Morningstar Commune, (Morning Star Ranch, The Digger Farm),
was an active open land counterculture commune in (Occidental) Sebastopol
near San Francisco. Morningstar was part of the historical changing society
of young adults in the 1960's that traveled back and forth between the
Haight-Ashbury and Sebastopol.
Lou Gottlieb After a brief stint reviewing concerts for
the "San Francisco Chronicle," moved to Morning Star Ranch , his
30-acre ranch in Sonoma County, in 1966. Many people will remember
fondly "The Digger Farm," as it came to be called, Lou coined acronym LATWIDNO
(Land Access To Which Is Denied No One) for everyone coming to the Ranch.
The Ranch was in existence for a very short time but many of those traveling
through the Haight traveled to the Ranch. We have documented its story
at the links provided below and the impact Lou had as the "resident piano
player," as he referred to himself. Gottlieb attempted to leave the land
he owned to God. A series of court appeals culminated in the 9th district
court ruling that he could not. The ruling centered around the fact that
if God was named owner on a quit claim deed, there would be no recourse
for the collection of property taxes. The finding, therefore, was that
God has no property rights in the state of California.
This Morningstar Commune frightened Ronald Reagan then
Governor of California and he vowed to remove it from the face of the earth.
Ramon
Sender Baryon's meticulous undertaking to document the history of the
Free Land movement through reminiscences and painstakingly edited oral
history interviews.
Pam
Hanna's vivid personal recounting of both the California and New Mexico
branches of Morningstar. Part I (California). Part II (New Mexico) and
Part III (New Mexico). ( See
Rainbow Gathering )
***
These flower children on these external links below are
not the painted portraits of "Flower Children" we see on television. These
human beings are the ones that fought hard for human dignity and were pushed
hard by the law.
***
Thanks also to Eric Noble's San Francisco Diggers website
who created space for several newsletters and the "Home Free Home" book
(See below). I've linked this page to his sites when you click on the appropriate
title and many thanks for the technical help from David Hatch.
We are always searching for photos of both ranches, so
please let me know if you have any in your memorabilia!
Thanks to Elph and those responsible for the Intentional
Community website for hosting this website for the past five years. The
Most Newsletter has now moved to laurelrose.com (which is hosted by Tomas
who is a Morningstar alumni).
Ramon
Senderis the originator of the MOrningSTar POSTS (Morningstar Newsletter)
and is responsible for maintaining a dialog with everyone until the onset
of the web when his job became a lot easier and a lot more complicated
in a few short years.
Use the search engine below to find the name of a friend
in six different web sites.
MOSTposts functions basically as a list for folks who lived on two communal ranches, Morningstar and Wheeler's, and for this reason we keep it as a moderated list.
Feedback, comments, photos and queries can also be sent to: 2006morningstar at laurelrose dot com and the information will be sent to Yahoo Groups MOST POSTS Newsletter:
Interactive Comment Blog2006morningstar at laurelrose dot comView Comments
Click here to see a few of the alumni then come back here.
This is a list of all published issues of the MOST Newsletter
to date -- last updated January 2004
Click each link for stories about the Commune.
Plans to sell Morningstar Ranch
"Home Free Home," a 24-chapter Morning Star & Wheeler Ranch history
Old Newspaper Articles & Photos Scrapebook
Manifesto
II RamonThe
second Manifesto was put together at the Ahimsa Ranch commune in 1971.
It was a collaborative effort, and evokes the
warmth and love of the community very well. Enjoy!
Good
Olde Daze photos from Wheeler Ranch in the late Sixties/early Seventies
Hundreds of black-and-white shots conveniently arranged by topic byChar~*
thanks so much for your Web expertise/ongoing assist!
Ramon Sender Website
By Ramon Sender
Ramón Sender
Barayón's and Judith Levy-Sender's Art and Writing
By Ramon Sender
"Morningstar
Chronicles" by Pam Hanna Read
Pam Read's Experiences
at Morningstar California
Pam Read's Experiences
at Morningstar New Mexico
The Next Morning Star
New Mexico Installment
The Digger Forum is a good place for all of us to meet and say hello.
If you have written your Morningstar
/Wheelers Ranch biography to a blog or website
let us know and we will post
a link to it here.
Morningstar imformation can
be gleaned at these web sites and archives:
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Contact Us
Feedback, comments, photos and queries can also be sent
to: 2006morningstar@laurelrose.com
Place "2006 Morningstar" in the subject line or it will
be included as junk mail and may not be seen; the information will be sent
to Yahoo Groups MOST POSTS Newsletter:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mostposts/
If you send us a photo to us it will be placed into the
Old
Newspaper Articles & Photos Scrapebook
Interactive
Comment Blog2006morningstar at laurelrose
dot comView
Comments
Support
Organic Life Styles
Save Morningstar Ranch PDF Printout
Type a word into the search engine
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As you do it supports organic life
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Very simple and effective.
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Use the search engine above to find the name of a friend
in six different web sites.