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-cerro gordo new town

A hit of happiness came my way the other day when a friend of mine lent me his copy of Briarpatch Review, Springtime, 1975. When I left Portola in February, it seemed that the Review had died an untimely and tragic death; now it’s back!

After finishing the Energy Primer early this year, Dian and I moved to Cottage Grove, Oregon to work on the Cerro Gordo new town project. After the initial shock of moving from the Bay Area to a small town in Oregon, we find we really like it here.
We are buying an 80-year-old house and we hope to fix it up to something we really feel good about. It has good vibes now, even in its very rough state, and we hope we can rebuild without losing these feelings. I hope to use the old woodshed as a study, and Dian is planning a greenhouse just off the kitchen.

Cerro Gordo is progressing slowly. We hope to build a new town on 1,200 acres we own east of town. “We” are a group of some hundred families all up and down the West Coast who want to build a car-free, ecologically oriented new town. Our dreams include alternative energy sources to heat our homes, smaller than usual housing, and many co-operative, no/low-profit ventures.

In the last couple of weeks, I have organized a cooperative tool shop. About 15 of us have agreed to pay $10 a month towards the rent of some 1,400 sq. ft. of warehouse space. We are setting up our table saws, radial arm saws, work benches, etc. there so that we might all have a well-equipped shop to work in Ashes, the local food co-op, is locating its dried food storage and sales operation in the same place. In the next couple of months, I plan to organize a Community Development Corporation to help fund small businesses organized and staffed by Cerro Gordo Community Association members, as well as publish a crafts catalog for local crafts-people. Local talent can build you a stove, sew you a bike bag, weld you a sculpture, saw you a set of super-sturdy bunk beds, or fabricate super-sized wooden letters, among other things.

I was casting around for a name for my little “consulting” business the other day when my friend lent me the new Briarpatch Review. Flash, I had the name. I am now dba “Briarpatch Services.” I guess that name will be subtitled “Economic Development, Facilities Planning, and Solar Technology.” Econ. Dev. refers to developing new jobs for the Cerro Gordo new town, Facilities Planning covers the engineering and construction management work I used to do in the dinosaur world (Briars need it too), and Solar Technology covers all those fun things the Energy Primer got me into.

If anyone “out there” is interested in hearing more about the Cerro Gordo new town project, write for more info.