In Search of Utopia
Facing escalating housing costs and societal turmoil, people are searching for better ways to live
This article was updated on February 1, 2024.
Like many people, Bob and Ruth Foote spent much of their lives searching for a better way to live.
They took their children out of public schools and educated them instead through experiences such as a California-to-Bolivia sailing excursion. They lived in the backwoods of Oregon without access to numerous modern conveniences. They built a 55-foot schooner and schemed about taking the family to a deserted island for a Swiss Family Robinson-style adventure.
The island idea was eventually beached due to excessive costs and porting regulations, so the Foote's decided to establish a self-sufficient community of earth-sheltered homes that would use the smallest environmental footprint possible and also shield homeowners from escalating mortgage rates and energy costs. Ruth Foote worked in the real estate, insurance, and title industries, while Bob was an engineer and designed experimental aircraft. While he considered rising coastal sea levels, potential nuclear strikes, and a collapsed economy real possibilities, he was drawn to building an off-the-grid community more for the challenge than being a diehard survivalist.
