I have been thinking about a citation I cannot find again. I knew where I was the first time I read this article and I’m trying to find it. Maybe its in the archives of the OU student paper, or Chronicle of Higher Ed. I’ll probably need to search through local newspapers of Belmont county to find this article again.
I was sitting in Alder Library. In those days there was a glassed in reading room above the cobblestones below.
The article I was reading brought the third decade of the nineteenth century into my present.
The Horizon of Readings
I know I had recently been reading Civil Disobedience by Thoreau, and so of course Walden by Emerson after that. I was likely also reading Rousseau’s Émile and Discourses on the Arts and Sciences. Deep into the idea that education happens in the wild. That there is some sort of moral up-righteousness- making that goes on when a man lives in the wild, but by many testimony seems more like an uplifting of spirit.
In cities, we compare ourselves to one another by turning every side walk into a catwalk. And then consume more textiles to look like other people’s outfits we saw yesterday. A constant gathering to have all of the correct accessories to every possible event in the chosen city. This breeds vanity and joy gets sucked right out of the room until you don’t even realize you’re breathing in the fake joyless air through the made up face.
Maybe its around this time I saw Dick Proenneke’s Alone in the Wild on PBS. Here is a person whose self reliance seemed like the spark of his existence. So prolific he was in his creations, his motivation to keep going had to always be lit. What was it lit by? There was not a single other human psyche to play off of or get played by. You can tell a human from an animal by whether or not you doubt its sincerity. I would rather be a powerful instinctual animal over an overly self conscious human any day, wouldn’t you?
I had learned about Kent State and the various techniques of the civil rights movement, such as eating at a lunch counter, and riding on a bus like people do.
In Survey of Religions type class I’m learning about Buddhism, in the International Relations course we were watching The Fog of War and a monk is self immolating.
The Article of Interest- First mention of Dysart Woods
The article interviewed a guy from Belmont County, Ohio. This guy had burned his draft card in protest, followed by a Supreme Court Decision that declared that this was in fact an illegal act, not protected speech.
And the interviewer says to the guy “Aren’t you afraid of prosecution now?” and the guys says “No, I’m going to go live my happy life in Dysart Woods.” There were pictures of the man sitting on a log holding this toy. He had whiddled toys for his children with a knife.”
From this moment Dysart Woods started to occupy a space in my imagination. A secret Eden. A place where you could get back to basics, where Federal policy would leave you all the way alone. Where your kids would grow up unspoilt by malls or consumerism.
The Second Mention of Dysart Woods – the Chad about town
This Chad was on the University scene, although I don’t think he was enrolled. He was hanging around campus everywhere it seemed, and my roommate Sarah joined an environmental club.
She comes back to the house and we talk about him. At the environmental club meeting he announced a trip to Washington DC to attend a protest against maybe the IMF and World Bank. Where Chad was from was an anti development point of view.
I said to Sarah, I’ve seen him around town with no shoes on, saying he’s running for mayor. He also claims to not have a car and he biked into town. I was pretty sure he lived somewhere in the Wayne National Forest but he was way too cool for property ownership.
David Stewart’s mystery novel set on a college campus features a character based on Chad.
Anyway, Chad and one other guy let’s call him Forest walked from Athens to Dysart Woods I think to raise awareness for Dysart Woods old growth.
So Chad was talking about how beautiful the forest is and how it feels in the Old Growth section of it.
Why was I so obsessed with the
25 years later I moved back to the area and wanted to take a trip out there to satisfy this curiosity. Who lives in Dysart Woods? Could I find this person? What was his or her name? How can I get this article to confirm?
Date of first trip to Alden Library. Could not get a library card, make copies, request books. Had to go back on a weekday.
First attempt to go to Dysart Woods
The OnX Hunt mapping pre game for the drive that did not lead all the way in.
