Atlas Shrugged/Galts Gulch

A secluded refuge in a valley of Colorado where the men of ability have retreated after relinquishing participation in American society. Nicknamed "Galt's Gulch" by its inhabitants, it is in fact the property of "Midas" Mulligan, one of the early strikers to follow John Galt's call. This call was to the great men of mind and action to abandon the increasingly slave-state inclinations of a decaying United States - to go on strike - thereby withdrawing the only thing supporting the parasites and looters.

Sarcastically nicknamed Midas in the press because everything he seemed to touch turned to gold, Mulligan adopted the nickname during his explosive investment career before dropping out of sight. He had purchased this land among his far-ranging speculative endeavors, and subsequently retreated to it upon his disappearance. Other strikers soon followed him there, including John Galt, renting or buying land for summer retreats as a respite from continuing their search for fellow strikers among the increasingly collapsing American society. Eventually, a society develops in Galt's Gulch as more people live there year-round as the outside world becomes virtually unsafe to visit.

We are introduced to this place in the first chapter of the final section the Novel, the chapter titled Atlantis. The people live with each other in completely free society and embody everything which is the thesis of the Novel - the appropriate values for a society of Mankind - philosophical, moral, economic, legal, esthetic, sexual, among others too numerous to mention.

We find industrious, ambitious, happy people continuing their chosen fields of endeavor without the yokes of any taxation or regulation. Conversely, there is a reverence for private property - everything transacted is paid for with the re-invented currency of solid gold coin struck from the reserves of Midas Mulligan's bank which now resides in the valley. The townspeople receive services from the various heroes we have met throughout the Novel, who all now reside and produce in the valley - they purchase power inexpensively from Galt and his invention of the static electricity motor, maintain their anonymity from the outside world via Galt's invention of the air-wave reflection device (giving the view from above the camouflage of reflected images of other mountainsides nearby), and some attend Galt's lectures on Physics, where he explains his discoveries on new fundamental laws and applied mathematics. The people purchase medical treatment from the care of Dr. Hendricks, who uses his invention of a portable x-ray machine to initially diagnose Dagny Taggart upon her crash landing into the valley, attend concerts of new musical compositions of Richard Halley who has continued to compose in the Valley, acquire raw materials from the efforts of Francisco D'Anconia's excavations around the valley, attend philosophy lectures from the now-retired pirate Ragnar Danneskold, receive loans from Midas Mulligan, etc.