The Farm School - Origins

Origins

The Farm was established after Gaskin and friends led a caravan of 60 buses, vans, and trucks from San Francisco on a four month speaking tour across the US. Along the way, they became a community lacking only land to put down roots. After returning to California, the decision was made to buy land together. Combining all their resources would finance purchase of only about fifty acres. Of all the places they had been on "The Caravan", they had actually felt the most welcome in Tennessee. The local farmers appreciated how much knowledge and effort it took to keep so many old vehicles running for thousands of miles. They also could see beyond the hippy clothes and hair to shared fundamental values. Another month on the road brought the group back to Tennessee, where they checked out various places that might be suitable for settlement before deciding on property in Lewis County, about fifty miles south of Nashville. After buying 1,064 acres (4.1 km2) for $70 per acre, the Farm began building its community in the woods alongside the network of crude logging roads that followed its ridgelines. Another adjoining 750 acres (3.0 km2) for $100 per acre was purchased shortly thereafter.

From its founding through the 1970s, Farm members took vows of poverty and owned no personal possessions other than clothing and tools, though this restriction loosened as time passed. During that time, Farm members did not use artificial birth control, alcohol, tobacco, man-made psychotropics, or animal products.

Lacking any form of government, distribution of wealth and housing allocation fell initially to Gaskin, a position he did not seek or enjoy. This task was taken over by a "council of elders" and then a "board of directors" consisting of some of the most respected and influential members of the Farm community.

In the original manifestation of The Farm, all members were believers in the holiness of life and that smoking marijuana was a sacrament, though Farm members did not use alcohol or other drugs. What bound them was their shared psychedelic vision. They said that their cultural conditioning had been blown away enough to experience a world of higher consciousness, and that Spirit exists and we are all One. Stephen Gaskin, who had served in the United States Marine Corps, got his start as a religious leader in San Francisco in the 1960s, coming to teach a blend of Eastern religions and Christianity. Due to his devotion to marijuana, he and three followers spent time in 1974 in the Tennessee State Penitentiary in Nashville following convictions for growing marijuana on Farm land.

The Farm installed its own water system but resisted running 60-cycle alternating current powerlines beyond the main house that served as its administration office and publishing center, hoping some day to establish home power systems off of the grid. Communications within the Farm were carried out with an old plug wire phone system donated by a local town and later with CB radio for emergencies. Kerosene lamps and outhouses were standard for the first 5–10 years. A 12-volt trickle charge system charged used golf cart batteries in homes, which in turn powered automobile tail light bulbs hanging from the ceilings and walls. Oftentimes these home systems would be powered by returning off-Farm work vehicles' batteries. Many of the buildings on the Farm were unconventional, ranging from converted school buses to modified 16 x 32 army tents. Over time, larger homes were constructed, each providing shelter for multiple families and single people, often with up to 40 people under one roof. Visitors were also housed in a two-story tent made by sewing two army tents together.