September/October 2000 Backwoods Home Magazine

How we found

our remote
backwoods home
By Jackie Clay Highway between two rivers that we So we again advertised our place,
could afford. It had no cabin, and 40 taking up valuable time. As we knew

R
ight now Im sitting in a
acres of tough scrub second-growth we wanted remoteness, we watched
south-facing huge, sunny
brush had to be cleared in two years the spring turn to summer. And we
window, looking through
time in order to get a title. It was a searched for another place.
our own private valley to a
great little place, in a mountain valley Wed seen some interesting places
larger mountain valley below and the
with tremendous views of the Alaska advertised in British Columbia, and
pine covered mountains beyond. There
Range right out the door. we found more of what we could
isnt another house in sight. Only
We thought we had our ranch in afford and the wilderness we needed.
snowy slopes, gorgeous rock outcrop-
New Mexico sold. We had a contract So we really investigated several dif-
pings on the sides of the little valley,
and down payment, and we made ferent areas and stumbled on another
pines, and an eagle soaring overhead.
preparations to go. Blood testing had great place.
Our new home is a modest 1,000
been done on the animals. My oldest This one was 160 acres of wilder-
square feet, but its well-built, has
son, Bill, had bought plane tickets to ness, right on a salmon/trout river,
pretty red fir floors, a huge kitchen,
fly down and help us drive, and we with a glacier run-off stream right past
and views to die for out each huge
had money down on a tractor and the little cabin. There was wildlife
window, even out through the large
equipment a friend wanted to sell. The galore. We saw huge bull moose, wolf
front porch across the whole front of
works. Then our buyer dropped out. tracks on our beach, and deer tracks
the house.
And we lost our Alaska homestead everywhere. Folks around said wed
Now, a lot of you know that we had
because the owner was in a hurry to also have grizz visitors, as well as
originally planned to build our home-
sell because of the clearing clause on black bears.
stead in Alaska. Wed found 320 acres
his land.
of remote paradise north of the Alaska

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 September/October 2000 Backwoods Home Magazine

Dealing with bureaucracy such as birth certificates, etc. The fee

As we again had our ranch sold, we for our family entering under a busi-
travelled up to Canada, checked out ness classification (as I am a writer)
our place and talked to Canadian was $1,200.
Immigration at the border regarding After your papers are in the works
our immigration as Resident Aliens. you will be required to submit to a
We were told that although the normal physical examination, which is given
procedure is to require immigrants to only in certain larger U.S. cities,
have their Immigrant Visa in hand requiring travel and another fee for the
when they move up, they would allow exam, which also includes chest X-
us to enter, provided we had our rays.
papers in the system and had our The time the entire process takes,
letter of receipt from the Canadian before your Immigrant Visa is in your
Consulate Generals office in Buffalo. hands, can take up to a year or more.
We did. Let me tell you a little about This is where we screwed up.
Canadian Immigration, so someone Believing the folks at the border cross-
does not have to go through what we ing Immigration Office, we hit the
David Clay has his own
did. Neither Bob nor I have had so border with a 26-foot U-Haul truck, a
criteria for a homestead.
much as a parking ticket in our lives. 16-foot stock trailer with four horses
He worked for the Department of indicating income (Canada wants no and a cow (all multiple-blood tested
State in Embassy Service, as well as welfare immigrants), health (Canada I think we have the healthiest ani-
having served in Vietnam for three wants no immigrants with health prob- mals in the U.S.) on the 29th of
years, the Army after that, and a life- lems that may cost the government), December.
time of security work. We both have and employment (Canada does not To make a long, sad story short, we
an income, and were to pay cash for want immigrants who will either not were told that we had received erro-
our homestead. find work easily or will infringe on neous information from someone and
We thought we would be good Canadian workers employment). that under no circumstances could we
immigration candidates. Both of us Included with this form are: a current enter Canada until we had our
had Canadian grandparents, uncles passport (not required of visitors, but Immigrant Visa and Right of Landing
and aunts, although we have no living required for immigrants), Criminal Permit (another $1,200 fee) in hand.
relatives there now that we know of. Clearance by the FBI (our local sheriff There we were, with not much cash
To immigrate to Canada, you must took our fingerprints and we submit- on hand, being politely escorted out of
fill out lengthy forms for your visa, ted them to the FBI with the appropri- Canada by the head Immigration offi-
ate fee), and supporting documents cer, our ranch in New Mexico sold,

This is a view of our house, including the fornt porch, and the mountains to the east of us.

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September/October 2000 Backwoods Home Magazine

This is looking west from our front porch. Not a bad view, either.

