Drop City
Drop City | ||
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State Colorado | | |
County | Las Animas County | |
Founded | 1960 | |
Dissolved | 1979 | |
Founded by |
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Government | ||
• Type | Commune |
Part of a series on |
Utopias |
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Drop City was a counterculture artists' community that formed near the town of Trinidad in southern Colorado in 1960. Abandoned by 1979, Drop City became known as the first rural "hippie commune".[1]
Establishment
In 1960, the four original founders, Gene Bernofsky ("Curly Benson"), JoAnn Bernofsky ("Drop Lady"), Richard Kallweit ("Larry Lard"), and
As Drop City gained notoriety in the 1960s
Aftermath
The community grew in reputation and size, accelerated by media attention, including news reports on national television networks. Gene "Curly" Bernofsky later wrote that nationwide attention contributed to the commune's demise.[4] The peak of Drop City's fame was the Joy Festival in June 1967,[5] which attracted hundreds of hippies, some of whom stayed on. Matthews writes that Bernofsky hid in his dome throughout the Joy Festival, and quit, disgusted, the very next day.[6] With the complex of eight domes and geometric buildings constructed, Curly and Jo, the only official owners of the property, signed it over to a non-profit corporation consisting of the entire core group (then about a dozen). The deed stipulated that the land was "forever free and open to all people".[7] But tensions and personality conflicts were already a problem within the group, and soon became unbearable.[citation needed] By the end of 1968, some of the original occupants of the community had moved to Boulder, Colorado, to start an artists' cooperative, "Criss-Cross", whose purpose, like Drop City's, was to function in a "synergetic" interaction between peers (no bosses) to create experimental artistic innovation. Among the innovative endeavors to evolve out of Drop City are:
- in 1969, the early Albuquerque, NM;
- the artists' group "Criss-Cross", operative in New York and Colorado in the 1970s;
- the development of Baer and Richert's discovery, the "61-Zone System," by Zometool Inc. of Longmont, Colorado;
- and in the early 1980s, an important discovery of a cubic fusion of interpenetrating tetrahedra by Richard Kallweit.[citation needed]
At Drop City, debris and building remnants from the original settlement remain at the site today, though it is not inhabited. By 1979 it was abandoned, and the members of the non-profit who were still in touch decided to sell off the site to the cattle rancher next door.[8] The last of the iconic domes was taken down only in the late 1990s, by a truck repair facility which now occupies a portion of the site.[citation needed]
Legacy
By 1970, many
In 1971, author, and Drop City resident, Peter Rabbit's memoir "Drop City" was published.[9]
In 1993, an Indie Rock band from Sydney, Australia formed using the name Drop City. In 2007, a different, Denver based, Indie Rock band formed with the same name.
In 2003, author
In 2010, inspired by the Drop City commune, COMUNE opened a Drop City gallery space in the Los Angeles area.[10][11]
In 2012, the documentary Drop City was released, directed by Joan Grossman.[12]
In 2014, the indie rock band Ultimate Painting released its first album.[13] The band and its eponymous first album are named after one of the paintings made by the Drop City community.[14]
See also
- Freetown Christiania
- Morningstar commune
- Taylor Camp
- Slab City, California
Footnotes
- ^ Rabbit 1971, cover.
- ^ Miller 2006; Miller writes that the land was bought for $450 on May 3, 1960. Matthews agrees on the date but puts the price at $750. He writes that Bernofsky and Richert paid cash derived from sale of some marijuana.
- ^ Matthews 2010, p. 165; The most important part was a check for $500. Matthews writes, "The Dymaxion award has never been heard of since."
- OCLC 728045237. Archived from the originalon 2007-03-02.
- ^ Curl 2007, Chapter 17.
- ^ Matthews 2010, p. 188.
- ^ Curl 2007, p. 88.
- ^ Curl 2007, p. 233; Curl writes (p. 233) that Curly and Jo were, in fact, opposed to the sale but were overruled.
- ^ Rabbit 1971.
- OCLC 45290411. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
- ^ "DROP CITY OVERVIEW". Los Angeles, CA, USA: COMUNE. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
- ^ "Architecture on Film: Drop City". Architecture Foundation. Retrieved 2021-07-02.
- ^ "Artists - Ultimate Painting". Trouble In Mind Records. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
- ^ "Ultimate Painting "Ultimate Painting"". Trouble In Mind Records. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
Sources
- Curl, John (2007). OCLC 175218649.
- "Drop City newsletter", The Drop City Newsletter., Drop City, 1966, OCLC 34330556
- Matthews, Mark (2010). Droppers: America's First Hippie Commune, Drop City. University of Oklahoma Press. OCLC 1043546992.
- Miller, Timothy. "Roots of Communal". thefarm.org. Archived from the original on 2006-08-11.
- Rabbit, Peter (1971). Drop City. The Olympia Press, Inc. OCLC 536640. ASIN B0006VUQEI.
Further reading
- "Drop City Site". ludb.clui.org. Center for Land Use Interpretation. 2011-12-21. Archived from the original on 2011-12-21. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
- Hildebrandt, Paul (2006-05-30). "Zome-inspired Sculpture" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-01-27.
- Miller, Timothy (1991). The Hippies and American Values. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. OCLC 835518961– via Internet Archive.
- S2CID 143472921.
External links
- "Drop City". Clark Richert. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
- "Drop City: a documentary". dropcitydoc.com. Retrieved 2021-07-02.
- Curl, John. "Memories of Drop City, The First Hippie Commune of the 1960s and the Summer of Love, a memoir". red-coral.net. Archived from the original on 2009-04-13.
- "The Complete Drop City Newsletters Archive". johncurl.net. 15 August 2021. Retrieved 2021-09-27.