There's some of this kind of land in Oregon, too. Subdivided into chunks that are small enough and remote enough to be affordable, but not large enough to live off due to scarce resources (not enough water, poor soils).
Closer to where I live in Bend, Oregon, there's one of those remote subdivided areas. A few years back, an article in the paper jumped out at me for a line in it. A guy had asked the sheriff's department to do a wellness check on his brother, who he hadn't heard from for several days. The deputy decided to wait to visit until the next day because it was after dark. I reread that when I saw it in the paper. The sheriff's deputy didn't want to go there after dark. Wow. Turned out the guy was already dead; his wife shot him after he allegedly beat her.
A couple of things stuck out from the Harpers article - it's 50 below in winter in that area of cheap land in Colorado and you cannot leave your home unattended for any period of time or it will be ransacked. It's rugged living (compared to most Americans' lives) combined with a sort of self enforced stay at home isolation which can appeal to a segment of population that may have grown larger after our Covid experience, though I feel like the kids in that article would not have agreed with it.
This is off-topic, but I just wanted to say hello and mention that last night I watched documentary about the Blockbuster Video that is still open in Bend, Oregon.
On-topic:
I used to subscribe to the newsletter from landio.com, which sells semi-remote land. It's fun to read about their different offerings. They do a pretty good job of listing whats in the area (towns, hospitals, grocery, building supply, hunting) and what resources (water, power, phone/Internet).
In the days of streaming, it is a curiosity to be sure, but in the end, it is just a video rental store. In the documentary, they really up the romanticism of video rental stores.
This is just my experience, but I was a kid when Blockbuster was a thing. Plus, I grew up in a college town where the neighbors we a bit dynamic. So I never experienced any of the sort of community feeling that the documentary portrays.
My most memorable Blockbuster Video experience is sort of a dark and morbid one. Not appropriate in this context. Think dark in a humorous Cohen brother's way, not dark in a life scaring way.
There's some of this kind of land in Oregon, too. Subdivided into chunks that are small enough and remote enough to be affordable, but not large enough to live off due to scarce resources (not enough water, poor soils).
This story is particularly tragic: https://magazine.atavist.com/outlaw-country-klamath-county-o...
Closer to where I live in Bend, Oregon, there's one of those remote subdivided areas. A few years back, an article in the paper jumped out at me for a line in it. A guy had asked the sheriff's department to do a wellness check on his brother, who he hadn't heard from for several days. The deputy decided to wait to visit until the next day because it was after dark. I reread that when I saw it in the paper. The sheriff's deputy didn't want to go there after dark. Wow. Turned out the guy was already dead; his wife shot him after he allegedly beat her.
Along the lines of developers selling off land in crazy places, Christmas Valley, OR is also an interesting story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Valley,_Oregon#Penn_...