Wanna Start A Commune?

Stephanie Smith, founder of Ecoshack, designer of modular tent cities, yurts, Beekeepers' huts, and tipis, is hoping to bring the commune back to the forefront of American culture with her new project, Wanna Start A Commune?

Having started a number of living-off-the-grid experiments in Joshua Tree, she's now exploring the communal idea "in an ongoing series of design and cultural projects that bring a collective attitude to places where it doesn't yet exist."

Like cul-de-sacs.

"Do you live on a cul-de-sac? Or a dead-end road? Or an apartment building (or condo) with an interior courtyard? Why not come together with your neighbors and share resources? Create a shared compost pile, gather weekly for potlucks and friendship, start a recycling program, barter services, share childcare, or anything else that you cook up."

Morningstar Ranch and Wheeler Ranch: Two Online Scrapbooks

Flipping through the pages of The Last Whole Earth Catalog, I came across a photo of naked people lounging around in a disheveled yert with chickens. From the caption, I learned it was an open door Sonoma County commune from the late 60s, Morningstar Ranch.

Riddled by legal battles with hostile neighbors, the commune's landlord and leader, Lou Gottlieb, hoped to save his colony by deeding the property to God. This scrapbook documents the life and death of Morningside Ranch, who are said to have been diggers, and I think Peter Cayote lived there.

After being driven from their land, some of Morningstar's refugees wound up at the nearby, equally doomed, Wheeler Ranch:






Also. The Security Photos series is worth reading about and looking at.