CTLST *
THE OPEN ROAD ISSUE
*SPARK. COLLABORATION. ACTION
2016 / ISSUE NO 0
We find ourselves at a crossroads – yet again.
Which means that we will have to evolve our thinking, as a society or as individuals, and reconsider the paths we take in an effort to bring about the kind of change we believe is necessary in this world. My daughter Tess (our middle child) turned 20 years old this February and I invited her to join me for a few days at our place near Joshua Tree. I had planned to attend ‘Desert & Denim’, a denim and garment tradeshow hosted at one of the area’s recently renovated motels – a harbinger of the new wave of creative professionals flocking to the Morengo Valley, which runs along the northern edge of Joshua Tree National Park. This tribe of frontier people come equipped with brand savvy and digital equipment, capable of launching their crowdfunded idea from anywhere, anytime. I have to disclose that I recently acquired a windswept five acre parcel in the region myself, including a derelict 1950’s homestead cabin in need of some TLC (i.e. walls, windows and basic plumbing) and a funky trailer. To me it’s heaven, and I know Tess shares my love of the open skies and rustic living. Sadly, she and I haven’t had much of a meaningful relationship in the past years. I sensed an opportunity to lure her away to some much needed one-on-one time in the form of a weekend at the trailer and maybe some live music at the local watering hole. The day before we left it occurred to me that I could possibly extend my trip beyond the two nights, since I had no pressing business and I sensed that an extended stay could do wonders for our strained relationship. As we were leaving I asked my daughter to pack some extra clothes and I loaded up some additional gear, provisions, and fishing poles. –
To make a long story short, my daughter and I (along with her Pit Husky mix, River) ended up embarking on a spontaneous 3 week road trip through the glorious plains, mountains, and canyons of California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. We ended up covering about 2700 miles, never using the same stretch of road twice. We slept under the open skies, in cabins or motels, even spent the night in a traditional Navajo hogan. We’d stay off the beaten path and since this is not tourist season we had most sites to ourselves. We had the good fortune to re-calibrate, tune-in, hold space for each other, sharing our challenges and goals, and in the process regain some of the trust and understanding that had so evidently eroded over the last years. This trip has been eye-opening in many ways. What stays with me the most is an echo of the ancient ways of the Native American people and cultures that we have so sadly marginalized. I have gained more clarity about the importance of pursuing one’s purpose and passions. The personal collection of observations contained in these pages is a first step in sharing a new vision which is part of a larger vision: CTLST* [catalyst] – a collaborative platform – creating space to share ideas and facilitate dialogue. (The *asterisk symbolizes the spark.) More than ever, there is an urgency to prioritize our needs as a society and to pursue lower impact lifestyles, based on a more localized and less wasteful use of resources. If this pre-issue of CTLST* inspires you to embark on a road trip or journey of your own, I’d like to hear from you and share your story. – And so it starts. With love & gratitude, Urs Baur
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Tess Angelica contemplating the road ahead La Copine, Flamingo Heights, CA
OPEN TO ANYTH PRETTY
MUCH
HING
“Nothing behind me, ever so on the road.�
everything ahead of me, as is - Jack Kerouac, On the Road
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1. Los Angeles (Topanga Canyon) 2. Joshua Tree 3. Amboy 4. Lake Havasu 5. Jerome 6. Sedona 7. Flagstaff 8. Chinle, Canyon De Chelly National Monument 9. Four Corners Monument 10. Durango 11. Moffat 12. Great Sand Dunes National Park
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CA CA CA AZ AZ AZ AZ AZ Navajo Nation CO CO CO
13. Taos 14. Chaco Culture National Historical Park 15. Moab 16. Salt Lake City 17. Bonneville Salt Flats 18. Winnemucca 19. Healdsburg 20. Cloverdale 21. Santa Ynez
NM NM UT UT UT NV CA CA CA
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5 ACRES OF HEAVEN
Our 5 acre homestead, Flamingo Heights, CA
In 1938 the U.S. Congress passed the Mini Homestead Act dividing large swaths of government owned land in the Mojave Desert into 5 acre parcels which made it possible for the common person to file a claim on one of the lots for as little as $10 down. As long as they improved the property within 2 years (a cabin with a footprint of at least 200 Sq. ft. was deemed sufficient), the claim became permanent. However, it wasn’t until after WWII that a growing number of returning veterans flocked to the area around 29 Palms in the Morongo Valley, their dreams of land ownership fueled by the booming economy, a new found sense of mobility, romantic notions of owning a slice of the last western frontier and the promise of the ‘healing desert air’. Many of the structures they built have since been abandoned or razed. But recently a new wave of urbanites with similar ambitions are buying up these relatively affordable remaining Jack Rabbit Homesteads (as they’re referred to) and thus redefining 21st century homesteading.
WASTED.
