http://www.theunion.com/article/20100410/NEWS/100409713/1001%26parentprofile=1053
By Liz Kellar
April 10, 2010
It's a cycle as predictable as the seasons.
North San Juan and the San Juan Ridge due to their relative
geographical isolation from the rest of Nevada County usually are
out of sight and out of mind for most "townies."
Then, a shootout, or a wild brawl, or a spectacular pot bust propels
the Ridge back into the spotlight. Inevitable comparisons to the Wild
West are made, offending residents, who see the area as a complex mosaic.
These forces were evident once again after an attempted home invasion
and marijuana robbery spiraled out of control in January, leaving one
of the suspected robbers dead, his alleged partner facing a murder
charge and one of the alleged victims facing charges of manslaughter
and jail time for cultivating marijuana for sale. (On Thursday,
Christopher Tabor Teachout pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of
reckless driving and faces sentencing on the drug charges in May.)
The incident, which involved a high-speed car chase through North San
Juan and volleys of gunfire, drew widespread attention to the former
Gold Rush mecca.
In some circles, the San Juan Ridge has a reputation as an
up-and-coming version of the North Coast's Emerald Triangle a
center for the cultivation of high-quality marijuana. Local legend
claims you can buy pot in Amsterdam with a North San Juan appellation.
But is the Ridge really a haven for outlaws and dope-growers and
refugees from reality? And more to the point, does that reputation
for pot make the Ridge more dangerous?
That depends on who you talk to. Some residents agreed to answer
questions from The Union on the topic (see Q&As with Grizzly Hill
School Principal Joan Little, manufacturer Pat Leach and, on the Web,
business owner Stefanie Freydont) but others declined to
participate, citing concerns about discussing marijuana in their
community and "negative energy."
To understand the region, it also helps to draw a distinction between
North San Juan and the San Juan Ridge.
The "town" itself once the center of a community of 10,000
hydraulic gold miners and merchants now is little more than a wide
spot on Highway 49 featuring three restaurants, a bar, a gasoline
station and a post office.
The Ridge is a more amorphous concept, both culturally and
geographically. If you take the position that the Ridge generally
follows the boundaries of the North San Juan Fire Protection
District, it stretches from the South Yuba River to the Middle Fork
of the Yuba, and from Bridgeport to Malakoff Diggins State Park.
North San Juan
North San Juan perhaps because it hosts a drinking establishment
has issues with occasional bar fights getting out of control and
"kids" popping wheelies along the main drag.
Some Ridgies consider the area "blighted," and many agree the
townsite is in dire need of renovation.
Resident curmudgeon and town institution Bill Steele wearing his
trademark fishing hat often held court at Toki's Fountain, the
diner his wife, Toki Steele, ran for more than 40 years.
Steele moved here well before the wave of hippies in the 1970s that
put the town on the map and changed its character forever.
Steele, it's clear, blames those hippies for ruining the area.
"They brought in their drugs and they brought in their dogs," Steele said.
The Steeles recently sold Toki's to Wade and Christy Avilla and plan
on moving to Okinawa, at least for the time being, so Toki Steele can
attend to her ailing mother. But Toki's will keep its name and will
remain one of the nerve centers of North San Juan.
"Toki's performs the most important function: It's a meeting place
for people of quite different backgrounds to get together and talk,"
said Paul Noel, who has been a resident of the Ridge since 1977.
Defining the undefinable
Like many Ridge residents, Noel said it is impossible to define
exactly what makes a person a Ridgie.
"There are a lot of different communities out there not just the
Ridge and town," Noel said. "There are different groups that people
have loyalties to. It isn't a black-and-white thing. There's
everything from educated professionals to lost souls who've found a
place here that's more accepting."
Several communities have been established on the Ridge over the past
40 years to develop music, the arts, sustainable living and
spirituality. Among those is Ananda Village, an extensive property on
the Middle Yuba River founded in the late 1960s and blending yoga,
meditation and Hindu beliefs with Christian traditions, simple living
and high thinking.
