Hippie Homesteaders: Arts, Crafts, Music and Living on the Land in West Virginia

by Carter Taylor Seaton

It’s the 1960s. The Vietnam War is raging and protests are erupting across the United States. In many quarters, young people are dropping out of society, leaving their urban homes behind in an attempt to find a safe place to live on their own terms, to grow their own food, and to avoid a war they passionately decry. During this time, West Virginia becomes a haven for thousands of these homesteaders―or back-to-the-landers, as they are termed by some. Others call them hippies. When the going got rough, many left. But a significant number remain to this day. Some were artisans when they arrived, while others adopted a craft that provided them with the cash necessary to survive.  Hippie Homesteaders  tells the story of this movement from the viewpoint of forty artisans and musicians who came to the state, lived on the land, and created successful careers with their craft. There’s the couple that made baskets coveted by the Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Gallery. There’s the draft-dodger that fled to Canada and then became a premier furniture maker. There’s the Boston-born VISTA worker who started a quilting cooperative. And, there’s the immigrant Chinese potter who lived on a commune. Along with these stories,  Hippie Homesteaders  examines the serendipitous timing of this influx and the community and economic support these crafters received from residents and state agencies in West Virginia. Without these young transplants, it’s possible there would be no The Best of West Virginia, the first statewide collection of fine arts and handcrafts in the nation, and no Mountain Stage, the weekly live musical program broadcast worldwide on National Public Radio since 1983. Forget what you know about West Virginia. Hippie Homesteaders  isn’t about coal or hillbillies or moonshine or poverty. It is the story of why West Virginia was―and still is―a kind of heaven to so many.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2014

About the author

Carter Taylor Seaton is the award-winning author of two novels, Father’s Troubles, and amo, amas, amat…an unconventional love story, numerous magazine articles, and several essays, short stories, and the non-fiction, Hippie Homesteaders: Arts, Music, and Living on the Land in West Virginia. Her biography of the late Congressman Ken Hechler, The Rebel in the Red Jeep, was released in 2017. Her chapbook, Me and MaryAnn, is a compilation of stories of her mischievous childhood and youth. In 2020, two new books will be released: We Were Legends in Our Own Minds, the memoir of her husband’s career that brought him in contact with the rock stars of the 70s and 80s and a novel, The Other Morgans. She has been a regular contributor to Huntington Quarterly Magazine for over twenty years.

Reviews

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collective biography about outsider young people who independently from each other moved to West Virginia in the 1970s to "get back to the land." Attracted by the low price of land and the stunning natural beauty of the mountains, these 20 somethings came from all over the United States and found themselves living in rickety abandoned homesteads or tepees lacking water and electricity. Many of the women became pregnant while living in these primitive conditions and there is at least one harrowing birth story that drives home the risks that this cohort willingly shouldered. Most seem to have arrived out of restlessness and dissatisfaction with the prevailing values of the country, which was embroiled in the Vietnam conflict both at home and in southeast Asia at the time. Tutored by the local elders, these resourceful newcomers managed to survive some of the fiercest winters on record, all the while learning to farm, raise animals, build homes, and create lives for themselves and the children that inevitably came.

This in-migration occurred at the same time that West Virginia born age-mates of the back-to-the-landers were leaving the state because they couldn't find employment at home. Well-educated and creative, many of these young people became artists and artisans, creating jewelry, pottery, furniture, leather work, and other crafts that allowed them to continue to live on their own terms in remote areas and sell their goods at regional and national fairs and festivals. Seaton takes particular care to describe the role of state government in encouraging this. By the 1980s the state understood that local crafts were a route to economic development and helped to subsidize the field by providing opportunities for studying, teaching, selling, and marketing their products. Anyone visiting the Tamarack Center off I-79 can see the fruit of this policy, as well as goods created by some of the individuals described in the book.

