Hear me out on this what if the Gulch were to be made in Colorado, partially submerged. Buried with roof skylights, the ground is solid, adopting an old mining complex means some of the rock and debris is already gone. Posting it as a natural preserve/land restoration gives us anonymity. Heating is easier to maintain and if we were to mine it for gold deposits we have our "Gold standard" for currency and trade. What are your thoughts on this?

In the meantime we have hiding in plain sight if Biden gets in.

I agree. A Gulch needs either:
a) anonymity (as in AS)
b) very strong and infinitely reliable allies
c) very strong defensive or MAD weapons
imo, a and b are not likely and c is very expensive

The biggest problem with a gulch is going to be defense. While the state is powerful, they could just annihilate a gulch easily. We need to start a gulch when the state is weaker. the gulch will be a target, just like Trump is today. They would throw whatever they have against it

It should have been done 30 years ago, imo.
Instead corruption grew and the wealthy who should have recognized the need and funded it became more corrupt and betrayed their country.

All good points. Probably hiding in plain sight right here in the USA makes more sense in the short term

Of course the best time to start a gulch is now before things get really bad. Maybe if biden gets in, it really IS time to do it.

We need a country, not land in a country.

This is particularly concerning about Fiji:
https://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/re...

Even in comparison to its Pacific neighbours, private gun ownership in Fiji is uncommon, at a rate of one lawfully held firearm for every 550 people. Civilian gun owners must be licensed, and their weapons individually registered. Private firearms are restricted to hunting, sport shooting and arms collecting. Handguns, assault weapons and automatic firearms are prohibited, with safe storage of all small arms and ammunition required by law.

In stark contrast to most nations, the number of small arms in civilian hands in Fiji is dwarfed by the arsenal available to military and police personnel. With the largest army per capita in the south west Pacific, Fiji has a history of political and ethnic unrest. From 1987 to 2006, the nation suffered four armed coups d'état, and remains under military rule.
Fiji prohibits civilian possession of automatic weapons, and of firearms with a barrel length less than 24 inches (61cm).1 A pistol is defined as a firearm whose barrel length is less than nine inches (22cm).2

In 2001-02 there were 1,465 licensed civilian gun owners, with 1,538 registered firearms, most of them shotguns.3 4 This is one of the lowest firearm possession rates (0.18 per 100 people) in the Pacific. Of these 1,538 registered guns, 63 per cent were in the hands of ethnic minority Indo-Fijians, while 19 per cent were owned by indigenous Fijians.5 When unregistered, illicit firearms are taken into account, including those small arms diverted from state stockpiles during political unrest, about 4,000 guns are estimated to be in private hands, for a possession rate of 0.5 per 100 population."

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I see no way to defend the property from anyone who wants to take it.

How about $70/acre.
With all the infrastructure needed to get it started, the controlling regime that could take control as soon as the improvements are made, the remote location, the asking price of $700/acre is quite high.
Then there is the question of any existing residents or claims to the property by indigenous people, claims to mineral rights, and the prevailing laws if any claims occur.

Ah, but could we be a sovereign community there...their government doesn't sound to stable...couple of coups they had.

I hadn't forgotten about this, johnrobert2. It is good to see you still are out and about!

All of that for a few hundred dollars per acre. Wow!

Just did a FaceTime with my friend in NZ who is flogging the property. He said you could offer US$500 per acre and get it. He and I discussed a couple of avenues which could expedite the approval process by about two weeks.