He Bought a Whole Town (in the middle of nowhere)

[mellow acoustic guitar plays]
[Peter] You know the guy I’m meeting?
He’s a character?
-You’re in the video, is that cool.
-Oh no. [laughs]
-Take care.
-Have a good one, man.
-Yeah, you too.
-Enjoy that one.
All right guys, here we are
in beautiful Etna, California.
Very remote part of the state
but today’s video is about getting out.
Way out into the countryside
to meet a man that owns his own town
and also from what I’ve been told
lives on his own terms, that’s for sure,
and has very interesting stories.
Let’s do this.
[music continues]
[Monk] Once you come down in the canyon
you’re 30 miles from nearest power outlet,
30 miles from cell phone service.
You’re 60 miles from any basic services.
Time is what it is.
It’s just the day and the night,
and what you’re doing, you know?
-This is pretty much your town, right?
-This is pretty much it.
-You got a saloon here?
-Yup.
For those willing to go on
a serious adventure?
-There’s 25 of us out here
in a five square mile radius.
There’s nobody else
for 30 miles in each direction.
-How far to the closest
real grocery store?
Real grocery store, two and a half hours.
So this is the story in Cecilville.
You can stand in the middle of the road.
-This is it, man.
See kids pet horses. You’re in
an open range, free range county.
So we have five horses
that are basically lawnmowers
and they just eat their way
downriver and eat their way up
and you can ride ’em.
And there’s also Forks of Salmon herd.
There’s no Sawyer’s Bar herd.
I don’t have anybody that hangs
in the bar and drools and is annoying.
The neighbors have a key
and there’s ten of us under 55,
no one under 35 out here.
It’s me, my wife, Pete, his wife,
Thomas, his wife,
Bachelor Bob,
Bachelor August, Bachelor James,
and another guy, Steven.
And that’s about it for people under 55
and under 35.
Two of those people have a key if
you want to get anything you can come in.
This is 24/7, man.
This is the honor bar right here.
Here’s all the good drinks, not drinks,
leave your money in the box.
-Okay.
-Whoever’s coming by?
-I don’t do inventory.
If I did inventory, which I have,
there’s more money in the
box than should be in the box.
-Has this ever been stolen?
One time only someone
took the whole f*ckin’ box.
I think ’cause it’s a lot of change
and I don’t take the change out,
I haven’t taken this out in a week.
I think it was some kids, you know?
There’ll be like $400 sometimes
when I come back in here.
-That is cool.
If you’re gonna take a $4 drink,
have at it, man.
I mean you’re not coming out here
to Salmon River, 30 miles to Cecilville
to take a $3 drink you know?
[laughs]
-There’s your customer right there.
-This is our wintertime scene.
My thing is take care of your belongings,
the things you worked hard for.
Everything has to be super nice,
and clean, and smooth.
When you come up to a bar,
you don’t want someone else’s
misery, or sorrow on it.
You want super nice and clean.
-I’ve never seen a bar so clean.
-Yeah.
-It’s like new.
-This is 12 years old, this bar.
Everything here was a community effort.
We built this building.
The trim was milled
off the forest out here.
All the rocks were from
the river bar here.
The nearest power outlet is 30 miles away
so all this is solar.
So the whole roof, there’s 56 panels on it
and there’s a massive power system.
Bob did that, he’s another neighbor.
Mark, Tim, and Don, the raked the cement.
We did a lot of cement work, rock work,
everyone helped each other out.
Someone had a set skill,
we followed that person, you know?
My other neighbor shot this bear here.
Her name is Rita. We call her Jaja.
‘Cause she’d be in the wilderness
done up, she was pistol-packin’ Rita.
Wearing a leather jacket, velvet pants,
silk shirt, hair’s all done, lipstick,
and she’s out hunting in the wilderness.
She’s got two .44s on her hip.
She shot this bear,
this is probably 1970s.
This is forks of salmon school picture
from my wife I believe.
-Your wife’s from here, right?
-My wife’s born and raised here, Allegra.
She’s awesome, total mountain woman,
born and raised from the hippies
who started the commune.
I call her pre… like a purebred hippie.
It’s hour and a half up the road.
-From here?
-From here in dirt.
Here’s Cecilville here
and then Etna’s over here.
-That’s where I started today.
-Callahan and Etna, yep.
And then this is
the Marble Mountain Wilderness.
This is the Trinity Alps Wilderness,
and this is the Russian Wilderness.
So here we are, right in the middle of
Marble, Russian, Trinity Alps Wilderness.
There’s about a hundred of us
maybe in this whole area right here
in the Salmon River watershed
which is surrounded by that.
-So one of the least-populated areas
in the whole country?
Yeah, and one of the major dark spots too
in the country.
Over here’s Arcata,
it’s about three hours way.
Redding’s about three hours away,
and Medford’s about three hours away.
There’s only one way here,
Forks of Salmon,
and one way out of here, Cecilville.
[Peter] So Monk, you’re actually bringing
this all here or there’s ice delivery?
-No we make everything here.
Everything’s self-sufficient here.
It’s solar-powered ice basically
this machine makes 1,800 pounds
in a 24 hour cycle.
It’s solar-powered
and then we have a well
that’s county-approved
drinking water well.
So this is…
-Water’s gotta be great out here.
-Yeah.
It’s all off the power system
then we bag it up.
-Do you have your battery packs
here for your solar?
-Wanna check out the system?
-100%.
‘Cause a lot of people have solar
and it goes back into the grid
and you can’t do that here.
You need to store everything.
No, this is straight up
battery bank system.
So true self-sufficiency.
-Yeah, we’ve had this system
for 12 years now.
[door clanks open]
Come in here and check this out.
So it’s nothing special.
Just basically Conex box that we
lined and insulated with plywood
then put gypsum board down on the ground.
Neutralize the acid base here
These batteries are 31 amp,
100 amp hours each.
This is what powers the whole place.
Refrigeration, concert stage, ice-makers,
gas, everything, the whole place.
Just this property,
the well and everything.
I’ll show you the other side here.
This is the inverter room basically.
Bob and a few of us set this up.
These are 8,000 Watt
radium outback converters.
So each one of these is 8,000 and wired
in a series for 24,000 inverted Watts.
[Peter] You hunt a lot?
No, not really. Squirrels, random pests,
and then protection, mountain lions.
If I haven’t been on property
in a couple months,
definitely it’s gone back to the animals.
You know, it’s their home.
We’re in the wilderness here.
It’s mountain lions, bears, bobcats, lynx.
It’s like all those,
I won’t shoot one of those
unless it’s coming at me
or it’s not moving.
My neighbor a month ago had
a mountain lion stalking him on the road.
He was walking on the two lane here
and the dog made a noise,
turned around, there was a
big mountain lion like 50 feet behind him.
He turned around,
it crouched down, he went like this,
the lion crouched more and he was like,
“Get him!”, a bunch of dogs
came down and chased the thing
and it just bounced away they’re so fast.
I’ve had mountain lion issues
in the past, future, present.
I put this gas station in
and right now we’re not credit card swipe.
The horses keep eating the sign,
I gotta get a metal sign.
I guess horses like cardboard
and they like paper.
-$6?
-Yep.
You wanna give me seven, I’ll take seven.
-[laughter]
-I gotta raise it, man.
I gotta raise it, it’s like $5.79 in town.
-It’s crazy, dude.
-Yeah, right?
In Oregon across the border
it’s like $3.79.
-Are you the fire department?
-Yeah, we’re the fire department as well.
I got 14 high-pressure pumps
and miles of hoses.
If there’s a fire we don’t evacuate,
we actually set up and go in there,
and we’ll set up a wet line around
the property, and take everything out
in a Haulmark trailer
and put it in a safe zone.
Which is my field up here.
Then we’ll do
structure protection on the outside.
We’ll create a wet zone,
save your property.
Probably saved a dozen houses
or more up here.
You think you’re gonna die,
you’re in an active fire situation.
We have safe zones.
We had a mineshaft one time
that was a hundred and some feet deep
and we have food for a week in there,
clothes, everything.
Then another time we had a tank.
I keep all the equipment down here
and basic needs for building,
trailers, goods.
Started locking stuff up
in other ways for keep it warm.
I’ll show you this one container,
it’s kind of our…
You know, kind of what we have to have
out here in order to be sufficient
and be able to get stuff done
living so remotely.
-So if everything in society
completely shut off…
-I’d be fine.
-For how long?
-Oh, a long time. Years.
I can do it, I’ve lived that whole
primitive lifestyle but now it’s like
what for?
Outhouse is cool but I don’t want
to use an outhouse anymore.
I have an outhouse and I keep it real.
I don’t mind it
but I used to be out here forever.
I’ve already proven that to myself,
and my family, and all of us out here
pretty much can be.
We hunt and grow our own food, you know?
So this is basically
my plumbing shed store.
Not really store, neighbors use it.
Basically have to have one of each
of fittings, spools of wires.
Just everything.
You don’t want to go to town for one thing
and it’s like you have so many
properties out here
and doing a whole town project
and neighbors have extra outback power.
Charge controllers, valves,
water heaters, just panels, everything.
The other container’s full of electrical.
I’ve done a fair amount of homesteading
sort of live off the grid videos
but I’ve never seen a setup like this.
I mean you basically have a store
in there for whatever you need.
-Yeah, this is just for me
and my properties,
then my neighbors, Pete, and Bob.
People we groove with.
People that are into it, you know?
Yeah, pretty much everyone…
Not everyone gets along out here
but something happens,
we all get together
and people help each other out.
-So whatever internal conflict there is,
if there’s a fire that all goes away?
Yeah, all that sh*t goes away.
So here, this, Jimmy Johnson out in
Fort Jones, he got a lot of this lumber.
Trees up here then milled them up for us.
So these are all ready to go and this is
what my house is kinda made of
and here’s more stacked and stickered
cedar and different trim wood.
Then we have plywood and con, you know?
Just units of materials.
This is old… a railcar.
You saw that road you came on.
Oh yeah, didn’t notice that.
-A railcar, bro.
-How’d you get this out here?
-I didn’t this was on this property.
-So who lived here before?
-Before it was this guy and his wife
for a couple years.
And then before that used to be
the old town of Cecilville
and then they mined it.
They got a few thousand ounces
out of the ground here.
When I moved here in 1996
they were still mining this flat here
and they got a few thousand ounces
in the ’90s.
-Of gold?
-Of gold, yeah.
-Are there any old buildings out here?
-Yeah.
There’s some old buildings I’ll take you
I got a hand-hewn log cabin
from the 1800s on a historic pioneer ranch
when the first people came over.
You just have to go around.
So you asked how long
we could last out here?
That’s how long we could last out here
if we had to last out here.
-You know?
-[Peter chuckles]
You could last a long time
out here, brother.
Look at this right here.
Dude, this is 1930s Ward LaFrance,
it’s before America LaFrance.
Look at the hand crank in the front too
if you want to start it up.
-This thing is awesome.
-Look at how cool the style.
This was our firetruck
when I moved out here, man.
This was our gas station
when I moved out here, look at this.
On the back of it there was a pump
that was welded to the back of it.
And so the fuel truck would come over
from the valley and fill this truck up,
and we’d all pull up to the back
of this truck and there’s a pump on it.
We’d just [pumping sound]
and get our fuel, man.
-This is cool, Monk.
This whole garden area we’ll grow
a few thousand pounds of onions
few thousand pounds of potatoes,
corn.
We’ll do winter squash
and that’s a root crop garden
’cause a lot of us don’t have enough
space in our gardens to grow root crops.
Like it’s for storage.
And so we do a storage over here
and take turns watering it
and then just eat out of it,
whoever had it, eat out of it,
or compost it.
And you just pull water from the river?
Yeah, water from the river.
This is all riverfront property.
The whole thing’s riverfront.
-It’s about 30 acres.
-Is there a rancher or that’s you guys?
This is us right here. Most of this is us.
There’s probably six, eight parcels
that aren’t us out here.
20 years ago I was like
places were getting for sale.
People were getting old and I
was like I gotta keep out tourists,
recreationalists,
and second home owners out of here.
Because once those people
buy a piece of property
it takes away and kills our community.
Property becomes a second home
property, they’re here two weeks a year.
So what I did was I bought the properties.
-You bought everything around?
-Yeah, I’m still buying.
Just bought a piece last year too.
I’ve sold property to three other families
but they live here full-time.
I carry the note for them, zero down.
They pay the mortgage, pay it off.
I’ll do that for other people
but you gotta live here
’cause they’ll kill our community,
there’s only 25 of us now.
There’s no private property out here.
You’re in wilderness
and national forest out here.
-So everything around us here
is protected land?
-National forest and wilderness, yes.
-Okay.
So basically your three acres is
million acres ’cause
there’s no neighbors for far away.
So here’s some of the disc golf guys.
This is the longest drive challenge.
They pop out and…
See how far they get to it then we do
a helicopter shotgun start here.
And then some of the pros
will put them in the helicopter
and we’ll circle a basket
in the helicopter
and they can shoot the
disc out of the helicopter.
So what inspired you to do this?
You’re like that’s a cool idea?
My whole thing in life has been
if you’re not having fun, have fun.
Don’t hurt anybody, you know?
It’s easy to hurt people, and be a d*ck,
and easy to hate.
It’s way easier to be an assh*le and hate
than to love,
and be kind, and spread the wealth,
and spread stuff onto others.
There’s always the haters,
yin yang of life
but I just wanted something better
and didn’t want to do a traditional thing.
I didn’t want to go to school,
sell anything, buy, trade,
didn’t want to deal with the fake book,
any of this fake sh*t, makeup.
Which is fine, no judgement on people.
I love having fun but it wasn’t me
and I want something different
and that’s why I moved out into
wilderness in this bush area homestead.
I moved out here after Jerry died in 1996.
-Jerry Garcia, for those that don’t know.
-Grateful dead.
We were on tour with the Dead,
I had a van, got this other school bus
and then my buddy died
and so we came out here.
My friends found this place like,
“I drove off a cliff into heaven.”
I came out here and I was like whoa.
This is wilderness.
This isn’t like some religious commune.
This is a commune that was started
by the Grateful Dead,
the San Francisco diggers,
the mothertruckers,
the Doors gave money,
Zappa gave money, Leonard Nimrod,
Spock gave money,
Peter Coyote was up there.
All these other…
Black Panthers were up there,
it was an actual real commune.
No leader, no owner, no guru, no religion.
-Where?
-Up the road here.
My wife was born and raised on,
a real hippie commune.
-Seriously?
-A real hippie commune.
This is not an intentional community
where there’s a buy-in.
Anyone come down the road and live.
It’s kinda closed off more now
’cause the peace-loving granola went
out of the scene of hippiedom.
-What happened?
-Street kids and gutterpunks.
Handouts, so there’s not many people
wanting to homestead.
I think it fizzled out
like the culture, you know?
Kind of like our culture in
Northern California growing marijuana
has to be revamped.
We lost a whole culture
with legalization of marijuana out here.
The back to the lander could live
and have an economy from growing
marijuana, and food,
and supplementing incomes.
Everyone grew marijuana out here.
-The postmaster, everyone grew.
-The postmaster?
Everyone grew a plant
for Christmas at least.
At the very least,
even the police, you know?
They went from mining, to ranching,
logging, to weed, and now weed is gone.
Now it’s like what’s next?
It’s restoration
or remote jobs.
Other than that,
you can find a way to live out here
I’ll put out a challenge if you have
any viewers that want to live out here
and homestead I got
14 pieces of property with cabins.
Careful of what you ask for.
-Do you really want me to post that?
-[scoffs]
If you put a resume, dude,
and send me a f*ckin’ thing I vet people.
-I’m pretty damn good at vetting people.
-Email?
I’d have a homestead challenge
where you wanna come out here
and give you the place
for a five year thing.
You gotta prove out and homestead it
or potentially to buy a piece of property
while I carry it as an owner
and if you’re together people
that have your sh*t together, you know?
-No tweakers?
-Yeah, no tweakers.
No psychological issues.
If you have a resume or write up,
a couple would be preferable
but yeah, what’s to lose?
We’re out here in the wilderness
and other people want to homestead…
No one wants to homestead anymore.
-Okay, that’s interesting.
I’m gonna leave your information
in the description of the video.
If someone wants to homestead
out here for five years…
Or a couple years, give it a shot.
If you stay longer
and it’s potential, then sure.
-All right, can you explain this
for those that don’t know?
That’s the State of Jefferson
and it is a concept of
no taxation without representation
kind of thing back in the day.
-In Klamath Counties.
-Okay.
And the Klamath Counties,
they set up roadblocks.
It’s also seen as a little racist
and sexist too, the movement as well
but the state of mind
of the modern concept’s awesome.
-It’s straight on, you know?
-What is the basic concept?
We don’t get represented up here
in the north state.
We want representation,
our tax dollars don’t go for us up here
and we’re not getting the services
and government we need,
and we’re not part of the rest of these
states like Oregon, Washington, Nevada.
We’re like our own area up here
in the Klamath Counties.
Like the river communities.
We’re a whole ‘nother…
You hear Humboldt County,
people call it the iron curtain.
We’re State of Jefferson
so to stay in the state of mind.
Even though the movement
might have a dark side.
-It’s a less government,
leave me alone Libertarian thing?
Or more if you’re gonna tax us, tax us.
I pay $26,000 in property tax up here.
I don’t get anything up here,
no sewer, water, services.
-The one thing you got is a sweet road.
-This is a state-funded,
county-maintained road.
That means all my county property tax
does not go to this road.
-Okay.
Nothing goes up here
at all to my tax dollar.
So I’m with this. A lot of us are here.
Not one dollar I give comes back to me.
-Okay, the roots were racist
but how ’bout the modern day?
The modern concept’s great.
It’s a great modern concept.
-Well the roots of America
were racist too.
Yeah, lots of things were,
colonizers coming over here.
-So it’s progressed in a good way?
Yeah, progression, man.
The only thing’s constant
is change, you know?
The way we acclimated into
the communities here like the Natives did
is ’cause we acclimated
and changed as people.
We came out here from other city areas
and reintegrated back to the land.
Back to the earth
kinda movement, you know?
-You think that’s more popular now,
back to the earth?
I think there’s less people
wanting to homestead
than people want to have their lattes
and near internet and more socialization.
Even with kids, my older kid, he doesn’t
ever want to have home ownership.
He doesn’t talk like that,
or marriage, or any of these things
that we kinda wanted.
I wanted to own a home.
Maybe they will be later.
Maybe they’re ten years behind
but I don’t think people want to…
People want to be off-grid
but not off-grid.
They want to have their house
that’s connected to…
You know, not off-grid, off-grid.
The realities of really off-grid living.
‘Cause people say, “Move to the country,
live the simple life.”
I’ll move to town live the simple life.
This is not the simple life out here.
-Good point.
-This is work.
You want heat, you gotta provide heat.
You can’t run a chainsaw,
you can’t live out here.
-You gotta shoot a gun?
-Yep.
Dude, everything.
You gotta be able to grow food.
Just everything, man.
-So everything’s just work?
-Yeah, town they got thermostat.
The water’s out in town,
the city’s gonna fix it.
Water’s out here I gotta hike the thing,
the creek, the spring, the well.
Here’s another property
I bought a year or so ago.
This was someone’s summer cabin
from the coast.
This is like seven acres.
-Seven acres?
-This is seven acre riverfront piece here.
It’s a summer cabin.
They come up here in the summer
chilling out, then they got old
and they wanted to sell it.
I was like, “Well I don’t want
a second homeowner.”
I’ll sell it to someone
who wants to live here permanently.
This piece maybe not
’cause across from the saloon
and this is their scene, you know?
I pretty much took their stuff out
but this is all stuff they left here,
all this stuff in it.
-The old Trivial Pursuit game.
-Yeah, medicinal plants out here,
organic gardening,
wildcrafting.
To live out here
you gotta have a lot of intuition
and what my Native friends call ingenuity.
You gotta be real ingenuitive
to live out here.
If something breaks
or you don’t have something
you widdle it out of wood sometimes
until you get something that you need.
-Right.
-You gotta make it work.
-Right.
You can’t just give up.
A lot of people give up too.
And that’s the modern society,
throw away society, give up society.
It’s like man we can’t get through there,
that’s all bedrock.
I’m like, “Oh, we’re gonna get through
there.” and we do. We persevere.
And that’s the old miner’s spirit
when people pioneered areas too.
Out here when the miners came
they had mules.
They brought all this,
and built roads, and did all this stuff
people couldn’t fathom
doing today with equipment, you know?
-Right.
-So these are some salt of the earth
and the Natives before them,
those guys were the heartiest of hearty.
You know, when the White man
came out here in 1850
people were still using stone tools.
This is 1850s.
This is my neighbor, Dave, maybe.
That would be fun to ride right now.
-That’s your neighbor?
-Yeah, Dave.
-He has a helicopter?
-He owns Shasta Air out of Redding.
He’s got a ranch up the road here.
That’s helicopter Dave.
He’ll land in my front yard
and my kids will
go out of the cabin in diapers,
one’s naked
and Dave’s pulling my kid
in the front door in his diaper
and they’re both in there.
I’m like I guess the kids
are going for a ride.
This is one of my elk tents.
My kid has this for his friends.
I haven’t been up here in
a minute but pretty much
gave this one to my kids, this property.
You guys wanna have fun,
hang out in the cabin with your friends.
Years ago we used to say
you could see who has TV
and who doesn’t have TV.
People that have TV, the ranch is
a little more run down, more trash around.
You know, you’re watching TV.
You’re getting distracted.
What’s real in life is…
Besides loving each other,
and friendship, and getting things done.
Whatever that sitcom is, that’s not real.
You don’t need that and so people
get sucked into the boob tube.
Which is easy, I like a little TV.
Don’t get me wrong here.
I like to veg out,
I don’t have time to but…
Do you watch TV?
Stuff that’s on is stupid anyway.
You just flip around for hours.
Nah, I don’t watch TV. I do Netflix.
RVing with Joe, YouTube with kids,
and Holover inlet and boneheaded boaters.
Which is pretty much it.
This is the cabins that
the kidnapper stayed in.
-The kidnapper?
-Yeah, this guy, Tad Cummings.
Another lady Elizabeth,
he kidnapped his student
Elizabeth from Tennessee when she was
15, brainwashed her, really sad story.
There was a lot of that on the news.
It was definitely a f*cked up scene
where we called the Sheriff
and the Sheriff’s department
wasn’t coming out here,
then we knocked on a sergeants door.
Had a friend knock on their door
and they said it was out of their
jurisdiction and we’re on our own.
We had to call the FBI to come down here.
You were living right over there
and the kidnapper was right here.
No, he actually came through
and my caretaker was living here.
He had some work to do
and the kidnapper needed gas
and he said, “Hey, you move
these rocks and do some work
that Monk’s got me to do I’ll give you
some gas of Monk’s.” [laughs]
So he did and then my other neighbor,
he was a technical regulator out here,
Pete, and Bob, and I
regulate mostly out here.
-You’re the law enforcement?
-Yeah.
He came down here
and saw the guy was sketchy
and gave him 20 questions, still sketchy,
went home, looked it up,
and sure enough found him
and then came back,
showed my caretaker.
My caretaker’s like, [Southern accent]
“No man, he’s a good guy.
That’s not him, man.”
Caretaker’s also from Tennessee.
So yeah, we entrapped him,
“Hey buddy, spend the night.
What’s up, friend,
we got more work for you tomorrow.”
Meanwhile Pete calls me up, he’s like,
“Monk…” I was like, “What’s up?”
he’s like “We got this guy… wanted.”
I’m like, “Is he in the bar right now?”.
‘Cause there’s no phones out here.
He’s like, “No.”
I’m like “Where is he?”,
“He’s up in the cabin.”
“So why are you whispering, man?”
He’s like, “‘Cause it’s crazy.”
Go grab homeboy, grab other homeboy,
grab the shotgun and detain him.
He’s like, “He’s got a gun,
he’s got a hostage.”
Well call the sheriff’s department, bro.
He’s like, “I’m gonna,
just making sure it’s cool with you.”
“It’s your place.” I’m like, “Well, yeah.”
That’s how it is out here,
we have to regulate.
We have to be the police, fire department.
And so basically the kidnapper took over…
Not took over, my caretaker
let the kidnapper stay in this cabin here.
It was half done, they were building.
-I was gonna build six of these.
-How many years ago?
About eight years ago.
I stopped doing any work
’cause my kids got older.
Everything’s on hold now.
-Cool cabin.
-Yeah, really cool, man.
Overlooking the creek,
all the blackberries
will get knocked down again
when my kids get out of high school
pick back up but…
So I started doing the cabins
then I was like, sh*t,
I gotta get someone to
clean ’em and work ’em.
I can’t even get bartenders out here.
So any of the bartenders, or caretakers,
or groundskeepers, I house them.
And so I have to take care of them.
-Are you looking for people.
-Oh yeah, all the time, 100%.
I’m done dealing with
degenerates or drug addicts,
or drug users,
or people with mental issues
or people that don’t want to work,
or want something for nothing.
It takes hard work and I don’t expect
anything from anybody that I wouldn’t do.
Except going in crawl spaces
’cause I don’t like crawl spaces.
But other than that, man, I do everything
and I go all night, you know?
[Monk] This is my homestead.
I’ve had this the longest.
Pioneered other properties.
So to say pioneer, started other
properties and walked away from
but this place I’ve had for 20 years.
-Great, Monk.
-I made this meadow, did this orchard.
I think there was a couple trees here,
Thompson seedless grapes.
I’d still be in this first cabin if I
didn’t have kids. Simple life, brother.
It’s easy, live outside, you know?
I keep it real still. Got an outhouse.
Chicken coop, I don’t do chickens anymore.
This isn’t the kind of place
you can raise animals necessarily
unless you want to have
a lot of work or Great Pyrenees or dogs
killing mountain lions all the time.
If you want to get mountain lions,
get goats.
Goats will bring mountain lions.
If you want bears, get chickens.
Everything eats chickens.
Bobcat, lynx, I’ve had hawks come down.
I’ve had everything.
So that’s the chicken coop
and here’s the outhouse right here.
[Monk rustles debris]
-You don’t use this though?
-My friends do.
Neighbors, I moved it
from three different properties.
This is my first outhouse.
That’s so you can get in the winter
in three feet of snow
’cause this was up at 4,200 feet
at my first mini-homestead.
-Do you get snow here?
-Yeah, we get a little bit
but it melts away.
but up on the road you came over
there’ll be 10 feet, 8 feet, 12 feet.
We snowboard off of that road.
-Okay, do you ever get snowed in?
Like the road isn’t cleared?
-Yeah.
-What’s the longest time
you’ve been snowed in here?
On this ranch down here,
not so long, a few days,
but up on the mountain’s been months.
You came at a weird time
’cause it’s winter time
so I’m shutting everything down.
I’m winterizing everything.
-The leaves are all around, like…
-It’s a beautiful time though.
This is why all my friends
love coming, this…
[shower flowing]
There’s nothing like an outdoor shower.
I use this in the rudimentary form it is
over indoor any…
I’ll be out here,
I keep this on the very latest.
My buddy Kevin did the rock work here.
I love this cabin.
It’s so easy to heat and keep cool
and it just keeps me back to my roots,
the outhouse, this, you know?
Keep it simple, stupid, KISS, you know?
Don’t complicate life.
I mean this is all you need as a human.
And then, yeah, friends stay in here now.
It’s a cute little cabin, you know?
View of an awesome meadow.
-This puts off a lot of heat?
-Oh dude, too much.
In the winter time
you’ll have the door open there.
This would be like a typical
hippie mountain cabin out here.
Or like semi-typical.
[Peter] Just like 500 square foot place,
or less?
-Not even, man. 20 by 16.
-Oh, no way.
-I didn’t have a
frigerator for eight years.
I was living in a tent out in
the mountain, dirt floor cabin
for a few years in the commune.
This is uptown when I got this.
I had to come up, you know?
I mean this is a living room right here.
Don’t get any better than this.
You gotta be really comfortable
in your own skin, you know?
Just take a second and, you know, feel it.
I could sit here all day contently, bro,
and just watch my friends.
All my animal friends.
If we come back here in another hour
there’ll be a herd of deer in here.
A couple bucks, 12 deer, 10 deer.
-You can walk up to them.
-Right.
We name them, like, “Oh, there’s Eric.”
Someone shot Eric.
But this is gonna be garden shed.
This is winterization, I pretty much
packed everything in here for winter.
The ranch looks a whole lot different
and this is our power room.
You notice how thick the walls are?
We built them. All this wood
was milled up here
except the plywood.
So this is discovery batteries,
lithium ions right there.
We’re gonna put those baby dolls
up on the wall.
-These are good ones?
-Oh, yeah.
-Are they better than the Teslas?
-Yeah.
Teslas like…
-Not as good as these?
-No.
Tesla’s like town battery.
For the price point,
and for the storage… no.
Tesla, I don’t think so.
Sorry, Elon.
But this is a Radian Outback.
I have three of those over there,
I’m gonna have two of these in this room
and that’s the project
I was gonna do this week.
Dig the trench out,
I already have it half dug
and then pop this wire in the ground,
do a pole, mount this, and hook it up.
-So do you live on this property?
-Uh, yeah.
See I got a Tesla.
I’m cool too, man. I’m hip.
Bob and I met Elon Musk inadvertently
at Terrapin Crossroads in San Fran.
We just completed this project
and he had the whole
solar city crew there.
We didn’t know who he was.
We were talking to him
and his crew like, “Who is this guy?”
Looked weird too.
I’m like I don’t know there’s
something about him. You can kinda tell.
Years later we were like,
“Oh sh*t, that was that guy, Elon.”
Damn Bob, we coulda talked solar stuff.
They just thought we were redneck,
hillbilly, greennecks.
We just set up a whole town
and did this whole solar system.
-Okay, in this part of the state,
explain that.
Rednecks, and hippies, and greennecks.
There’s sort of a crossover between
the rednecks and the hippies, right?
It’s like a hillbilly, you know?
So there’s the hippies,
and the rednecks, and the greennecks.
You do get redneck aspects but then
you have hippie aspects as well.
You get into organic gardening, food,
maybe conscious about wildlife, but then
you shoot guns, four-wheeling,
drink some cheap beer maybe,
and then you have
a little more redneck concepts.
You mix it together, you got a greenneck.
So we’re kind of a greenneck, you know?
People call me hippie,
I’m like I’m not a hippie.
Hippies that are real hippies from
the commune are like, “He’s not a hippie.”
but East Coast hippies
got nothing on the West Coast hippies.
The West Coast hippies
are like the real hippie.
You ain’t seen hippie
on the East Coast, man.
You’d be like, “Oh my God.”
that’s why they think
people like me might be a hippie,
but no, I’m a green neck or hillbilly.
So this building I built as a guest cabin.
Like a spot for my friends.
-This is great.
There’s another bed I put in here
and the kids stay here.
Nice view of the garden outside here.
All this wood came from Salmon River.
Shaped on-site.
My wife and I started building this
about ten years ago
and it’s all cement board.
My wife’s house burned down twice
and so everything we build from now on
has been cement board Hardie Board.
These stairs are just
construction stairs. They come off
and I’m gonna hard scape this.
The ventings are
special fireproof vents, you know?
-Earthquakes aren’t an issue here?
-No.
Back around here all my buildings
on all my properties have sprinklers.
-Galvanized steel pipe.
-Oh, yeah.
Going up, that’s a massive rain bird
so I can create a wet zone.
And then if you see up there in the forest
all around the entire forest
on my whole property.
-Right, those poles?
-These T poles with
galvanized steel pipe and sprinklers.
-I have another one over there.
-Yeah.
They go around my whole entire property.
So when I have a problem
I pop a hard line on one of
those pumps into the soft line here
and create a wet zone
on my whole property.
It’s real out here, man.
There’s thing people have to realize.
I’m the fireman, a cop,
the army, civil engineer,
I’m a God d*mned bartender.
I’m a gas attendant but I tell my friends
I’m just a glorified
maintenance man at this point
-Oh, cool.
-All the wood here came off
the Salmon River, everything was milled.
I did all the beams
and the bigger stuff you don’t see
and Jimmy Johnson milled
it from logs that were up here
and then Ariel,
all this wood was shaped on-site.
All the quarter round, half round trim.
It’s really quality work.
-Everything single you see here
was shaped on site.
All this wood and it’s all from local
right up the street here up the road,
street, you know?
-So you kept some of the hippie roots
doing the loft like that?
So this cabin actually
was it’s own cabin right here.
So this was a cabin itself,
this was not here.
-Okay.
-So imagine there’s a window right here.
So that was your sleeping loft.
You got your bathroom, your kitchen
and this is your chill area
and then you have
your front yard’s a meadow.
This place, honestly, man,
the honeymoon does not ever end.
It really doesn’t.
Every day’s just beautiful,
another day in paradise.
-There’s the honeymoon phase but it’s–
-To be fair…
When people see this through video
it’s total honeymoon, it looks amazing.
Like I want that.
-Your rare, right?
-Yes, it’s work. Yes, I’m rare.
-I just want to be real with everyone
-Yeah, I’m super rare.
-You gotta put in a lot of work,
gumption and blood, sweat, and tears,
and you gotta have hands like–
-And you gotta have
the money to pull it off.
If you can come up with that,
that’s the billion dollar–
Starlink exists out here, right?
Yeah, but then you’re talking techie stuff
and so you’re living out here
and people want lattes
and they have education they owe
money on for college, and loans and stuff.
For sure that is the next phase
is restoration of techie remote…
But is the remote person
going to want to be doing all the work?
‘Cause they’re gonna be stuck
on the computer doing work.
Not gonna want to be
shooting bobcats and chainsawing.
If you can’t run a chainsaw, you
ain’t living here ’cause you need heat.
I don’t want to poke too much into your
past and cut me off whenever you want
tell me don’t put that on camera.
-Back in the day you grew weed, right?
-Oh, yeah.
-So you made decent money doing that?
-Yeah, great.
It was awesome
way before it was cool.
When we were doing it we were
following the guys from ’60s and ’70s,
we came up with a lot of
the technologies you use nowadays.
Like the nutrients, soils, lightings,
the hard goods or maybe even oils.
The extraction methods.
My friends came up with that
and so if you were in it back then
and you’re not okay now
then you’d done something wrong.
You didn’t retool maybe.
-But now that opportunity’s gone away?
That’s gone for the homesteader.
That’s the thing about back to the lander,
they could come to Northern California
and there was tons of mountain areas,
tons of water so they could grow marijuana
guerrilla style in
the national forest wilderness
and live on their homestead here
and eek out a living.
Then it became medical
and you could live out here
but that was the economy.
They could grow some weed
and also do another job like logging.
Whatever the job was, they could
supplement their income with that
and then some people just were
straight up marijuana farmers
and that’s how they did it.
Now that’s gone,
it’s retooling our whole culture
and Northern California,
Southern Oregon way of life.
‘Cause that’s where these people
came and settled this area
after Natives, mining, was the hippies
and the back to the land movement.
That afforded those people
to be able to come out here
and live and homestead as well as
a lot of those people did come out here
and do these homestead areas
also I’d say more than half
came from prominent families
where they didn’t have to
worry about money necessarily
because their parents worked
or they had inheritance.
It was older school kind of thing.
-They were born in the ’40s and ’50s.
-So they didn’t need the money?
They had privilege.
People call it White privilege,
it’s just the privilege of life.
Whatever race or color you are,
you can go to Africa
in a predominantly Black place and
people are privileged more than others.
It’s just privilege and people
either waste their privilege or do good.
Try to spread their privilege around.
Some people, it afforded luxury
to be able to be out here and homestead
not just here but Northern California,
Southern Oregon.
and buy those ranches.
So those people were buying
the land other people lived on too.
-Wasn’t there friction in that because
if it was the old school local up here
that was probably logging redneck
and they were working
for every one of their dollars
and they weren’t getting a trust fund.
-So was there friction?
-There was massive friction.
-There’s still friction.
-There still is, okay.
And there always will be.
The thing about marijuana was
equal opportunity employer for everybody.
Depends what you put into it
and what you got out of it.
-Some people did and some didn’t.
-Right.
It also kept the tweakers at bay
’cause it gave the tweakers a job.
So tweakers weren’t stealing as much
towards the end of the green rush thing
’cause even the tweakers had some plants
and if they were they were stealing
plants, not their generator or car
or random sh*t.
-Do you have tweakers out here?
-Not so much anymore.
We had them at the bar.
I got law enforcement officers,
“How many times you been drawn on?”
“Like never, once.”
I’ve been drawn on four times
and it’s mainly tweakers
and me having to regulate out here.
Everybody had that attitude their
communities would be a whole lot better
but everyone relies
on everyone else to do stuff for them.
Living out here and being self sufficient
I move rocks out of the road.
We have the county guys but I do it.
We take care of ourselves
and our community.
Then it makes the need less.
We’re creating this need with government
and creating the projects
’cause people don’t say anything,
or step it up, or they get hopeless.
You gotta lift people back up.
The difference between
Phish and the Grateful Dead
is when I was on tour
with both I had friends
that worked for Phish and Dead family.
Is at Grateful Dead if someone’s
on the ground hurting,
someone’d pick you up,
make sure you’re okay and alive.
At a Phish show someone’d walk over you.
It’s kind of like a different society.
Grateful Dead’s peace love
and granola, and love, and happy,
and Phish is have fun, party,
and great music too, you know?
Just a different kind of headset.
A lot of people crossed over
but some didn’t cross over.
For those that don’t know,
a lot watch from around the world.
Music, Grateful Dead,
they were around forever.
The biggest following
let’s say for the longest time.
-Cultural family following, Grateful Dead.
-Cultural family, yeah.
I wasn’t a Deadhead, I wasn’t born one,
my parents listened
but you could go to a Dead show
and experience this whole other culture
of peace love, and granola, and happiness,
a whole ‘nother way of life
or aspect of hippiedom.
We had other bands, Railroad Earth,
and other festivals,
but it’s not that deep-seeded hippie
culture that someone can find on their own
and then maybe live that lifestyle
or gather things off that
and integrate those into their life.
They have to find it other ways,
it wasn’t so much there.
And the Grateful Dead
broke a lot of bread metaphorically
so to say with their music.
And with people and culture
and the crossovers.
I think with the Grateful Dead
being gone
and that whole genre
and mindset kind of changed
the whole Northern California as well.
[birds chirping]
[Monk] In the late ’80s and 1990s the
government repealed the Mining Claim Act.
Kicked all the miners off their claims.
So 1,000 people living out here
on the Salmon River on mining claims.
All the private property on
the Salmon River’s patented gold mines.
or it’s patented ag land to feed
the mules and people that worked the mine.
That’s how this land became private,
patented gold mine or ag.
So they kicked everyone off their
mining claims,
1,000 people living on
mining claims from the 1800s,
hand-hewn cabins, ranches,
whole spreads like this.
They gave them 90 days to leave, if they
didn’t they’d burn their house down.
So some people left,
some got lifetime tenders
They never ever did a 99 year lease
up here, it was lifetime tender
and you lived there till you die.
Then it goes back to the government
and some people got a lot of land, rare.
So they gave you 90 days
and people were up in arms about it.
You can’t just kick us off,
we’ve been here for a hundred years.
Our whole community,
places like this all up and down.
-Someone’s living there right now?
-Yep, he built this place himself.
He’s still working on it. We’re all still
working, it never ends, man.
So they gave you 90 days,
people got up in arms.
My father-in-law started the
Salmon River Citizens for Housing Reforms
and they protested it.
So when people go to meetings
the Forest Service
would notice they’re gone
and surround your house.
Guys with guns, law enforcement,
and they’d bulldoze
your house and burn it.
So they burned
1,000 people out of here easy.
The guy in charge
was named Harry the Torch.
He was the burn boss for burning
the houses and cabins on the Salmon River
and one night people went to town
and burned his house down in Eureka.
It was kinda fitting for Harry the Torch.
This is our other property down here,
it’s like half a mile of river front.
Both sides of river and road.
I bought this as a community piece
so we can all have a place to go swimming
and you’ll get some good view
when we come back.
Both sides of the river and road’s mine.
I’ll tell you when it ends.
I’m the last property then
it’s all federal lands for 16 miles.
There’s nothing out there,
not a house or anything.
So the government kicked everyone
off their houses, burned ’em out,
and killed the community out here.
Kind of got rid of people that would
go to school, fire and rescue,
people that go to community gatherings.
As there is no private property out here.
It’s like 0.01% private property out here.
-So how did some of it stay private?
There were the pieces
that people patented gold mines from
back in the 1800s and early 1900s.
You could patent your gold mine
but it cost you $2,000.
Why would I patent my gold mine
when I could just pay $5 a
year for my mining claim
and have a house on it?
So people didn’t patent the mines.
Do you know whose land you’re on?
Who patented it?
I believe the Shasta Mining Company
patented this piece of property
and it was hard to patent for sure,
it was out of reach for people.
People out here were coming in
with mules and stuff.
Even when I moved out here,
we didn’t have nice cars.
This is a ranch truck. I have
three of these. This is just a work truck.
[Monk] Marijuana has
afforded people the luxury
to have certain goods and items, you know?
And, you know, tenacious work ethic.
This is my private property,
this is my swimming hole.
This is the Salmon River
and right out there is Saint Clair Creek.
This goes up into
the Trinity Alps Wilderness headwaters.
You can drink the water out of there.
There’s no farms up here,
no ag, no fences.
Some of my community members
drink the river water.
They literally filter it in a multi-pure
and drink the water.
There’s nothing out there.
Nobody lives this way for a week hike.
This time of day in the summer,
spring, early fall, we’re swimming.
Having barbecues, hanging out here,
tubes across the river
[Peter] This swimming hole is perfect.
[Monk] All the kids bring their
gold pans down here and gold cube
and we’ll do a little family panning.
Fun for the kids, gives the kids something
to do for entertainment finding gold.
You can see the flakes in there.
What is that?
This is called your gold, my gold’s
the real gold. This is fool’s gold.
-But it looks like it, huh?
-Pyrite, yeah. It looks like it.
I’ve actually had some miners
that bought a mining claim
from somebody, had no idea and said,
“We think he salted it.
It’s all gold everywhere in our claim.”
My wife just laughs and said,
“Oh my God, you guys, that’s pyrite.”
They’re like, “Pyrite, what’s pyrite?”
They were from somewhere else man
but I tell the kids that’s your gold.
[laughs] You can have all that.
[stream flowing]
Monk is quite an interesting guy.
What a world out here.
So guys, I want to tell you about
another video platform
I have off of YouTube.
It’s a place where I do
more behind-the-scenes
deeper dives on things.
A lot of these videos
it’s the subjects talking.
My other platform is more about where
I’m doing the talking
and sharing what I’ve learned
with you guys.
It’s called the Inner Circle.
Would love to see you there.
We have a few different tiers.
The top tier even gives you
a postcard from me
from every one of these big trips.
I’ll send you a postcard with my signature
and it’s a real cool group
where we all talk with one another.
Question and answers,
those types of things.
Would love to see you there.
Link down below in the description.
[stream flowing]
Troy’s a wild man right here.
Troy’s the mail guy.
-Troy’s the mailman?
-Yeah.
[Troy] I drive this road every day.
[Peter] How many miles
are you doing a day?
-106.
I’ve been doing it for seven years,
I love it, man.
It’s beautiful. changes every day.
I see all kinds of wildlife,
and wild people, and…
[Monk] Wild people. [laughs]
Troy’s like our extended
community member. He’s our lifeline.
‘Cause think about it,
Matt, there’s UPS, and there’s Troy.
Other than that,
there’s no people coming in here.
Rain, snow, sleet, or hail,
and delivering whatever they gotta
deliver us, packages, whatever we need,
a part to make our power system.
[Peter] Every day you come in here, Troy?
-Every day but Sunday.
-Really there’s that much mail to deliver?
-Six days a week.
Whether there is or not,
they’re still coming out.
[Troy] I’ve got a little bit to deliver,
five or six people.
Troy’s like historic, man,
before it was Charlie Snap for 80 years,
-And who for a minute, Punky Nevonne?
-Punky Nevonne.
For 10, 12, 15 years.
[Troy] I think 14 I worked for them.
Now it’s seven him. So it’s probably
only been four postal delivery people
in the history of the Salmon River
out here maybe.
[Peter] Is that an honor, Troy?
-Be one of the few?
-I feel it is.
Yeah, we honor him, dude, every day, man.
I love seeing Troy, man.
We get news from town or something.
I don’t have Facebook, Instagram, nothing.
Cops were all over yesterday,
Fish and Game and sh*t,
I don’t know what was going on.
They’re out here
doing last minute hunting stuff.
I guess six people shot at the dummy deer.
Methodist Creek
they had it for a little bit.
-A few people shot at a mechanical buck.
-They set up a dummy deer?
-They catch people?
-It moves and sh*t, yeah. [laughs]
[Troy] Catch poachers.
-That’s what they were doing out here.
-Yeah.
And then the random bear hunters.
There’s still some people who like
to poach for gallbladders and stuff.
[Troy] Yeah, it’s unfortunate.
-A lot of bucks right now.
-Right on.
-Take care, troy.
-Right on.
We’ll see ya, drive safe.
-See you tomorrow.
-You know it, dude. You know it.
That’s Troy, man. He’s a lifeline, man.
Simple life like that, you know,
Troy does the mail.
Comes out here every day,
gets to interact.
He’s just happy to be here, you know?
[Peter] Tory’s digging it if he wants
his solitude and just to drive.
So that’s what it is,
guarantee of the US Postal Service?
-Like everyone gets service?
-Yep.
Our phone service is Siskiyou Telephone.
They’re one of the last privately-owned
telephone companies in the country
but they’ve been out here since 1800s
and they beam our signal from Etna
with these huge archaic
dishes from the ’40s
onto the mountain to a repeater,
to another mountain to a repeater.
Then it comes down, we have a phone
for like a mile in Cecilville
and then that’s it.
Two of our neighbors
still have the crank phones
with wire running through the trees.
That’s all wilderness right there. You can
drive down this little road right here.
This is what the road’s like
for about 30 miles, cliffy, one lane.
You gotta stay on
the right hand side of the road
and the person on the cliff
side has the right of way.
-No guardrails.
-Nope.
Many people overshoot these turns?
Oh yeah, look down here.
There’ll be some cars
on the right hand side.
-Oh, no way.
-Yeah, check this out.
I think there’s an old car
from the ’50s right here.
This one spot then
there’s a car from two years ago
right about here there’s a car from…
-Oh, now way!
-Yeah.
-Wow, okay.
-There’s another car down there too.
Our other friend, John.
He’ll park over here.
I’ll pull over here
’cause it’s a bad blind.
Our friend John went off the road here,
boom, drunk as a skunk.
Right here.
Wakes up in the morning time
upside down on the roof of his car.
Drunk, no idea where he is.
He went off the cliff
right here and lived.
Nobody goes off the cliff here and lives
but John did.
You know, it’s a kinda shame, the people
that are the drunkest, they live
when they go off the road here
but the people that are sober,
they die or get hurt.
This is a one chance road. This road,
this’ll teach you respect right away.
Like R-E-S-P-E-C stop, man ’cause you
are gonna die if you go off here.
-If not, you’re lucky.
-Yeah.
Little tiny tree’ll stop a big truck.
This guy, he went off and died
two years ago.
I have people come in the saloon,
“Hey, there’s a car off the edge.”
