Black Bear Ranch

Black Bear Ranch is an 80-acre intentional community located in Siskiyou County, California, about 25 miles from Forks of Salmon. It was founded in 1968, with the slogan "free land for free people". It has been considered by some participants and commentators to be one of the more radical examples of communal living/intentional communities that grew out of the counterculture of the 1960s.Before being converted into a commune, it was a ghost town that had been a gold mining settlement in the 1860s. The commune's legal ownership was held by one resident, Richard Marley, until in 1987 it was transferred to the Black Bear Family Trust, which limits development of the property and established trustees to oversee various specified duties. Black Bear Ranch was the subject of the 2005 documentary Commune by Johnathan Berman. The commune still exists today and continues to follow the basic ideals which motivated its founding. At the Summer Solstice Gathering in 2013, there were over 40 residents, the highest population in decades. It is located in a pocket valley in the Siskiyou Mountains.Early lifeThe motivations behind setting up the commune were, in the words of one of the founders, Richard Marley, to create a:According to the historian Timothy Miller, the community bought the property for $22,500 using money from a variety of sources including from supporters in the entertainment industry, as well as "one large unexpected angelic gift" and the "proceeds from a major LSD deal". The money from the entertainment industry was obtained through what Stephen Holden in the New York Times describes as "emotional blackmail", quoting Michael Tierra: