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What is Raccoon Creek Community?

Raccoon Creek Community is a group of friends, a home, a place to learn, teach and grow, in short, an intentional community.

We are locating just 20 minutes west of Bloomington, in Owen County, Indiana, on a part of a 154-acre wooded site on the banks of Raccoon Creek. We are planning our community to accommodate up to 50 residents of all ages and backgronds. We will grow much of our own food, capture solar power and rain water for our use, and, simply stated, live lightly on the land.

You can get a better idea about us by reading our "Community Vision Statement".

Also, you can print your own copy of our introductory flyer. The column spacing needs a tweek, but the contents are complete.

Recently we had a lengthy meeting to collect, discuss and consolidate many of the decisions we have made about guidelines for the development of our property, homes and other buildings. You can read the resulting document, along with amendments and additions made by the members from time to time.

We are compiling information about the area in which Raccoon Creek Community is located. Eventually this data will include information and links about county government, job opportunities, climate, transportation, etc. Currently it includes a draft of an information sheet on local educational opportunities. As more sections are added we will announce them on the RaccoonCreekForum discussion list and ask those in the know to comment on them.

Since February, 2005, Ed has been keeping a web log (blog) of our progress. You can read "Up the Creek..." and, if you like, post comments on the entries. The blog includes entries about our plans, activities, projects and status.

Did you know that the same folks who produce "Rustle the Leaf" created our Raccoon Creek logo? Check out their weekly comic.

They are now producing a weekly podcast. In the second edition, Ed was interviewed about Raccoon Creek, intentional community, permaculture, and peak oil. Most of the over-40-minute interview was edited out to get it under 10 minutes, about half of the total podcast. His interview starts about halfway through the 24-minute podcast.

The Raccoon Creek Community welcomes new members, both associates and residents. If you'd like to learn more about us, send a note to RaccoonCreek@gmail.com or subscribe to the RaccoonCreekForum just below. We'll answer all your questions and invite you to our next meeting.

We now have a Raccoon Creek Community map on FRAPPR! where you can place a "pin" where you live. You're invited to place your pin on our map. If you choose to add yourself, please choose the correct "pin" from the "Map Legend" box below the map. Post a picture of yourself or where you live if you like.

As a means of allowing our members to move onto the community site as soon as they wished, we decided to try to find an old barn, dismantle it, and move it to our site to house a few apartments, among other things. We were fortunate to find a barn on the Indiana Historic Landmarks Foundation's "10 most endangered buildings" list. The building is 60 feet long and 54 feet wide and contains 20 bays, each about 13x12 feet. It is over 30 feet high, allowing numerous possibilities for interesting apartment configurations and other uses.

The barn was in southern Indiana, just a few miles from the Ohio River in New Albany, and almost exactly 100 miles from Raccoon Creek. We began working on it in late May, taking an entire weekend just to remove everything that was stored in it. On subsequent visits we removed the loft floors and joists, all the stalls and mangers, the gates and doors, the metal roof and almost all of the siding. Here are a "before" and a "part way" picture as of the end of July.

April 2, 2005

July 24, 2005

Since then we removed all the rafters, took out thousands of nails, moved truckloads of wood to Raccoon Creek, and, in the last week of September, over two days, took down the entire framework and took all the members apart with pin drivers, drills and an occasional saw. Here are the before and after pictures of taking down the frame. More pictures can be found on the web log.

August 28, 2005

September 27, 2005

If you have experience in erecting post and beam buildings and would like to offer advice or help as we rebuild the barn, let us know.

A great-grandson of a past owner has written a brief history of the barn.

Lots more barn pictures

You can find a few more details about us in our entry in the Intentional Communities Directory kept by the Fellowship for Intentional Communities.

Eventually, much of our barn and a good deal of the property will be used for educational purposes. We have no funding for this purpose yet. If you have or know of anyone who has any of the items or skills on our list of needs, please let us know.

On Saturday, August 6, 2005, over 200 members of the Sierra Club sent an article to the club telling what they were doing that day for a web project called "everyday matters." Two of our members submitted entries: our barn moving project and teaching our kids about nature.