Then we mobilize and go looking
and they’d be like, “It’s that car.”
It’s the same car
so someone put a cone on it.
Even with the cone on it
I had someone come in
like a month ago, like,
“Hey, there’s a car off the edge.”
I was like, “Is there a cone on it?”.
and they’re like, “Yeah.” I’m like,
“You think the cone got put there
or do you think it rolled on top?”
[laughs]
[Monk] We’re like a magnet
and a gravitational pull
for outlaws out here.
-Right, ’cause the guy we just met with,
he didn’t want to be on-camera.
No.
-But he was a character.
-Yeah.
He’s definitely a character, an outlaw,
and everyone’s kinda
like outlaw out here.
Outlaw spirit, have outlaw traits
but we get criminals from the outside area
and they think they’re
gonna hide out here
or get away if they’re wanted
somewhere else but it’s like
first off, you’re not a survivalist.
You’re wanted for some weird stuff
out in the town or city.
So you’re gonna come out here
and last for a couple days
and you’re gonna run out of resources.
Then you gotta look at it,
you’re in the middle of nowhere,
out of gas, food, clothes, you think
you’re gonna break into one of our cabins?
Then we’re gonna have to go looking
for you with a shotgun door to door.
Then we’re gonna find you, then
what do you want us to do to you now
that you’ve done all this criminality?
Thinking you were gonna come to
our little community and hide out.
You’re not.
We’re gonna notice you right away.
You’re gonna stand out like a sore thumb.
Anyone who comes in my saloon
or comes around, the first thing is,
“Hey, how you doing, where you from?”
If they don’t answer that,
they’re standoffish,
it’s either pride or they’re doing
some aspect they shouldn’t be doing.
Most people are like,
“Oh, I’m from so and so.”
and I get a good read on people
within like a minute.
Like seconds even usually.
This is our community center
that’s in need of a paint job.
We don’t have the funding right now
in the community to do the paint job.
That’s our hose company back there.
‘Cause it’s all the same people.
That’s why we need more people
’cause it’s always the same 25 of us
that have time to do work.
So out of the 25 of us
10 of us under 55, no one under 35.
People that are over that can’t be doing
laborious work like this.
Scraping a building, or doing work,
or donating money.
They’re fixed incomes
and so it’s always the same.
The ten of us, it’s the same
four or five of us out of that ten
and we have to regulate when there’s
a fire or a criminal coming in town.
It’s like I’m tired of regulating
people that come in here
from out of the area.
‘Cause that’s what happens.
I’ll have to regulate. They’ll come in my
saloon, I’ll catch them stealing something
or a neighbor
will call me up and be like,
“We saw some sketchy guy coming
out of our barn.” and then…
-Does that happen often?
-Once every couple years, you know?
Yeah, it does. We take care of them.
We stopped calling the cops.
We’ll put you in the truck.
You just tie ’em up,
put ’em in the back of the truck?
We usually don’t need
to tie up at that point
when you have a bunch of big dudes
you kinda get compliant real quick.
So you put ’em in the back of the truck
but you guys take ’em out?
Yeah, then we take you out.
Maybe we have a truck behind our truck
and another truck in front of our truck
and we do a convoy
and there’s six or eight of us.
Depends on how criminal you want to be
or how bad you think you are
compared to us.
Sometimes it’s just two or three of us
or two of us.
We’ve had to take charge
of the situation at hand, you know?
And have the upper hand
so we go home at night with our families.
-Is someone living out here?
-Yeah, these guys are awesome.
They’ve been here since the old days.
Good family, good friends,
awesome people.
Have incredible parties
for a week long, music, fun, food.
That’s our Burning Man.
[dog barks]
[Peter] That dog is huge.
-Yeah, he’s an Irish something.
He’s massive.
What’s up, buddy?
[barking]
All right, go home. Go home.
He’ll probably follow us up there.
-Where are we going?
-We’re gonna go to this
historic ranch I got years ago.
It’s when the gold miners
and pioneers first came over from the hill
Pretty idyllic
and this beautiful working meadow ranch
caught fire two and a half years ago
but it’s still pretty darn cool.
The nearest neighbor’s about
mile and a half, two miles away.
My other friends we just passed there.
-So you got this from an old rancher?
I got it from…
Well I got it from this guy, Jim,
who had it for 20 years
but I wanted to buy it
from the old rancher who had it
but he wouldn’t sell it to me
’cause we were too hippie he thought.
He didn’t want us growing up here.
They had a note on the property
and they carried a little bit
of leftover for us for a minute.
Anyway at the end.
They were friends of ours too.
They were good community members.
This is a hand-hewn log cabin
they built in the 1860s.
The first cabin they built
on the hill on the right hand side.
It was in a cold spot.
They immediately moved.
[Peter] Oh, this is special up here.
1860 you said?
[Monk] Yeah, about 1860s.
[Peter] Oh, wow.
So what do you want to do with this place?
-Man, so this place was in its glory
not too long ago.
I’d like to get a family or some people
living up here homesteading.
-Oh, yeah?
-Yeah.
[Peter] Look at that, hot tub potential.
Fuels reduction work from the fire
to do post-fire cleanup.
The place, I had it dialed in,
everything’s green, irrigated,
set it back up.
We were about to do fencing
and get some Scottish highlands
or something up here.
Then start building some other cabins.
We had some sites cleaned out
and then the forest fire came
and kind of set it through the ringer.
This plywood’s up for the bear.
I put plywood over the windows
’cause the bears
non-stop harassment issue.
-So you want someone to live out here
and buy it or just live out here?
-No, live out here.
You gotta homestead, gotta ranch,
keep up the place.
-But they live for free?
-Yeah, live for free.
Then potential to maybe purchase
another place we have out here.
Be part of the community
and purchase a spot.
-Okay.
So what I’m gathering is your thought
process behind that, maybe it’s financial
but maybe it’s more because
people are getting old and dying off
and if that happens
no one’s gonna be out here.
-You want some people out here?
-Yeah.
And if it’s not this
place it’s another place
’cause this place I’d like to move up to
and get out of town in Cecilville.
-It’s getting a little busy down there?
-Little townie, you know?
That’s the thing,
we have so many of these properties.
Many of them will work
and they’re all interconnected
what we use them for, you know?
This is a great spot to raise animals on,
not so good to grow food on long term
’cause it’s higher elevation, 4,000 feet.
-Yeah, for the right person,
or couple, or family.
-This is a dream come true.
-Oh, yeah.
So that’s what it was?
Yeah, that’s right here.
It’ll be that again,
just take a little work, you know?
Not much work.
You know, that’s what happened.
See those flames?
Those are 150 foot tall trees.
-That’s coming up, a massive fire.
-That’s scary.
-Geez.
-Coming at it.
That’s pre-fire right there.
Yeah, that’s in the meadow right there.
We’ll get it back to that.
We’ll see who this is.
Oh, these could be the Glacier Boys.
Oh, it’s Gene.
Hey, what’s up, Gene?
This is my boy, Gene.
-Did you buy the road?
-How you doing?
-I did, man. You notice?
Can we go through?
You know, let me think about it, Gene.
How old are you?
[laughter]
83, I’ll run a deal, anybody under 60
can go free but under 60
you have to move a little firewood
or do something, dance.
-What’s up, brother.
-How you doing?
-Good, man.
-I’m Peter.
Nice to meet you.
-What is it?
-Peter.
-Gene.
-He’s got a sick ranch spot up the road.
Gene, you got a nice place?
He’s 83, used to be
the water master too of California
or Sacramento.
I was head of the water program
for Northern California.
You run the rodeo too in Sacramento.
Still am, Redding.
Run the Redding rodeo.
-This is the California
nobody knows about, right?
Well apparently
they’re gonna find out about it now.
[Monk] The good thing is they can’t
live here, they can come through here
but there ain’t nowhere for them
to buy, live, or stay, you know?
-Was very much for sale.
Not even an Airbnb out here
so much as anything.
-So you grew up out here?
-Well I grew up in the Burney area.
-Okay.
-But I was in the Caribou Lakes in 1952
and told the scout master,
“Man, I’d like to have a cabin
down in that canyon someday.”
