CABIN CREW

Set within the coastal redwood forests of Albion, California, Salmon Creek Farm was conceived as the ultimate creative retreat. A place to foster a relationship with nature, slow down and connect with daily life, it’s the brainchild of architecture-trained artist Fritz Haeg. Here, he opens the doors to his cultural commune and tells us its story

I ‘dropped out’ in 2014. Traded in home in LA for a life in the woods. I bought a commune founded by idealistic hippies in 1971 on California’s Mendocino coast. Eleven handcrafted cabins clinging to logging roads carved into a south-facing slope of second- and third-growth redwoods. I wrote a letter to the 13 remaining shareholders and expressed interest in continuing the legacy and spirit of the place. I offered to preserve their archive, which included correspondence, weekly meeting minutes, documents, maps, plans, press clippings and photographs. It offered a fascinating window into the social structures and stories behind the buildings that remain.

I gave up my previous life as a nomadic artist to be rooted in one place. An extended community of friends, friends of friends, and whoever showed up, pitched in during the early years with building, repairing, digging, gardening, decorating and documenting. Salmon Creek Farm is now emerging as a long-term art project shaped by many hands, a sort of queered commune-farm-homesteadsanctuary-school hybrid.

We host workshops and retreats, and will soon start some sort of school. A non-profit has been formed to offer a ‘sanctuary for fostering and cultivating a new kind of artist in the world’. I consider myself a steward of a sacred place that existed before me, and will continue after me. Here are some excerpts from a memoir I’ve been writing about my time on the land:

THE COMMUNE