What a society considers waste, speaks volumes about its values at a point in time. – Objects found in the desert around Yucca Mesa, CA
DESERT & Filmmaker (and neighbor) Leslie Satterfield in her element at the Desert & Denim tradeshow, hosted by the good folks at Juniper Ridge. – The Mojave Sands Motel, Joshua Tree, CA desertanddenim.juniperridge.com lesliesatterfield.com
Beau Lawrence of Ace Rivington - sustainable denim from Italy
The Swearengen Pant by Indigo Fera Jeans of Sweden
& DENIM
Juniper Ridge founder and host Hall Newbegin & friend
Stevenson Overall Co. - A U.S. – Japanese revival of a classic
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Classic Route 66, – Amboy, CA
Evidence of impermanence
and fragments of dreams can be encountered everywhere in the desert.
Bungalow #4, – Roy’s Motel, Amboy, CA
Decay as Canvas.
Crumbling systems and structures have always drawn artists who can see the inherent beauty in decay and in it find a canvas upon which to layer their ideas and commentary – creating a dialogue with the past.
Art installation by Swiss Artist Jerome Massart, Bungalow #1 (klat.ch), – Roy’s Motel, Amboy CA
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Sitting high atop Cleopatra Mountain in Yavapai County, AZ, Jerome is a lively artist colony billed as a Ghost Town – Miners, gamblers and outlaws flocked here when gold and copper were discovered in the late 19th century. Saloons and houses of ill repute sprung up as a way for savvy entrepreneurs to get a cut of the miners’ hard earned share of the riches. In its heyday, Jerome was home to 15,000 souls but when gold and copper deposits dwindled they left in droves – apparently all but 50. No matter where you look, the Wild West seems to lurk just beneath the surface of modern life. It’s clear that the people we celebrate today for their achievements and great fortunes, were initially like all the others: Adventurers, gamblers fortune seekers – only a bit tougher, maybe less scrupulous, or perhaps just luckier.
GAMB ENTRE
If these bricks could talk – One of the former brothels, Jerome, AZ
BLERS, OUTLAWS AND EPRENEURS ( OR ALL OF THE ABOVE )
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RANDOM ACTS OF INJUSTICE
One cannot travel through this country for any given length of time without reflecting on the darker chapters of our country’s history on the path to becoming the land of the free. Take for example this tiny dot, (in the image on the right) the size of a mole on this vast landscape, marking the point where all four states, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico, touch. It appears completely arbitrary and seems to fly in the face of a way of life and collective wisdom of the people who came before us. What is it with colonizing powers and their need to settle political disputes with dots and straight lines? In the Four Corners region one can still observe the ripples caused by past injustices comitted against the Native Peoples. After they were brutally decimated and incarcerated, they were resettled in this region – which struck me as one of the most underserved and economically challenged areas I’ve seen anywhere in the United States.
After The Long Walk and the Navajo imprisonment at Bosque Redondo, the U.S. Government resettled the Navajos to the Four Corners region, which today is home to several semi-autonomous Native American nations.
The quadripoint, demarcation of four U.S. States – Four Corners Monument, Navajo Nation
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37.9989° N,
Enjoying the morning coffee –
105.9100° W ( WHERE THE BUFFALO ROAMED. )
The dust kicked up by the bison that roamed the plains has long since settled – near Moffat, Saugache County, CO
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Go big or go home.
Hooper, home of the Colorado Gator Farm, the UFO Watchtower and some pretty awesome road signs – Hooper, CO.
Ahh, that new day smell...
I wished I could have traded her sense of smell to get the full range of olfactory sensations River was experiencing that morning as we greeted a crisp new day in the ‘coldest valley in Colorado’ – Natural Hot Springs, near Moffat, CO
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ANIMALS X-ING
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GNI-X SNAMUH
Who’s encroaching on whom? – Great Sand Dunes National Park, near Alamosa CO
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From Navajo HOOGHAN
A hogan is the primary, traditional dwelling of the Navajo people. A hogan can be round, cone-shaped, multisided, or square; timber or stone walls and packed with earth; the door always facing east to welcome the rising sun for good wealth and fortune.
According to the Library of Congress, this image shows “The evolution of the hogan” – but I’m not sure what we’re looking at.
Traditional hogans are models of energy efficient homes. Packed mud walls, natural air flow, and water sprinkled on the dirt floor on hot summer days provide natural temperature control.
During our stay at this 100-year-old Navajo hogan, overnight temperatures dipped into the low 20’s while we enjoyed the warmth and glow of the roaring fire inside. Howard, the owner and our host, explained that you can tell the age of a hogan by the size of the timber used in its construction. Apparently, today you couldn’t find Pinon pines of this size anywhere in the state of Arizona. This one was built by his great uncle as a home to raise his family.