What was particularly interesting to me was how many subjects mentioned work parties and communal building projects where people would spend their weekends helping each other out. The bonds among these folks became very strong. Not within the scope of the book, but a topic for further investigation would be a discussion of the impact that this group made on their communities and state. Judy Rodd's work to preserve the Blackwater Canyon and Bob Zacher's to prevent a 760 kV powerline from crossing a state park were mentioned, but there is much more to know about how this cohort contributed to the fabric of the communities that helped them survive their naive idealism. The state gave them the chance to live on their own terms in a beautiful setting but that's not the end of the story. Meanwhile, reading this book was a pleasure, in large part because it introduced me to people who chose to live authentically, and who found help along the way from other people and from the state. In this story, the state is a positive force that invested in its people and came out the better for it. Good for West Virginia.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

this excellent summation is really rather better than anything i can say here https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
overview and group biography of 1960s-1970s back to the landers going to west virginia, many who became artists and craftspersons, or were already. smart young people trying to find a better way than the lbj nixon exxon idea of usa . while there have been some lasting organizations and changes in our culture because of this widespread 'hippie' movement, one has to be realistic and see that the 21st brand of these ideas of living, loving the land and taking care of it and trying to raise communities of cooperation and gentler exploitations of land resources and how to "make" capitalism work, or at least how to try and live a life of sustainability inside a hyper-capitalist state has not worked very well or made a very big impact. i think 'perhaps', the new same movement of the 20teens could have a great impact, maybe becuase of the power of internet and even greater dissatisfaction with hyper-cap. and climate change and all the disasters coming home to roost after 50 years of listening to dow chemical and exxon and wall st. but at same time this book is encouraging, insightful, inspiring, has great pictures, and bibliography. sort of a very focused firefox set in west vir. looking of the 1960s1970s in-migration and its 'results'

[📚Linda Blake · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am so glad Carter Seaton has written about the back to the landers who dropped out and came to West Virginia. I was aware of this phenomenon and know some of the homesteaders, but this more in depth look was very interesting. I did find myself left with more questions. For example, I would love to have seen photographs of the crafts and really wondered what some of the people look like now as they have aged.

[Larry Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delight is this record of the "back to the land" commune movement in West Virginia. Carter Taylor Seaton proves an excellent guide with a wealth of research in cultural background and a deep understanding of the people and the place. She weaves her way into the lives of these living survivors and with their help looks back over their motives in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Then she sketches in their lives since they moved to West Virginia. It was a time when the younger Appalachians were moving away, migrating for jobs, and the crafts were dying out. These newcomers...hippie in the best sense of that word...came on ready to make a new start and to learn the old crafts and arts, adapting most to their vision. It's a heartwarming story of people helping each other, and of personalities and devotion. Seaton is a lively narrator with a vivid style that allows the reader to enter the times and the lives of these men and women of a new vision of life. Highly recommended.

[Laura Bentley · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a captivating and beautifully told book about the back-to-land movement by Carter Seaton Taylor! She features 45 artisans and musicians who moved to and stayed in West Virginia during the 60s and 70s. Gifted sculptors, weavers, potters, candlemakers, musicians, basket makers, and many more found safe haven here, and they were often apprentices to master craftsmen who taught them survival skills as well as a life-long art.

From the enchanting cover and book design to the fine black & white photos included in this book, Taylor provides a wonderful window into the past. I recognized singer/songwriter Colleen Anderson and loved hearing her story about coming to West Virginia as a VISTA volunteer who helped set up Cabin Creek Quilts, a quilting cooperative, along with James Thibeault. Photographer Ric MacDowell's story is fascinating, too, and many of his stunning photographs grace the pages of this book. I was struck with something he said about the importance of "stopping"---"You can't tell yourself 'I'll come back later and take that picture because that picture is there then. It's not going to be there again.' Understanding how clearly that applies to photography has made me understand that it applies to your whole life as well."

[Meno · Rating 2 out of 5]

Any one of the artisans that Ms. Seaton profiles could (should) be the subject of a compelling biography. Unfortunately her slap-dash approach does not do justice to the individuals or their art. As a WV hippie homesteader myself, I was delighted to read about friends and acquaintances, and to meet others thru these pages, however without this personal connection, I'm not sure the writing or perfunctory analysis of the hippie homesteader phenomenon would have kept me reading. The role of the state culture and history division as well described by Ms. Seaton is to be commended.

