In his writings, Tappan encouraged survivalists to relocate to and prepare survival retreats in lightly populated regions, and did so himself, moving to Rogue River, Oregon for the last years of his life [REF].
Mel Tappan was quoted in 1981 by then AP correspondent Peter Arnett that: "The concept most fundamental to long term disaster preparedness, in retreating, is having a safe place to go to avoid the concentrated violence destined to erupt in the cities.