No big surprise that the guy who wants to move to another planet might start by building his own little fiefdom here on Earth—in Texas.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the billionaire owner of Twitter, Tesla, SpaceX, and the tunnel-building company Boring Co., Elon Musk, plans to build a town about 35 miles from Austin. It would be called Snailbrook after Boring Co.’s mascot.
The Journal reports that the South Africa-born Musk, who has begun buying at least 3,500 acres, described the town as a little utopia where his employees work for him and could live for under-market rents … like a South African township? Just wondering.
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At the center of the town project is Steve Davis, Boring Co.’s president, who has posed the idea of building more than just a town, but an entire city in Bastrop County, located next to Austin with a mayor and everything.
Musk’s ex-girlfriend, the singer Grimes, Kanye West, and his architect have discussed the look and feel of the town but haven’t yet created an actual plan. The Journal reports that for a town to incorporate, via Texas law, it would need at least 201 residents and approval from a county judge.
The Journal reports that one piece of Boring Co. correspondence included a conversation about converting an existing home on the property to a Montessori school for about 15 students.
According to Curbed, in 2014, Musk removed his five kids from their school in Los Angeles and created Ad Astra, located in Hawthorne, California, the headquarters for SpaceX.
Ars Technica reported that the “experimental non-profit school” was founded to “exceed traditional school metrics on all relevant subject matter through unique project-based learning experiences,” according to a previously unreported document filed with the IRS.
“They want it to be secret. They want to do things before anyone knows really what’s happening,” Chap Ambrose, a computer programmer who lives near the new Boring and SpaceX facilities, told the Journal. Ambrose has been using drones to investigate what he thinks Musk is doing, posting videos to YouTube, and claiming tunnels running below the public road are being built.
Musk announced a move out of California to Texas in 2020, citing the Golden State’s “entitled” and “complacent” attitude. But in 2023, Musk announced that Tesla would return its global engineering headquarters to California, landing in Palo Alto.
CNN reports that property records for Bastrop County, located next to Austin, show that Boring Co. owns 11 parcels of land. Currently, a group of mobile homes is there, many of which popped up within the last three years. All are listed under one address near the Colorado River.