[S.J. Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

The upheaval and unrest in the world that prompted these would be homesteaders to make a move exists today. Have you ever wanted to just quit your job, pack up and leave the evils of the world behind?
Hippie Homesteaders tells the stories of individuals who did just that. Maybe it was blissful ignorance, or just stress overload that prompted each individual to retreat to the rural areas of West Virginia.
Carter Taylor Seaton artfully explores their backgrounds, struggles, connections with like minded people and their triumphs. While reading this work I too wanted to move to a remote location in the mountains of West Virginia and leave the civilized world behind.

[Kati · Rating 2 out of 5]

This seems like a really fun book for the author to write, traveling around visiting cool old friends from across the state.

[Christy Tuohey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that tells a heretofore untold story about the "urban immigrants" who came to West Virginia to live off the land in the 1960s and 70s. As a native West Virginian of a certain age, I witnessed the influx of the back-to-landers in the state's more rural areas in the '70s. Many of those who moved to our mountains enriched our communities with their new ideas, well-honed art and craft skills and willingness to live simply and work hard. I'm so glad Carter pulled these stories together, as they provide new context for my memories of trips to the Mountain State Arts and Crafts Fair, nights spent listening to the Putnam County Pickers and later, Stark Raven Band, and many happy hours spent enjoying West Virginia Culture Center exhibits and lectures. The book also provides some detail on how Larry Groce, Andy Ridenour and company put West Virginia on the music world's radar with NPR's "Mountain Stage" and they're still providing the state--and, in fact, the world--with an eclectic mix of artists packaged in Appalachian spice and soul.

I'm not sure if readers who are unfamiliar with the state's arts and crafts heritage or the communes that sprang up in our wilderness will relate to everything written here but there is plenty of backstory for history buffs, particularly those interested in the Vietnam era and the changes the country went through in the 60s and 70s. I would love to see more books like this. I grew up with the Hippie Homesteaders in my home town of Spencer, West Virginia. I'm so glad they came to the mountains.

[Marie Manilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

HIPPIE HOMESTEADERS is a well-researched and astute cultural and political examination of the U.S. in the 1960s and ’70s. Those turbulent years led many disaffected young people to give up cushy, urban lives (or the threat of fighting in Vietnam) for the remote hills of West Virginia to live simpler lives close to the land. Admittedly naïve, many of those youth learned on the fly how to garden, build shelter, raise and slaughter animals. They also often turned to arts, crafts, and music to make a living. It was initially rough going. Through interviews with artisans who stuck it out for decades, we learn that they carried within them the same spirit as the original folks who settled these hills. HIPPIE HOMESTEADERS is a reminder to West Virginia natives of the natural beauty we often overlook. It also affirms the helpful, big-hearted nature of Appalachian people. Back-to-the-landers would not have survived without older locals who not only provided aid, but taught these youngsters the skills they would need to survive. It was reciprocal: back-to-the-landers drank in the elders’ knowledge and skills that their own children, who had fled for work or urban adventures, seemed disinterested in. This book is a celebration of the free-spirit, artisan mindset and the state that embraced and nurtured them.

[Phyllis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This well researched review of the 1970s era "back-to-the-land" movement in West Virginia is a welcome addition to works about the history of the state.

Back in the day, many artistic hippies and peaceniks wanted "out" of the turmoil in the more cosmopolitian areas of the nation. A slew of the best and brightest opted for a rural, yet artistic, life.

Their search led them to inexpensive land in West Virginia. West Virginia benefited from their arrival and they benefited from life in many West Virginia counties.

Intent on living off the land and living their own dreams,they evenutally added a new dimension to the state's homespun artistic scene.

The author, an artist in her own right, knows the people of this book. Her numerous visits with them and her interviews are spot on.

I found this book fascinating and well written.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the stories of the individuals, but they were recollections of almost 50 years prior, so the interviewees skim over story of their young lives in West Virginia. I think I wanted the nitty-gritty details of how the hippies figured out how to live in the wilderness when most of them were not prepared to live off the land and this book doesn't provide that.

[David Gray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting profiles but repetitive and too many generalizations about the historical period.