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Promise Of Paradise
3:30pm Thursdays

 

Welcome to Promise of Paradise, Back to the Land Oral Histories of Mendocino County.  We are working to document an experiment that began roughly fifty years ago all across the country. In the 60’s and 70’s, young people began to “tune in, turn on, and drop out.” Anything was possible. College-educated hippies began to stream away from the cities and into the country, to put a modern twist on ancient homesteading skills. We’ll hear about the sense of exhilaration, the resilience, and how these now aging hippies recall their rush towards freedom and responsibility.

We’ll also hear about how the lack of boundaries led to tragedy and disillusionment; the racial insensitivity; and how the back to the land experiment altered Mendocino County.

Who were these people, why did they come, and what mark did they make on this county’s history?

Promise of Paradise is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, California Humanities, the Arts Council of Mendocino County, the Judy Pruden Historical Preservation Fund of the Community Foundation of Mendocino County, the Mendocino Institute, StoryCenter, and Grace Hudson Museum.

 

  • In our first episode of Promise of Paradise, which aired on November 15, 2018, we'll hear interviews with two women who came to the region in the back to…
  • In our second episode of Promise of Paradise, which aired on Thanksgiving Day, 2018, we'll hear from Ross Walker and Kate Magruder, who came to Greenfield…
  • November 29, 2018 -- In our third episode of Promise of Paradise back to the land oral histories of Mendocino County, we'll hear from David Raitt, of…
  • J. Holden is a local poet and clinical psychologist who showed up in Mendocino County just as legal LSD and the State Hospital in Talmage were winding…
  • In this episode of Promise of Paradise, we'll hear Kate Magruder's interviews with Tom Liden, a photographer who came to Mendocino County and built a his…
  • Dec 20, 2018 -- In this episode, we'll hear from quilting artist Laura Fogg, who lived into a multi-generation home in Redwood Valley, and writer and…
  • In this episode, we'll hear from Meca Wawona, a tireless environmental activist and homesteader who was instrumental in founding the California…
  • Jan 3, 2019 -- For our first episode of 2019, we'll hear from local carpenter Wendy Jackson, who came to Potter Valley with her husband from San Luis…
  • January 10, 2019 -- In this episode, we'll hear from Sheilah Rogers, who moved to Redwood Valley in the 70's after a stint as a Peace Corps volunteer. She…
  • January 17, 2019 -- Today, Lisa Grant of Greenfield Ranch will take us on a tour of her sixteen-sided "sculpture house," which her former partner John…