View source for 1973-04-02-longview-daily-news-p17-tolstoy-farm-survives

'''April 02, 1973 Longview Daily News Page 17:'''
<blockquote>
[[file:1973-04-02-longview-daily-news-p17-tolstoy-farm-survives.jpg|thumb|right|200px]]'''Didn't live up to expectations'''

'''Davenport Tolstoy farm still survives'''

DAVENPORT, Wash. (AP)—At
the age of 20, Huw Williams dropped
out of the University of Washington to
establish a community of anarchists.

Do your own thing. Let the land be
used by all but owned by none. Go
back to the simple life. And have no
one in a position of authority over
anyone else.

That was the philosophy of Tolstoy
farm in April 1963, when Williams’
grandmother gave him 200 acres of
land in a remote, wooded canyon near
the Lincoln County seat at Davenport.

On the eve of its 10th anniversary,
the colony has a population of about 60
of 70, almost half of them children.
The makeshift buildings scattered
across the landscape give it an
appearance faintly reminiscent of the
Depression era welfare camps known
as Hoovervilles.

And at the age of 30, Williams has
dropped out again.

Last December he moved to Airway
Heights, a suburb of Spokane, Wash.
35 miles from the farm. He still drives
back five days a week to teach at the
private, state-approved school, getting
$50 a month from Tolstoy parents to
pay for gas.

“I guess what changed the most was
my expectations,” he said in a recent
interview. "I had studied sociology
and had a lot of theories about social
problems. I felt that with the right
social system we could have a utopia
with no crime, no violence, no
divorce...

“But it didn’t happen.”

A lot did happen, however. For one
thing, the little colony survived turnover
among its residents, hordes of
summer visitors, hostility from its
more conservative neighbors and
several marijuana raids.

Moreover, much of the original
identity remains intact. The homes still
lack electricity, hot and cold running
water, television and telephones.

For dairy foods, there are 20 goats
and two cows. Flour is ground in a
mill powered by pedaling on a bicycle
mechanism.

Some residents raise their own food.
Others take seasonal jobs, picking
fruit or working the wheat harvest. A
few live off welfare or food stamps.

“People get along amazingly well,”
says Bob, identifying himself as a 38-year-old
former security officer and
dispatcher for the Los Angeles Water
Department. "I would say the levels
of violence here are a lot lower than
out there."

The levels of marital stability
appear to be a lot lower, too.

"The farm is pretty rough on
marriage if you want a stable-couple
family marriage," Williams said.
“It’s hard to do there It’s hard to do
anywhere.”

He says he’s not disappointed by the
past ten years but decided to move
because his wife "didn’t want to live
in the canyon anymore."

“She wanted to work and live in
town, and I wanted to be with her and
the kids.

“All along I’ve been trying to phase
myself out. Some people have looked
to me to do certain things. I think it
can become more dependent if I'm
gone.

“It won't fall apart,” he said. “People
will continue doing their own
things.”
</blockquote>
[[Category: Newspaper Clipping]]