling culture.

The commune was established by Philip Gleason, 74, a former general contractor who felt a calling to allow people to grow their own food, pump their own water and rely on nothing but themselves.

He admitted to Deseret News that while some choose to live there for environmental or health reasons, its intended purpose was to evade the 'craziness' of the modern world and the current political climate under the Biden administration. 

'We seem to be undergoing a cultural revolution in the U.S.,' he said. 'When we first came out here, we thought it might be too far away... Now, with everything that's happening, we wonder if it's far enough.' 

Residents at the OCR co-op in Riverbed Ranch in Juab County live almost entirely off-the-grid. 

Tenants each buy their own two-acre plot, where their only choice is to grow all of their own food, as the estate has no municipal power system and no sanitation utilities. 

A share of the co-op costs at least $35,000, but that is before residents need to fill the obligations Gleason mandates, including building your own home from scratch. 

Residents must also build a barn, install a septic system, produce their own solar energy, dig a well to the freshwater dozens of feet below and build a greenhouse. 

These costs, OCR's website admits, could run up at least another $235,000, which the organization blames on 'the Covid insanity driving the cost of building materials up significantly.'