Spider Rock Campground, Canyon De Chelly, National Monument, Chinle, AZ – Navajo Nation
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SECRETS OF THE
CHACO
The remains of an ancient civilization dating back to 900 AD – left: Pieces of pottery still dot the sacred site. (We left them behind) Chaco Culture National Historic Park, NM
PEOPLE
The ruins of largest village in the canyon – Pueblo Bonito. Chaco Canyon, NM
THEY CALLED THEMSELVES THE PEOPLE Archeologists refer to the ancient people of the rock as the ‘Anasazis’ or ‘the ancient ones’. The people of Chaco Canyon, forefathers to the pueblo peoples and the nomadic Navajos and Ute people “would have likely referred to themselves as the people, as their land and their life was their world“, argues anthropologist Kendrick Frazier in his seminal book The People of Chaco. Prior to this trip I had never heard of Chaco Canyon, nor was I aware of archeological finds of this scale anywhere in North America. I knew of scattered evidence of pueblo dwellings throughout the Four Corners region. Mesa Verde and Taos Pueblo most prominently, and we saw some remains of ancient masonry tucked away in low lying cliffs in Canyon De Chelly – but the number and sophistication of the pueblos we encountered here, quite simply blew our minds. At the end of an 18 mile dirt and gravel road, Chaco Culture National Historical Park stretches for about six miles and contains the remains of about six or seven villages and ceremonial sites dating back to about 900 AD. All were joined by a network of roads that extended hundreds of miles beyond in every direction, connecting the main villages of Chaco with outlying great houses and other ceremonial sites. At its height Chaco must have served as a cultural, economic and spiritual center for tribes and travelers from all corners of
the continent. Since there exists no written history about life, culture and beliefs of the Chaco people, much about their way of life remains a mystery. But evidently historians agree that by 1140 AD the collapse of the Chaco system was well underway. Archeologists suspect that a 50-year drought altered the conditions in a way that made the Chaco way of life unsustainable and forced the community to abandon these sacred sites. Many Chacoan would take up more mobile, less centralized lifestyles, with more emphasis on hunting and gathering and a tendency to live in smaller, less formalized groups. Again, Kendrick Frazier suggests that they likely accepted their fate quite pragmatically and incorporated the new realities into their world view: “The realization that this [the change in climate] might be a fortuitous time to change would, I think, very likely be accommodated into Chacoan religious view. Just as ritual shapes life and provides permanence, the need to modify patterns of life would stimulate changes in the content of the ceremonial message. Now was the preordained time for the people of Chaco to alter their social system, move on, and try something a little different.” – An eerie reminder that denial will likely not resolve the water shortages we face in our great cities of the Southwest and that we may try to alter our own narrative and incorporate some new thinking into the stories we tell.
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THE FASTEST PLACE ON Frankly, the I-80 from Salt Lake City to the California border was the most monotonous, most uninspiring,
stretch of road during the entire journey. Arguably, the most exciting thing east of the UT/NV state line are the Bonneville Salt Flats, the Bonneville Speedway in particular, a densely packed salty surface, residue of the Pleistocene (or very, very old) Lake Bonneville and the largest of many salt flats located west of the Great Salt Lake – but really, and most importantly: The absolute World Land Speed record (the highest speed achieved by a person in a vehicle on land) was clocked here in 1997 at a respectable 760 mph.
The Bonneville Salt Flats, UT
EARTH
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IN THE
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OF THE
NEON LIGHTS
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Winnemucca has the largest concentration of Basque people outside their home region and apparently the “highest Basque dining opportunities per capita” (huh?) according to the city’s official website. Large neon signs lure truckers and travelers to the many motels, casinos and brothels that have been welcoming patrons since the times of the gold rush. – Winnemucca, NV
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OMA After the arid deserts, the windswept plains, the still snow packed mountains and the vast monotonous stretches of Nevada’s Great Basin region, our stops in Sonoma and Mendocino felt like a feast for the senses. Above: our good friend Carey Campbell, filmmaker, herbalist and manager at SHED, Healdsburg’s posh spot for all things good food and good life. – Healdsburg, CA
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CREATURE
While the most prized treasures of Sonoma and Mendocino County come bottled and corked, exploring the many vintage and thrift stores in the area can unearth some gems you never knew you couldn’t live without. – Cloverdale, CA
Comforts
The open road has long been a potent catalyst for introspection and inspiration. – arguably even before there were roads.
Unambiguously, change in perspective brings a change in perception. Perception of certain truths, beliefs and fears we may have held for too long. The authors hope to provide some impetus by compiling these impressions and observations. Take a left turn where you would normally take a right. Take the long way home – short cuts are overrated. Only by venturing out into the world can we affect the change we seek at home, in our own lives, our communities, and the world.
TAKE T H E LONG W A Y HOME & SHARE: #CTLST.co
CTLST *
CTLST.co hello@ctlst.co 1111 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd. Topanga CA 90290
Thank you – to the many beautiful people we met on the road who showed us tremendous generosity and hospitality – we hope we can reciprocate one day – and to the team back home that kept things running on all fronts while we got to indulge, explore and discover.
* TSLTC
0 ON EUSSI / 6102
EUSSI DAOR NEPO EHT
N O I T C A . N O I TA R O B A L L O C . K R AP S *
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