I was wondering if there are still alternative communites around yet??? You know the "hippies" or the old Mother Earthers that settled in general areas like in the Ozarks or elsewhere... lived alternatively... solar, organic and so forth???

I'm not talking communities where groups of folks lived in the same house like communes... but talking groups of folks who had similar beliefs living in their own place but near one another for support... kinda like an amish community.

Like to know if such folks/groups exist or did they "return" to normal life???

-- Mary Ann (peanut@wi-net.com), November 11, 2000

Answers

At least one, The Farm, still exists near Summertown, TN. They have about 1,000 acres and at its height there were about 1,000 people there. Now it is down to several hundred. It is now more of an independent community than a commune.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), November 11, 2000.

Mary Ann, if I understand your question correctly, you can find the remnants of such a community in parts of Maine, usually organized around local chapters of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (mofga.org, I think). Something similar is developing in the so-called "co-housing" movement. But for the most part those old homesteaders of the 60s and 70s sold the farm, got divorced, went back to grad school, and now live in the suburbs with their second or third family. Their only link with the old days is listening to Country Joe and the Fish on the Beemer's stereo system on the way to the law office in the morning.

-- Cash (cash@andcarry.com), November 11, 2000.

There is still a working one near Bedford Indiana. They have a large organic bussiness and the bigest saw mill in Indiana Ill. and Ky. grossing over 6 million a year. the place is called Pandanaram. They have a web site but I am not sure of th address. I think you can do a search on Pandanaram and find it. Pandanaram is a place ib Genisis (sp) in the bible

-- Grant from Indiana (organicgrange@yahoo.com), November 11, 2000.

I visited East Wind last summer. It's been around since the mid 70's. Their web site is www.eastwind.org . If you go to their web site, there are links to information on communities nation wide.

==>paul

-- paul (p@ledgewood-consulting.com), November 11, 2000.

We have been trying to start an intentional community for some time. We've run into problems. We have a good (although overworked) core group, but we're having a hard time expanding.

Most of the people who come out are well-meaning but lame. They generally have no skills, no money, no jobs, no motivation, but if we wer to build a house for them, they'd live in it....and sit around all day. Many have been mentally fragile, and seem to be looking for somewhere to have their nervous breakdowns, which they immediately do upon moving in.

Some start out thinking that a homesteading community would be romantic, but when faced with the actual work of mucking out the barn (we did that today, arrgh!) they freak out. "It's too much work!"

Others seem fairly together and motivated, but they either don't like the fact that we raise and butcher our own animals ("animal murderers!") or that some of our core members are not heterosexual ("Eeww! Queers! I could never live around YOU people!") and so on.

And then, of course, there's the classic dilemma: Someone cool moves in, we all love him/her, and they promptly pick up a Significant Other who is an Utter Snot, and no one can stand them, or the SO doesn't want to live here, and our cool member leaves with them.

So I expect that many ICs (Intentional Communities) went the same way. Of course, there are still plenty left. Check the Intentional Community site: www.ic.com, I think, or else www.ic.net.

Raven Kaldera, Cauldron Farm

-- Raven Kaldera (cauldronfarm@hotmail.com), November 11, 2000.

We had one here in Brown County; it was at Needmore, and part of it was associated with Twin Oaks community. It was pretty cool for awhile, to hear the older members speak of it, then drugs and bickering and infighting took over, and it crumbled slowly. It was a mess. There are some communities around that are based on shared religious beliefs; one in New England that I know of has very conservative Christian-vegan-isolationist tendencies; none of its members can go to visit their families outside of the community, without leaving some children, etc. there, as incentive to "come back." Twin Oaks is still around; it is a commune, and you can't have a better stereo, or more books, etc. than anyone else; I'm not real sure that you can have an individually owned car. It makes a lot of it's funding from wonderful rope hammocks, etc. I like the Amish idea of community; lots of rrom for the individual to grow and do for his or her self; but the church is there if there is a need (like raising a barn, or helping with a wedding or funeral).

-- Leann Banta (thelionandlamb@hotmail.com), November 11, 2000.

Wasn't waco an alternative life style?

-- Richard V. Miller (richard.miller@1st.net), November 12, 2000.

Yup...and they had a perfect right to have it, too.

-- Leann Banta (thelionandlamb@hotmail.com), November 12, 2000.

A co-worker gave me a copy of "COMMUNITIES Magazine, Journal of Cooperative Living". You can write and ask for a descriptive list of back issues, special discounts, etc., and they offer a single issue for $6. Write to FIC, RR 1, Box 156-CM, Rutledge, MO 63563 or call (800) 995-8342. It's a nice magazine if you're interested in the lifestyle.

-- Cathy Horn (hrnofplnty@webtv.net), November 12, 2000.

There is still Zendik Farm. They moved from Bastrop TX to Florida, but about 18 months ago I a friend of mine looking for a place to have the aforementioned nervous breakdown cheecked into them. They manage to keep a fairly high profile locally but are very different in many respects. You might be able to do a web search for their site if you are interested in that kind of living. I don't promise this is the addy, but if I remember correctly it was just zendik.com.

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@excite.com), November 16, 2000.

NEAR TECUMSEH, MO. THEIR IS AN ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLE GROUP CALLED EAST WIND COMMUNITY THEY LIVE IN SMALL HOUSES AND TRAILERS ON THIS PIECE OF PROPERTY BACK IN THE HILLS. THEY MAKE SANDLES, PEANUT BUTTER, HAMMOCKS, AND NO DOUBT OTHERTHINGS THAT I HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF. THEY SEEM TO GET ALONG FINE AND FEEL THEY HAVE A GOOD LIFE.

I THINK THEY ACCEPT NEW PEOPLE AS I SEE DIFFERENT ONES IN TOWN.

-- sally stanton (mallardhen67@hotmail.com), November 17, 2000.

there is an intentional group. it's called *the family*. God's design, it will never *die out*!

-- jeannie (mmp@theofficenet.com), March 24, 2001.

There is one in Deadwood, OR called the Alpha farm.

-- Cal (cwiren@yahoo.com), May 05, 2002.