65 years later I got one.
Uh-huh, you did.
Gene built a really sweet spread up there.
-I’m making a video of Monk today.
Do you guys find Monk interesting?
-Of course.
There’s only one Monkey.
-Is it Monkey up in these parts?
-Yeah.
Guy that was hollering at everybody,
“Get that pump running.”
“We got a fire to fight here.”
Pulling hose, yeah, he took over
and did a good job.
Yeah, Monkey Monk.
It was Monkey for years and years.
So then one day it was like,
“Hey, Monkey Monk.”
I was like my nick name has a last name?
-I don’t normally follow
some long-haired sonofab*tch
but I’ll follow Monkey.
Yeah, you call me a hippie
or a redneck, Gene, what do you think?
A hip– redneck.
-You call me a redneck?
-You act hippie but you’re a redneck.
[laughs]
Or I could act redneck but I’m a hippie.
Do you like Trump?
Me, I don’t sway to any political party
because I’m a business owner, you know?
I can’t jeopardize the welfare
of my high-profiting business
in Cecilville.
As I say, you gotta have
a lot of pomp and gumption
and a good rebuttal, you know?
That’s about it in life.
You getting your place
cleaned up from the fire?
Yeah, slowly,
we were just up there at the ranch.
I got a grant coming in
for some fields reduction.
We’re doing mastication work
on it right now.
We had a Forest Service ranger
come in yesterday.
He was looking for somebody
cutting cedar illegally or something.
Oh, yeah?
Yeah, okay.
I told him, “I think you’re probably
not gonna find anything up here
because we’ve already cut
all this cedar out.”
Yeah, we already got this.
His name’s Roach, good guy.
Yeah, just had hunting season end
and now it’s local traffic only.
So if you’re around tonight
we’re gonna have some beers.
You were around, how is mining these days?
We didn’t do that good.
We…
Somebody’d been in there mining
during the ban.
-Pulled out a good amount of lead,
bit of mercury.
You know, reclamation mining
for people, public lands,
and we got enough to pay for everything
to put a bit of money in our pockets.
But we didn’t get what we wanted.
Never have got what we wanted.
-What are you mining for, gold?
-Yeah.
I don’t know any rich gold miners.
-We are mining to rid the stream
of lead and mercury.
-Yes.
-Improving the fish beds.
-To get the precious metals.
-Improving the streams.
-Mm-hmm.
Can anyone go out and prospect
on the river or what’s that story?
This is almost all claimed.
So you need the permission
of the claim owner.
Or you have to claim it.
You can prospect
but you can’t recreational dredge
but you can prospect with pan and pick.
But on something
that’s not claimed by someone else.
-Okay.
Or claimed over.
-If you look you’ll see
this whole river is claimed.
You can go on any claim you just can’t
interfere with mining operations.
So this is claimed as a mining claim.
You can still go recreate,
and have fun, and camp on it.
You just can’t actively mine it.
If someone’s mining you’re supposed to
give them space ’cause it is their claim.
You can still swim
in the river in the area.
Being a claim,
does that mean they own the land or…
[all] Mineral rights.
-Mineral rights? Interesting.
-The rights to mine the minerals.
You can still go in and camp,
like Monkey says,
you can’t interfere with their operations.
But you can camp on their place,
you can fish, you can swim.
-Do just a few people
own the mineral rights
or a lot of people have their claims
-Quite a few claimants in here.
Lots of people from out of the area,
mining clubs even
there’s people Sacramento.
Yeah, there’s people that just keep
claiming but they never come up here.
They don’t know
they have a claim hardly.
-Bookkeepers doing the paper.
-Well Monkey, you’re looking good.
Not bad for someone
that’s gonna get
a disc replaced in
their neck in two weeks.
I got severe degenerative disc disease.
They want to go in through my throat,
take out a disc, put cadaver bone in,
put a titanium plate.
Should I get it or not?
-C five, six, and seven.
-I’m so nervous.
That long hair’s
taking nutrients out of your body.
I think it’s all that fertilizer
I’ve been eating.
[laughter]
I need to drink more bleach
to even it out.
-I never did drink it.
-Yeah.
-You know why Monkey likes me?
-Why?
Because until I got here
he could buy anybody.
I had some land down river
and he wanted it
So he came up one day
and I’m working on the cabin.
I did.
-He flipped $40,000 cash.
-I did.
He says, “Here.”
I said, “Naw, it’s not for sale.”
First time he had anybody turn him down.
[laughter]
You know Monkey changed my view.
I used to hate
marijuana growers and whatnot
and I realized after
I met Monkey that you know what,
you can grow and still be a good person.
[Peter] Oh, that’s cool.
-That’s cool.
-And that’s the truth.
Gene’s a good guy, man.
This guy rented a helicopter
and found his good friend’s son that died
in Wyoming was it?
Idaho, yeah.
I said anybody that’ll do that
has gotta be a good man.
Thanks, Gene.
Means a lot coming from you.
-I remember that.
-That was a good, yeah. I remember that.
That’s why I paid money
for Lem’s funeral there.
-Oh, yeah. that’s right, Lem.
Had Lem on my property, yeah.
Years, years, years.
He had a friend whose son left here
and was going to college.
-Yeah.
-Should I tell the story?
-Yeah, go for it.
And the son never showed up at college.
And so the dad got worried,
went up and the kid had disappeared.
And there was a huge snow storm.
So Monkey hired, was it Dave Everson?
-Yeah, Dave Everson, Shasta Air.
Owns the Laurel Ranch up here.
-Good friend of ours.
-Neighbor.
He hired him, he’s got a helicopter,
to fly him up to Montana
and they stopped at
the police station and the police said,
“Well…”
I don’t remember. They didn’t want to look
or half-heartedly looked for him
but wasn’t into it.
So they started flying the freeway
and roads the kid would’ve taken.
They didn’t know which road he took
and they saw a pickup
out in the timber and the kid had
gone off the road and froze to death.
He got in an accident.
But he did that for his friend.
That’s why I have
a lot of respect for that man.
So even though he
smokes marijuana,
and it’s all legal now by the way.
-Yeah.
-But he changed my mind
on a lot of things. Good man.
Anyway we gotta go somewhere.
Good to see you, Gene.
-Gene…
-Love you guys.
-See ya, Gene.
-Always a pleasure.
He’s gotta help
on the disc golf course too.
-Yeah.
Later, love you guys.
[Monk] He changed my mind
on a lot of things too.
Coming together on common ground,
him changing my mind on just his lifestyle
and the way he lives, and his thoughts
politically, and earthly, and everything.
He changed my mind too
and just kind of opened up
for me as well, you know?
-I mean that’s just cool
being accepted by the old school guy.
It’s part of being part of the community.
Being a real person.
You know, real people no matter what.
We all don’t see the same views
but we come together on certain things
and we can break bread, and hang out,
and care about each other still.
And still be friends,
and recreate, and community together.
Yeah.
That’s what life is
missing for most people.
That’s why I like it so much out here.
We’re all characters,
and Gene’s a character and a half too.
-He’s got some stories.
-I bet. You can tell.
When I shook his hand
it was 40 grit sandpaper.
-He’s a rough boy.
-Salt of the earth.
-Salt of the earth, man.
-[laughter]
[dog barks]
[Peter] That was pretty awesome.
-Cool world you’ve created.
-Thanks, man.
And for those that might want
to come out here and homestead.
-And help out…
-Yeah.
I’m gonna leave a link below.
-You’re gonna give me a link.
-I’ll give you a link, I’ll get one.
If you got some thick skin,
strong work ethic.
Drive, work ethic, yep.
No tweaking issues.
Yeah, stable mentally
and financially preferably.
-Okay.
And want a unique experience.
Life experience that you’ll never forget.
A homestead,
see if you can live off the land
or even just try
living off the land for like a year
or something, you know?
-All sorts of options, definitely.
-All right.
Link’s down below.
Awesome.
Thanks, bro. Appreciate it.
Great to have you, awesome.
-That was awesome.
-[laughter]
Thanks for coming along, guys.
Until the next one.
[mellow acoustic guitar plays]