"Permanent Convergence" - Freedom Springs Homestead, 2040 A.D. New Myth 81 by Willi Paul, Planetshifter.com

Note: This is Mr. Paul's submission for the "Writers and Artists Online Roundtable: Visions 2040" - 6/1 – 23. Presented by Planetshifter.com.

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Jacob J. Marklee founded a toll bridge crossing the Carson River in 1861. He aimed to tap into the traffic from the silver mining boom at Silver Mountain City. On June 23, 1862, he recorded a land claim of 160 acres in Douglas County, Nevada. A boundary survey took place, and the property ended up being in California. In 1863, Marklee died after being involved in a gunfight. When the Comstock Lode discovery took place, the town of Markleeville was founded on the Marklee property. Today, the Alpine County Courthouse sits on the former property, which is listed as a California Historical Landmark.

Survival is the new silver. Water is the new Internet.

After the oil trains derailed, and the processed food war was toast, and the reading lights went dark, Alpine County was bankrupt. Four families from the Davis, CA area heard about the mass exodus from Alpine to the cities southwest and set out for saner existence. "Migration out and migration in." They aimed northeast for Markleeville and the abandoned Grover Hot Springs State Park in search of community and some transitional shelter.

Grover Hot Springs State Park is located on the east side of the Sierra at the edge of the Great Basin Province, characterized by open pine forest, and sagebrush and meadows. The park has a pool complex with a hot pool and a swimming pool hot springs, a campground, picnic area and hiking trails.

The 18 refugees are Seed Savers, Storytellers, Food Forest Defenders, Permaculture Teachers, Child Care Providers, DIYers, Post-Techie - Post-Hippie Salad Spinners; a few Guardians of the Post-Chaos World.

The grid is now just boot tracks in mud. The New West will not download the Old.

"Why did these people leave this area, Pops?" asked Dillion.

"Panic. Fear. No plans to make the shift away from the unsustainable." Shouted Rob.

The settlers began working with the surrounding land and the hot springs to integrate food crops, cob housing in transition to localized resource sharing and a rushed DIY life. Power poles and lines were re-purposed for shelter, garden edging and clothes lines. They blended water catchment, compostable toilets, food forests, water and pedal-power.

In an act of great cleansing and hope, they buried the former inhabitant's fire arms, cars, trucks, lawn movers and thermostats in the adjacent abandoned rock quarry and constructed a community shelter with the remaining free rocks and boulders by the springs.

The cold pool was converted to a root cellar just before Winter hit and serves the clan well in keeping vegetables and other items from freezing.

Seed balls and rocket stoves, forever, Amen.

At the first supper meeting after the trek up from the Valley, teams were set-up to handle security, food foraging, child care and spiritual support.

"This is our first tradition." Cooed Catherine. "We need to preserve the food that we carried up here and mix it with local edibles."

"Community will be first in our symbolic database; the seasons of Nature our ritual auger." People nodded. They did not consider this journey as a burden or an emergency but a long over-due shift in their consciousness and a change for the better for all of the Planet. They are in it for the long haul.

Certainly the "First 18" benefited from the infrastructure in the State Park but also from the canned food and household items in near-by, abandoned Markleeville homes and businesses.

"We give thanks and prayers for the people who left this place many months ago for an uncertain life in the urban geographies. They left here black and blue from the profit motive but we now choose sharing." Lamented Rob.

"What should we call this camp?" Smiled Jenny.

"How about Freedom Springs?" suggested Wilt.

Freedom Springs, indeed!

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