March/April 1982
By the Mother Earth News editors
These two Ozark "pioneers" are practicing the more self-reliant lifestyle they preach.
Most of the folks in today's back-to-the-land movement aim—just as does MOTHER herself—at discovering ways of living that are more energy-efficient and self-supporting . . . and that have a minimal impact on the environment. And now that there's a lot of good information available on such lifestyles, the next step—which has so far been achieved by only a handful of individuals and groups—is to combine a number of those isolated ideas and thus create a workable synthesis.
Well, that's just what's beginning to happen at Meadowcreek ... an Ozark community that was born almost three years ago, when two brothers decided to build a sustainable "metaindustrial village" (to borrow a term coined by writer/philosopher William Irwin Thompson). The pair hoped their development would serve as a model of how human settlements in the future might both exist in harmony with their surroundings and offer meaningful lifestyles to their inhabitants.
Following several years of mutual musing over what they saw as a crisis facing modern industrial civilization, David and Wilson Orr sold their individual business and real estate holdings in order to finance the purchase of 1,500 fertile but neglected acres in northern Arkansas's Stone County. In June of 1979 the brothers moved their families to the property, and began the construction of a community that they expect will eventually be able to supply all its own food and energy. The Meadowcreek Project is more than just a futuristic model town, however. . . it was planned—from its inception—to be an educational research center as well, a place where committed individuals can gather to study the challenges of creating systems for sustainable living.
In the final analysis, Meadowcreek is a step taken in preparation for the major transformation that the Orr brothers think our society must soon undergo . . . a process they see as altogether necessary if we're to survive in a world where inexpensive energy, unlimited natural resources, and high biological productivity can no longer be accepted facts of life. Concerned about the increasing centralization of power and capital—and about the stress that those developments place on an already fragile environment—David and Wil concluded that solutions to such problems could best be worked out on a decentralized neighborhood scale . . . and so they set about designing a humancentered community that would rely on organic agriculture and renewable energy sources for its support.
Their first move, after arriving in Arkansas, was to compile a detailed ecological survey of their land. That study included the examination of such environmental factors as soil chemistry, water resources, energy flow, geology, and plant and animal habitats. Using the collected data, the Orrs then drew up a general plan for the development of Meadowcreek, a proposal that emphasizes on-site energy and food production, and proximity between community activity areas. Such factors will limit the project's production and transportation costs and—it's hoped—insure its economic survival. As a result of their awareness that natural ecosystems tend to operate in harmonious closedloop cycles, the brothers decided to pat tern their community after such a system ... stressing diversity, complex relationships, multiple function, and the efficient use of energy.
The survey revealed that they'd settled in a workable location ... a three-milelong valley traversed by Meadowcreek (a confluent of the Little Red River) and rimmed on both sides by high, rocky bluffs that rise 500 feet above the canyon floor. The site offers rich farmland, 1,200 acres of mixed hardwoods and evergreens, and abundant water. And, although the area enjoys the Ozarks' generally mild climate, it's home not only to the region's typical plants and animals, but also to a variety of flora and fauna that are usually found in more arid climes (including prickly pear cactus, coyotes, and scorpions).
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