Paul and my journey to Caspar started in 1979 at a craft fair in Garberville, even though it was decades before we moved here. We were both self supporting craftspeople, he making custom shoes and boots and I making cloisonné jewelry. It ended up being at the “wrong” fair, more like a church bazaar, but returned two weeks later for the real deal at the beginning of the Mateel Community Center. We hit it off and found that we both loved to dance, enjoyed the community and both had a yearning to settle down, build a family and live close to the land.
On the quest to buy land, we started a search for rural property all over Northern California, ending up on 40 beautiful acres 12 miles out a dirt road near the Eel River, to start a family and a homestead, where we plated fruit trees, a garden and raised goats, sheep and chickens. We thought there would be other “back to the landers”, with children, who would band together to make a school and a community. This, unfortunately, was wishful thinking in that sparsely populated of an area.
Just as our kids were becoming school age, we found a community that had done exactly this in the far northern corner of Mendocino County in Whale Gulch and for ten years we “commuted” between our two homes spending vacations, summer and many weekends at our farm, the school year in The Gulch. I became very involved with the school, which was the hub of the community, being the liaison to the school district, general organization and lots of fund raising, which most often revolved around food. By the time our kids were entering high school the enrollment was down to 12 students, and felt like this was limiting, so we decided to move to the big city… of Mendocino.
We bought a house in east Caspar, right around the time that the Caspar Community was negotiating a deal to buy the old schoolhouse and I remember being at a board meeting where they were discussing how they would make a community center out of this building. I raised my hand and said “I can do that”, which I worked at for 15 years. Basing much of what I did around the experience running a small school, I tried many fund raising schemes back in the beginning of the center, but found out early on an event based on food was always a success. It also was community building in that people working together is such a great way to get to know your neighbor. I have often thought it is the best disaster preparedness we have. I am proud of the path that I have laid and love being part of this community, our monthly breakfasts, and now seeing the community center be embraced by the next generation. |
