For most of his life Steve has had a dream of living out on some wild land in the mountains,
creating a botanical garden and a community around it. WolfDance Sanctuary is his attempt at that. The reality of it
has changed a lot over the years - He first "saw" this vision when he was just 16 - but it's also got a lot
of the pieces to it, though in different forms. The Garden is the one Nature planted for us for the most part, water beign
short in a drought stricken part ofthe world, and the community is friends who come to visit and beingwith my land partner
and her husband. It's also included a number of sacred Ceremonies over time that have awakened the spirit energy of the land
and made it a very special place.
A bit of history. Back in 1984 some friends were thinking of creating a queer household outside of
Seattle where we could still be close to our Seattle community but out in the woods as well. As we looked for land we saw
all these ads for real cheap land in the Okanogan Valley in north-central Washington. So we shiftd our focus . And almost
before we knew it we (there were just 2 of us by then) had purchased a gorgeous 40 acre parcel of land that no white folks
had ever lived on before. We saw ourselves as the vanguard of a community that would come to live on the land. That part
never really happend, tho we did have many gathrings as has been mentioned, of various sorts. Some were 5o people,
others just one lone visitor. But it's been Sanctuary for a lot of people in the 22 years we've "owned" the land. And it's
been a real solace for Cedar, and Steve, and more recently Kurt, Cedar's husband. We've done a lot of work on the land
but it's still way off the grid - no electricity , running water or phone. No easy access but a sturdy 4x4 road to the 3 cabins
and sheds of sorts we've built over time.
We actually lived there from 1984 till 1989 - 5 1/2 years of extremely hard work and learning what
it is to homestead on wild land, along with the bears and cougars, the deer and eagles, and all the smaller creatures - the
squirrels and chipminks, the pocupines and the dozens of birds and hundreds af insects.
We try to go to the land as often as we can in the easy times - those without snow as the road is too steep
adn gets blocked in the winter. So we visit in the spring, summer and fall and just get glimpses of winter in the late fall
and early spring. What a joy it is to see the land covered in snow. It's so different it's really like several pieces of land
wih the changes in the seasons and the way the plants and atmosphere respond.
And in the way we respond to those change as well. Summer can be in the 90's or even hotter, and winter
below zero so the range of temperature is amazing and it's wonderful to experience that. It's interesting to watch how our
own work and attendant emotions correlate with the seasons - working hard in the lovely spring, chilling out in the blazing
summers, and hard work again getting ready for fall and the use of firewood to heat and eat with. There'a lot to learn
watching the ceatures who already live there, as well as the seasonal migrations of various birds and bugs.
There's a lot more history to recount and we'll do that bit by bit as time goes by. We hope taking the virtual
tour of this site gives you a sense of what it's liek to hold in trust such a beutiful and special piece of land. To hold
it in sacredness and sanctuary. It's a real blessing and a gift from Spirit.