the money sent on to British able to gain assurance that the title major repair, and it was $30,000 more
Columbia, and a trailer load of live- company would send the check back than we could afford.
stock getting awfully tired of being to us in Montana at my son, Javids,
stuffed in a jostling trailer. address (Without an address of our We find our home
As a last hope, Bob, remembering own, we had become non-people.). Then, as my son Bill and I stood at a
how long our contract had taken to get To make another long story short, I pay phone in the tiny town of Avon
to us from B.C. with Fed-Ex, took a called a realtor friend, Pat Byrne, in with a new snowfall pelting us, we
long gamble and called our realtor in Missoula, Montana, who works with struck pay dirt. A new listing (three-
B.C. to see if the cashiers check wed Mar-West Properties. Pat had shown days old) had just come in; a house on
sent via Express Mail, six days earlier, us a neat mining claim a year ago and a remote 20 acres up in the mountains.
had cleared. While he was on the we knew he knew what we were look- We immediately took off to the listing
phone in the U.S. Customs Office, our ing for. realtors office to get a look at photos
vehicles were sniffed by narc and Not only did Pat spend hours on the and pick up a map.
explosives dogs and gone through by Internet contacting realtors and prop- The photos looked okay, nothing
Customs Officers. I sat with my son, erty owners for us, but he insisted that spectacular, but we were getting des-
Bill, explaining why we were kicked we unload our trail-weary livestock at perate. Nothing was turning up and
out of Canada. his farm out of town. Bill had to fly out soon to get back to
Pat searched far and wide and so did his job. The realtor could not show the
Our first break we. I looked through so many real place until the following day and it
Two days to the new year, nowhere estate magazines that I was about was late in the day, but we wanted a
to go, it was the worst day of all of our brain-dead. We knew Montana from look. So, following a sketchy map
lives. If, indeed, our down payment when we had lived there six years ago, with the realtors words, Youll never
check had been received and cashed, so we knew areas we liked and ones find it, ringing in our ears, we tore for
wed be locked into our B.C. home- we wanted to steer clear of. It made Wolf Creek, then Craig, and the
stead, and we had no way to get to it the process quicker, but it was still mountain road beyond.
for nearly a year. And we had little frustrating. I read the map and Bill drove up the
money to do anything in the States. We kept on looking at places, get- winding trail. Then we came on a trail
Then, in what we think was an act of ting stuck in several four-foot deep that was not on the map and took it
God, Bob came back from the phone snow drifts on remote mountainsides. up. Stopping on a rocky ledge, we
with the news that the check had not Found one place, but couldnt feasibly got out to look over the country, and
yet been received by the title company get our livestock and hay in. Found there, just below, we spotted the
in B.C., after six days, despite Express another, but it was in a rather built-up placeour place. Sometimes you just
Mails claims for three-day delivery. subdivision, the log house needed know.
We at least had a chance. Bob was

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 September/October 2000 Backwoods Home Magazine

The next day we looked through the a frozen spring and must haul water
house with wonder. How could we be from the fire department in a town 20
so fortunate to find such a pretty, well- miles away in a 250-gallon poly tank,
built house on remote (but relatively but its no big deal until spring.) Dont
accessible) land that, most important- depend on a well unless there are
ly, we could afford? Then we received other fairly shallow wells nearby, as
the answer: there had been a divorce especially in the mountains water can
and, in the process, the spring that be uncertain. You may have to go
supplies the house had frozen. down 1,000 feet, and at $15-$20 a foot
Gratefully, we quickly signed a con- for just the hole, this can get pricey
tract, knowing that no longer were we pretty quick.
among the homeless. Are there restrictions or covenants
on the land? On some you cannot
The search place a camper trailer, a mobile home,
Weve had a busy and stressful year, or even a stick-built home. Or you
but it is no coincidence that we found cannot have horses, cattle, goats, or
three homesteads that met our limited chickens. And Im talking about
requirements. We worked hard and remote property, too.
long to dig them up. Perhaps some of Check out things like farm chemical
the things we did will help you with use, military target range areas nearby
your search for a homestead: (theyre not always accurate), and nat-
In each area of our search we con- ural disaster potentialflood, earth-
tacted tourist information centers, quake, hurricane, etc.
Chambers of Commerce, Fish and Do you plan on growing much of
Game Departments, Forest Service your own food? If so, is there a pos-
offices, and realtors. sible garden area? I say possible as
We studied maps, especially Forest many homesteads have no garden in
Service maps, which detail every the early stages, and one must be
remote road and trail and show private developed. At our new homestead we
land in or near government land. will be breaking a new garden on a
We were exact when talking to third of an acre and various little spots
realtors regarding our needs in a prop- among the boulders on the mountain-
erty. For example, we wanted live- side next to our home. We are hard-
stock so the property had to have pas- core gardeners, and the previous
ture. We needed a garden area, and we owner only had a postage stamp-sized
didnt want our neighbors too close. garden patch.
And, perhaps most importantly, we How about livestock pasture? Many
knew how much we could afford. remote places are either in a narrow
We read through local real estate canyon in the mountains, with trees
sales magazines, plus the Rural rising sharply on both sides, or are
Property Bulletin, a nationwide listing simply in the middle of the forest.
of mostly private-sale rural properties. Livestock cannot pick a living out of
We read the real estate listings in local pine duff.
shoppers (Mini-Nickel-type), talked If you find a place you like, talk to
to locals at the feed stores, in cafes, on people living in the general area. If
the sidewalk. We even put our own ad there is anything wrong with the place
in the local shopper for a few weeks you will soon find out. But, hopefully,
(Thats how we found a great deal on youll hear only, Its a nice little
our previous Montana homestead.). place, a little remote for us, but nice.
And youll soon be heading for your
Things to check out own new little backwoods home.
Then, when youve got something to (See the article on page 13 for Jackie Clays
look at, go take a gander with a criti- day-by-day diary of the search that ultimate-
cal eye. How about water? (Weve got ly led to the discovery of her new homestead.)

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