by Lin McNulty
My first two summers on Orcas Island were spent living in the middle of a sheep field near Buck Bay. We lived in a 10x10x10 octagon with no plumbing or running water. We had one leg of electricity, which meant we could run a refrigerator (placed outside), or, when necessary, a computer. We showered at Moran. That experience was, in my opinion, the ultimate in island living. Weather, aging, and regulations, however, make that untenable as an ongoing living situation for me.
Recent conversations, regulations, and political ads refer to the preservation of island character. As our representatives pass such items as the Critical Areas Ordinance and continue to seek building and development regulations, how much island character do we lose?
The late, iconic App Applegate lived off the grid, bypassing regulations that would certainly have influenced or changed his rugged, individual lifestyle. “He would not have survived,” says former County Commissioner John Evans, “if he had needed to comply with building regulations.”
He built an 80-foot three-masted barkentine out of old-growth Douglas fir on his property and it was to carry App to Cuba. Although the nearly-completed craft never made the trip before App passed away, it did provide a “home” for him. Because it didn’t have a “foundation,” it was not legally a structure, nor was it legally liveable. App also lived for awhile in a shack (his words) constructed of hay bales and covered with a black tarp. It was well hidden on his property, across a creek. Set against a hillside, deer periodically mistook the black tarp as solid, and came crashing through the roof. He developed a 12-volt electrical system that utilized the running water of the creek for his power source.
How did he pull this off? John Evans, a longtime friend of App, says that east of Moran there is (or was) a more live-and-let-live attitude. No one bothered App, nor bothered to report his building violations.
He was an accepted “island character,” and because he was not visible to neighbors, it was just accepted that was the way he lived; he was just doing what App did.
Applegate is not the only character living off the grid. A woman currently living on the island has no running water, and refuses to allow OPALCO to establish a right-of-way on her property. She only burns candles for light, and in her 90s she still splits and carries her own firewood—her only source of heat.
Another island character is Leo Lambiel who has his own near-continuous battle with a permitting process that is not geared to resolve his desire to provide quality artistic expression. What he calls a work of art on his property—a Grecian temple ruin—the County calls an illegal structure, even though he is not living in this piece of sculpture. Anyone with an eye to beauty would view these additions as art. He was recently ordered to remove his large “Lambiel Museum” sign by the County. He is a round peg attempting to work his way through a square hole of bureaucracy.
App, whose boat did not have a foundation was in violation because he lived on it. Leo, whose structure does have a foundation is in violation even though he does not live in it.
Marty Hardy lived in the Dolphin Bay area, until her passing around 2000, in a one-room cabin without heat, lights, and running water—obvious code violations, right?
Island old-timers may remember Tom Talman, who lobbied constantly for a return to the original Orcas Island by unpaving (depaving?) all the roads. Even though he worked for a time in the County Permit Department, his unpaving attempts failed.
As the island changes, which it seems it must, are we possibly losing more than we are gaining? The County applies for, and receives, grants for such things as road improvements. Citing the recent widening of Mount Baker Road, former County Council candidate, and current Eastsound Planning Commissioner Greg Ayers, points out that vehicles will just drive faster now that the road is wider and trees have been cut down. “Instead of hitting a tree alongside the road at 35 mph,” he points out, “a vehicle traveling at 50 mph will slam into a tree that’s 30 feet off the road. More drivers will die, rather than just getting injured.”
Newcomers either want the island to remain as it was the day that they first stepped off the ferry, or they want to urbanize it for safety or aesthetics. Let’s treasure what character(s) we still have as we play out the desire to always improve, negating the ability of future “island characters” to simply utilize whatever meager means are available to them in order to live here.
John Evans sums it up: “If you make everything look brand new, you lose the character,” and, in my opinion, the “characters.”
Well said Lin!
Thanks for applying logic. Now how do we get bureaucracy to do the same?
Good article, Lin. It’s an issue that is very difficult to resolve, I think. How do we move forward without losing what we have and love? Every community has to deal with it and always has. I think it takes sensitive, balanced leadership and vision.Change is a challenge, even for the bravest and wisest.
Thanks for the column, but it lacks a certain socioeconomic perspective. Let me try to illustrate this. For example, let’s take a look at how many communities or developments on the island have private covenants? As a long time islander, I believe covenants run counter to our “untamed” character.
Here’s another example: What’s with all these “no hunting” signs everywhere? You know, once upon a time, long, long ago, islanders hunted.
Here’s another- why is the 4th of July parade on just about every other day than the 4th? Once upon a time ….
Now, it’s true that property “management” of vacant, wintering houses brings in a lot of money. But do you remember when vacant houses provided off-season shelter for the “characters” we all (presumably) care about? Come spring, they were on their own, in the warmer weather. Property management destroyed an entire way of island living and that’s just a simple fact. But progress takes many forms and I get that. I get that there are going to be winners and there are going to be losers. Everybody in Steinbeck’s “Cannery Row” was disappeared through the magic of gentrification. Nobody survived.
No, preserving island characters is not the same as railing against codes and regulations. It’s about preserving some measure of psychic, cultural, physical and economic space for that increasingly vanishing group of people who are everything mainstream Orcas is not. Everything that the increasingly gentrified and upscale class of island shakers and movers can only see in a video or read in a book. I know, it’s a touchy area. And my villains might be your heroes and vica versa. We say we want a big tent, but to truly make it big enough, sooner or later we will have to rub shoulders with unsavory characters in real time.
I used to have long talks with App when I was an itinerant islander in the twilight of the 80s. Do you know he couldn’t stand the United States? He used to love railing against this goddamned country. Did you know that he loved Cuba and had this magnificent dream of launching his boat and returning there? You see, there was a reason why App was doing what he was doing. But we want sanitized characters and so the backstory frequently gets buried.
You see, almost all island “characters” would scare the hell out of Disney. Along with many of us hand-wringing do-gooders. Characters aren’t necessarily harmless and reliable servers of bankable kumbaya moments. I collect Victor Bodie stories. This was a guy who could really not be nice. And he’s also a guy who cradled our dead dog, tears in his eyes, and asked me if I thought the kids should see it. I said no and I said I understood and that it was okay. It was okay that he had shot our dog who had developed a taste for his chicken and went after a calf. He used to sell us firewood- some of it was good and some- not so good. He was always good to us and almost always drunk. A character. A fully realized character with flaws and assets. Also known as a person.
Thanks for your article, Lin and I especially appreciate Mr. Johnson’s points! Just for accuracy – it was Marti Harter who lived lightly on the land on Dolphin Bay Road. She walked her talk and loved her life.