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jeff schnabel
The second household built a new house high on the ridge after trees were removed to open views. The valley was seen as a retreat from the city, but not a permanent relocation. Their house used more refined versions of wood and metal. The board formed concrete which referenced local agricultural structures was incorporated because it fit a desired aesthetic. The house has large rooms and significant amounts of glass so that the
owners can appreciate the landscape from the inside. The wood in the project is included to warm the design palette, not to make connections to the remaining trees. Swimming for these homeowners does not happen in the river, but in the lap pool suspended sixteen feet above the ground. Meals are frequently taken at the Guest House. Theirs is an aesthetic appreciation of the rural condition.
Despite differences in settlement styles, the new residents have successfully integrated with local people. Part of the acceptance is economic: new arrivals bring jobs in construction and service work to an economically-challenged community. But much of the acceptance of the new arrivals has to do with shared values. There is a common understanding that the valley’s identity is linked to its agricultural use. So far, new development has preserved those uses and territory. Some new arrivals have themselves established agrarian-based businesses and both groups have a shared interest in supporting local services – they were unified in an effort to retain the historic post office and each have done fundraisers in support of the local fire and rescue service. The centres for community activity are shared. The Lost River Inn, a forgettable motel from the fifties, now combines comfort food with fresh seafood specialties brought in by its new owners from the city. While the restaurant tends to have two sittings, an early one for locals and a late one for urban weekenders, the motel bar is a true cultural collector. A combination of high-end beverages and taxidermy led one customer to comment that it was ‘the destination for sophisticated cocktails and excellent mounts’. The motel itself fills its rooms with a combination of city guests, hunters and buyers for the Teets cattle sale (a prized Angus line).
But perhaps the integration is most profound at the personal level. The homeowners of the co-housing project live next to an evangelical minister who lives on his family’s ancestral lands. Upon completion of the six friends’ new home they invited the minister and his family to what has become an annual picnic. The mix of cultures and politics at the picnic was illustrated by two t-shirts worn at the event. The first, Jesus: Workout for Life was juxtaposed against the second, Bush Lied people Died . Despite the apparent differences the two households have moved beyond familiarity into the realm of neighbourliness. When asked how this came to be, one of the urban weekenders offered, ‘at the picnic in addition to our gay friends we had our entire families. In the end our brothers were just like their brothers and our moms were just like their moms’. In this rural valley many urban households have settled the land in a variety of ways, but the qualities that make the area attractive have been retained, some might even say enhanced. Despite differences between the natives and the new arrivals there is shared territory. –
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