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Wilderness Homesteading and the Patriot Act

 by R. B. Salter

The author's Colorado compound

When my partner and I sold our renovated Victorian home in a small Colorado resort town and moved to our dream wilderness homestead parcel in a more remote part of the state we had no idea we were about to run headlong into the “War On Terror” and the “USA  Patriot Act”.

 We watched our fine little Colorado mining town, where we had lived for eight years, grow more and more like a city with each passing year. The traffic, crowds and congestion were not what we were looking for in a “small town” setting.  As we began to discuss our eventual departure from that place we were drawn toward a homesteading life, off the grid and far from any crowded resort towns or stifling cities.  We worked hard on renovation of our old Victorian house, and when it was finally sold we realized a fair profit and set about reinvesting those funds in a new life way off the grid in a wilderness setting surrounded by National Forest in one of the least developed areas remaining in Colorado.

 Compared to where we had just come from, the price of land in the wilderness setting we had found was very reasonable.  Without a great deal of detailed investigation, we eagerly purchased the wild parcel and began the hard work of establishing a wilderness homestead.  A small dirt track led to and through the private “in holding” we had purchased within the surrounding National Forest lands. We, and no doubt many other users of the local public lands assumed that the dirt track leading to our place was a National Forest System Road. After all, seven miles back out to the nearest paved road there were public lands signs and the gravel road that headed south toward our place even had a name and a sign post. Our little dirt track though actually branched off the main “System Road” and headed to the west for the final three miles to our homestead. 

 Very early in the homestead process, we picked up a National Forest map for our area and after some initial confusion, we realized that our little dirt track road did not appear on the map. We figured out where on the map our road split off from the main gravel road, but there was no sign of any type of road or trail there at all.  That was our first hint that we were living in a very unique land status situation.  We put the map aside for a while and dove into the clearing and grubbing and shelter building that life in a wilderness setting requires. 

 Before we got too involved in the building from the ground up of a wilderness homestead, we knew we needed to set up a new address to carry on business attachments with the outside world.  We set off one day to establish a new address through a post office box at the nearest office of the U.S. Mail in the closest town, about 14 miles away.  The nice people at the postal office said, “No problem, what’s your physical address?”  We quickly produced topographic maps and legal descriptions from a deed to establish for the postal authorities who and where we were.  “Well,” they said, “That’s all fine, but under certain provisions of the USA Patriot Act, we are prevented from renting post office boxes to individuals who do not have a physical address given and recognized by the local government authority.” While we were a bit taken aback by this revelation, we did need to get our mail to where we were now, and so we sought guidance on how to get an address from the county we lived in.  We were told to go the Land Use Department at the county courthouse about 15 miles away and they would assign us an address.

 On the way to the county seat we decided to set up a checking account in a local bank. Once again the bank personnel were courteous and we began the process of setting up a small account.  Eventually as she pecked at her computer keyboard, the bank lady came to a now familiar question, “What is your physical address?”.  We showed her the maps and the deed and we saw from the sadness in her face that she felt she couldn’t help us. “I’m sorry,” she said, “but under the USA Patriot Act we cannot open a checking or savings account for individuals unless they have a valid address from the local government authorities.” It became obvious that we needed to get an address.

The road that doesn't exist!

Silently we rode on toward the county land use offices. Wilderness homesteading had gotten a bit harder than we expected. At the courthouse, more courteous people greeted us and began to look at our maps and deed. Finally the county land use administrator, scratched his head and said, “Well… the thing is, no one ever lived out there before… uh, and the county doesn’t maintain that road, and couldn’t afford to anyway, and we can’t give you emergency services, uh,… and we just don’t have an address we can give you! I’m sorry! Maybe,” he suggested, “The Forest Service will let you use their numerical designation for this road as a location for your place and you can get a post office box at least with that.” 

 It seemed that this might be our only option to become recognized as regular American citizens with rights to postal service and a bank account.  Thus we proceeded over to the local U.S. Forest Service Ranger District. At the front desk, another courteous man listened to our story and said, ”Show me which road we’re talking  about here on the Forest Map.”  Remember the Forest Map I mentioned earlier, the one that shows nothing where our road ought to be.  As you might have guessed, the absence of a road on that official Forest Map did not bode well for us.  “Yes,” the District Ranger said, “We know that road is there, uh… but in our last Forest Plan, that road and several other two tracks out in your area were determined to be below the standards set for a public road on the National Forests, uh… and we don’t claim them and don’t suggest that people use them, and relevant to your interests,… there is no numerical designation for it! I’m sorry.”

 And so we found ourselves adrift in a sea of bureaucratic ambiguity, unable to secure even the most basic of services required to be part of the American culture and economy  We had no intention though of giving up on our wilderness homestead dreams

 What can a citizen do if they find themselves denied access to services and support that most Americans take for granted. We thought long and hard about this question.  It seemed fundamentally unfair in a country such as ours for citizens to be penalized for taking responsibility for their own housing, water, and power needs, independent of any government assistance. There certainly was a time in this country’s history when self reliance and a willingness to carve a life from wilderness was the norm, and was even encouraged by the government.  Now it seems we have reached a place in our nations evolution where laws intended to protect all citizens such as the USA Patriot Act, are actually discriminating against certain citizens who choose to live outside of the present norm.

 My partner and I rallied to face our distracters, and find a way to slide around the USA Patriot Act. We traveled thirty miles to a little bit larger town, one that had one of those private rent a mailbox places.  Yes they too needed a government recognized physical address, but it didn’t have to be where you lived now, it could be anywhere in the U.S. that you could receive mail.  My partner quickly offered her parents address where she had indeed received mail on occasion.  That was good enough for the private mailbox people, and we had a physical address, the location of the mailbox rental place.  We were on the way to being recognized as real American citizens.  On the way home we went into another bank to attempt to establish an account.  We found success again, and a checking account was established.  We finally were legitimate, more or less, and could turn our attention to the real physical work of building a wilderness homestead from the ground up. There were tepees and cabins and solar arrays and water systems to construct, and we finally could get mail and write a check, and the nation’s security had not been harmed by us doing these things at all.

 We chose this wilderness homestead life, and we knew there would be difficulties, but we did not imagine in our wildest dreams that we would face such hardship in simply attaining a mailing address and a checking account.  We still are not allowed to register to vote because the county doesn’t recognize our address status, but fortunately this denial of fundamental rights can wait to be addressed as there are no candidates for any office anywhere that we would vote for right now anyway.

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