PAUL ALLEN COMPOUND During the late 1990s, a large structure was being built on a large plot of ground in the Agua Caliente Canyon area to the north of the Mount Hopkins and FR-183 roads. This structure was very evident on Green Valley Hiking Club hikes to the top of the large rock formation known to the hiking club as “Little Elephant Head”. In the early stages of construction there was no information available as to what this facility was or who was building it. Speculation abounded. When hikers climbed to the top of Little Elephant Head, they usually took along a good set of binoculars to check on the status of the construction and speculate as to what it was going to be. It was soon obvious that it was going to be a large house with a large swimming pool. Eventually it came out that the complex was being built by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. The total land area of the entire complex was quite large and Forest Road 183 crossed a small portion of the south end of the complex. This forest road provided access to a number of hiking trails on the west side of the Santa Rita Mountains. This caused a lot of consternation on the part of Microsoft lawyers who were afraid that an accident occurring on the portion of the road that traversed the private property would result in a huge lawsuit. The result was that the road was closed and no access permitted until the Forest Service, at a meeting in Phoenix, was able to convince the Microsoft lawyers that there was no cause for concern. Paul Allen Compound - Photo by Lizbeth Lutz - Subsequently the road was reopened April 2015 and access to the trailheads has not been restricted again. Now for a bit of information on Paul Gardner Allen. Allen was born in Seattle Washington on 21 January 1953 to Kenneth Sam Allen and Edna Faye (nee Gardner) Allen. He attended a private school (Lakeside School) in Seattle where he befriended Bill Gates who was almost three years younger than Paul but shared his interest in computers. The two developed their programming skills using Lakeside School’s equipment. After high school, Paul and Bill went their separate ways. Paul went to Washington State (after scoring a perfect 1600 on the SAT) and Bill went to Harvard. Allen dropped out of school after just two years and went to work as a programmer for Honeywell in Boston where he met up again with Gates. Allen convinced Gates to drop out of Harvard and the two co-founded Microsoft in Albuquerque New Mexico in 1975. Allen was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 1982 and was successfully treated. Subsequently he did not return to Microsoft and distanced himself from the business. He officially resigned from the Microsoft Board of Directors in November 2000. Possibly as a 1 result of his illness Allen became ostentatious while Gates remained frugal and somewhat reclusive. In 2007 and 2008, he was listed among Time Magazines 100 most influential people of the year. He has received many awards recognizing many different areas including sports, philanthropy and the arts. In 2014, Allen was named the Philanthropist of the Year donating 100 million dollars to fight Ebola and another 206 million dollars to other worthwhile causes. In 2015 he was said to be worth 17.5 billion, the world’s 51 st most wealthy person. He has an art collection worth 240 million and three yachts. In 2003 he bought what was then the world’s largest yacht (named “Octopus”) for 200 million. The yacht is equipped with two helicopters, two submarines, a swimming pool, a music studio and a basketball court. He owns homes ranging in value from 8 to 30 million dollars in Seattle, Hawaii, France, Maryland, England, the Grand Tetons, Beverly Hills, New York and the French West Indies. The compound here near Green Valley is not listed on the internet and its value is not known. On 20 October 2018, Paul Allen died of Septic Shock related to non-Hodgkins Lymphona. Summarized from various web sites by Terry Ferguson and Tom Johnson in May 2015. Updated by T. Johnson in May 2019 The photo of the Allen Compound was taken by Lizbeth Lutz. Additional Material: GVRHC Library File 95 2 .