Residents' focus on beauty and community has led them to plant
thousands of tulips and other bulbs every year, inviting the public
to view the breathtaking spectacle. (For more on the garden open
house, see Page C1.)
More than one Ridge resident has joked that they enjoy the perception
that residents are a bunch of wild-eyed, weed-growing renegades
because that keeps the lowlanders out.
But dig a little deeper and you'll find a passionate commitment to
the diversity and eccentricity embraced by the community.
All agree a tremendous amount of talent is tucked away in the area
including Pulitzer prize-winning poet Gary Snyder, world-class
fiddler Alasdair Fraser, woodworker Robert Erickson whose
floating-back rocker is housed at the Smithsonian and author Steve
Sanfield, who founded the Sierra Storytelling Festival.
"One of the realities is, we're seen as a bunch of uneducated
hippies," Noel said. "But a lot of people on the Ridge care deeply
about the education of their children and give copiously of their
time to the community."
'Quietly living their lives'
One of those now-grown children is Rainy Blue Cloud, whose parents
moved to the Ridge from Marin County in the early 1970s.
"They weren't hippies so much as bohemians," the Columbia University
graduate said. It runs in the family: Her grandfather was an
intellectual beatnik who hung out with writer Jack Kerouac.
For Blue Cloud, what sets the Ridge apart is the sense of family that
permeates the community and a strong sense of place.
"There are a lot of little micro-communities out on the Ridge," she
said. "It is like a mini-Nevada County, with different opinions and
lifestyles."
John Tecklin's family came to the Ridge in 1972; he now runs the
organic Mountain Bounty Farm, one of the first farms in the county to
follow the Community Supported Agriculture model, in which consumers
pre-pay for a share of the farm's produce.
"There is more counter-culture and a history of back-to-the-landers,"
Tecklin said. "It was cheap (back then) because it was remote."
Now, he added, "there are a lot of retirees on the Ridge, just like
the rest of the county. The vast majority of people here are just
quietly living their lives."
It takes him just 20 minutes to drive to Nevada City, Tecklin said,
though the distance is more mental than actual.
And the perception of the Ridge as a haven for outlaws is mainly due
to history and politics, Tecklin argued.
"There are political extremes, and it benefits those extremes to
paint their opposites in a negative way," he said. "It's convenient
to label the Ridge as a marginal place."
'Second Gold Rush'
The isolation on the Ridge leads to a lack of employment
opportunities. That, coupled with the legalization of medical
marijuana, had led some residents to illegally grow marijuana for sale.
"It's a second Gold Rush," said Stefanie Freydont, who moved to the
Ridge in 1973 and runs her million-dollar jewelry business out of a
two-story building on Tyler Foote Crossing Road.
"The state really opened a Pandora's box with the passage of the
medical marijuana law," she said. "It brought people to the community
with no investment in the community ...
"There always have been people here who grew pot we're all
back-to-the-landers," Freydont added. "What has changed is people
from out of the area purchasing land only to grow marijuana. In the
last few years, there has been a big in-migration for that purpose,
and it has caused a lot of problems."
But like other longtime residents, Freydont sees the influx of pot
growers as a temporary problem.
"We see it as a passing thing," she said.
Some, like Ridge Stop Cafe owner Belle Starr, recognize the pluses
and minuses in marijuana cultivation.
"People move here from all over just to grow pot," Starr said. "That
really bothers me, because they don't stick around (year-round). They
don't have the idea of giving back tithing, basically. They're kind
of an annoyance. They bring the heat, and they don't give anything back.
"But during the season, we're so busy," she mused, noting her
eclectic menu of smoothies and organic goodies would struggle to find
an appreciative audience without the pot growers.
"Another really cool thing is, all the good dirt was washed away
during mining and the pot growers are replenishing the soil," she added.
--
To contact Staff Writer Liz Kellar, e-mail lkellar@theunion.com or
call (530) 477-4229.
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