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People began to again cherish nature's simple beauty and all it's treasures, and many yearned to return to their source, to THE LAND as they turned away from technology and crowded citys, and headed out to be where they could live simpler lives, and to be closer to their "Mother Earth". This yearning created an exodus of Hippies that led many out of the steel and concrete sprawl of the citys and into the spacious mountains, hills and dales of the country as many Hippies found the truths they were searching for in humble shelters, sustainable living, and living as "one with the land" Many Hippies from the San Francisco Bay area headed to communes in California such a Morningstar Ranch, founded by Lou Gottlieb of musical group The Limeliter's , which was begun with the help and support of his friend Ramon Sender, a fellow musician and writer. Shortly after, Wheeler's Ranch (where Alicia Bay Laurel wrote her reknown Living on the Earth ) was founded by Gottlieb's friend Bill Wheeler, who opened his land to all following Lou's leed, as both ranches deeded their land to God, and proceeded on to many court struggles before eventually being shut down and bulldozed with Sonoma county laws and regulations, predjudice, fear and heavy machinery. With first Morningstar, and a few years later followed by the demise of Wheeler's. It must be pointed out here also, that one of the reasons for the fear and predjudice being so rampant towords open landers at the time among the "straight" neighbors, was not only from a basic mistrust and fear of a lifestyle they didn't understand and were adamantly apposed to, but sometimes the concept of "open land" was mistaken by some of the Hippies for "open party" and occasional rowdiness or dramatic happenings by "those crazy Hippies" were not unknown occurances to the local townspeople. Click herefor "LATWIDN versus LATWIDNOBLE" , a comment on this aspect of open land by Ramon Sender: On another note, charismatic Stephen Gaskin was a captivating speaker who held "Monday Night Classes" in San Francisco where he spoke of Beat Zen and Buddhist concepts, peaceful evolution, and the restoration of moral values. In 1970, he began traveling with a caravan of 60 busses of free thinking people in a search for land and a place where they could live natural , self sufficient, healthy and peaceful lives, and wound up in Tennessee, where they started "The Farm , still going stong today, which became the most well known , active and at the time largest "Back to the Land" commune of the times. "They had babies. They bred horses and used them to work their farm. They built houses, erected a water tower, and started some small business enterprises, such as book publishing, textiles, and dried foods. They called their experimental community, The Farm. Over a decade, the community expanded to more than 1,000 people and its multi-million-dollar businesses became major players in the health food, consumer electronics, and niche publishing markets". *.....Albert Bates: J.Edgar Hoover & The Farm. Another rural commune that was well known at the times was Drop Cityin Colorado, built by artists, with domes and buildings composed of remnants of things gathered here and there: "even
"That Drop City had to die, I knew, was no reason to mourn. All
living things die. It's not the death that is important, but the day-
by-day living, what we create in the world. The basic idea of Drop
City and the Counterculture, to withdraw energy from the old system
and use it to reshape society and the world, is an undying process.
Young people always have to find their own structures to express
their collective energies. They always turn to each other. Where else
can they turn?
I found out later that Curly and Jo had opposed selling Drop City.
Curly had an idea of he and Jo moving back onto the land by
themselves, and starting over again. Clard and the others wouldn't go
along with it.
I also found out later that, in order to sell the land, they had to
remove from the deed the clause that declared the land "forever free
and open to all people." Forever doesn't always last very long.
All the domes except the theater were eventually dismantled and
scavenged. A fitting end. The last I heard, the old Drop City theater
dome is still there.
But even when all traces of Drop City are wiped off the land, as they
surely will be, the memory of a small band of creative young people
defying the world and conventional reason, naïvely striving to
liberate themselves, each other and society, to live in peace to the
fullest, will continue to echo in our cultural memory every time
people try, as we used to say, to live the Revolution."
............Drop City
Tolstoy Farm in Washington,
and the Community of Athens located in Southeastern Ohio, are a couple more examples
of a way of Life that was spreading across the Land bringing with it a
return to not only a more natural way of life, but also creating a Unity
of Thought and Spirit which was both Endearing, Enlightening and Powerfull.
Listening to the audio, or reading the article "Going Back to the Land" , about life
in the Minnestota woods, we can find some of the reason's for a person
choosing to live a rustic lifestyle. "A couple of decades
ago, a lot of frustrated urbanites lit out for the country. They planned
to build their own homes, grow their own tomatoes, maybe raise some chickens.
People called it the "back to the land" movement. A lot of folks found
a year or two of country living was enough, and they went back to running
water, central heat, and neighborhood grocery stores. But Minnesota's
north woods is still full of back-to-the-landers, making bark baskets,
raising rabbits, and chopping firewood". The communes that
have survived 'til this day did so by strength in their belief in what
what they are "about", while also observing the "laws of
the land", and keeping a general structure of attitudes that will
be accepted, while not allowing those that are not.The concept of "open
land" is gone, taking with it the feeling of total freedom of living
apart from society's "strucure",come what may.What remained
were communities that were united in their desire to create working and
peaceful sustainable living environments. Today, the concept
of "Back to the Land" is once again gaining popularity, as the
World again finds itself on the verge of a New Awakening, and
is beginning to see the Planet and Each Other through a reawakened Earth
Consciousness, and a new respect and awareness of our precious Mother Earth. And while
established communes are finding new interest, support and appeal,
new communities are being planned and formed daily. |

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