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Hermit Found Living in Cave on LANL Property
By Adam Rankin, October 29, 2004

Looking for a place to grow marijuana and live, rent-free, in a cave with all the creature comforts of home? Why not a canyon, tucked away within the 40 square miles of the nation's top-secret nuclear weapons research facility in Los Alamos?

That's where Roy Michael Moore, 56, was recently discovered living in a cave equipped with a glass front door, a wood stove, a bed, electricity-generating solar panels with batteries to store the power, and lights.

"From the campsite that I saw, he had been there quite a long time," said Los Alamos deputy fire chief Doug Tucker. "He had all the comforts of home... I was really impressed with his ability to set up a camp."

Tucker said he had heard Moore might have been living undetected in the cave in Los Alamos Canyon for as long as four years but couldn't confirm that.

"I have seen him walking downtown and walking around town," which is only about a quarter-mile from the entrance to Moore's cave, Tucker said.

Moore was discovered on Oct. 13, when an Energy Department employee working at the Los Alamos Site Office noticed smoke coming from the canyon about 50 yards behind the building, where a cliff drops about 75 feet to the canyon bottom.

"He was a very cordial gentleman" and dressed neatly and in such a way that an observer would not think to consider him homeless, Tucker said.

The DOE employee reported the smoke to the Los Alamos County Fire Department, which entered the canyon to investigate. The source, Tucker said, was Moore's wood-burning stove.

Because it was probably the first time it was lit this season, Tucker said the stove generated a fair amount of smoke.

As the firefighters approached the cave with LANL's security force, the crews saw Moore and discovered "numerous" marijuana plants growing around Moore's cave, Tucker said.

He said Moore used expanding foam insulation to seal in a glass door to close off the cave's entrance from the elements.

Police were called, Tucker said, because Moore was trespassing on government property.

Los Alamos County Police Capt. Marla Brooks said Moore was arrested on misdemeanor charges of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. She said police confiscated about 10 marijuana plants and a pipe.

Moore posted bail and was released, Brooks said.

"I don't know if anyone has tried squatting on DOE property before or not," said Bernie Pleau, a spokesman for DOE and the National Nuclear Security Administration in Los Alamos. "Pretty strange, don't you think?"

Pleau said Moore's cave was located in a steep-walled, heavily wooded canyon in a decommissioned section of the laboratory's property "that no one has used for several years."

In fact, Moore's cave in Los Alamos Canyon is just on the edge of LANL property near Technical Area 2, about half a mile east of where Diamond Drive crosses the canyon over Omega Bridge.

Pleau said DOE directed LANL to remove all of Moore's possessions from the cave on Oct. 16.

Tucker said it was impossible to see the cave or any sign of Moore from the edge of the cliff above, which is inaccessible because of a tall fence.

Tucker said someone might have been able to see the solar panels from a plane but only "if you knew what you were looking for."

Originally published by the Albuquerque Journal

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