![Item #13189 [Survey Plat Map of Part of Catron County, New Mexico with Manuscript Additions Laying Out a Proposed Utopian Community]. New Mexico, Ron Kezar, Utopian Communities.](https://thejoefaycompany.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/13189.jpeg?width=768&height=1000&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1784918442)
[Survey Plat Map of Part of Catron County, New Mexico with Manuscript Additions Laying Out a Proposed Utopian Community].
Safford, AZ: Stratton Land Surveying, 1976. Blueline map, 18 x 24 inches, with substantial manuscript annotations in brown ink and pencil. Old folds, minor wear, light toning along folds. Overall very good. Item #13189
A unique New Mexico survey map with numerous manuscript annotations including a long inscription to Earth First! cofounder and grassroots activist Ron Kezar. In addition to Kezar, several other prominent ecologists and radicals are mentioned in the manuscript notations. For example, another cofounder of Earth First!, Dave Foreman, is referred to here ("Foreman Building Site"). In addition, prominent biologist and ornithologist Lowell Sumner (1907-1989) is mentioned ("Good guy, will get an award from Sierra Club this yr.").
Lowell Sumner, whose land is pointed out on the map, established a homestead in Catron County, New Mexico, after he had retired. The "Tollesfrud" annotations may refer to Philip B. Tollesfrud, who was a leading proponent of Open Space who was instrumental in the effort to preserve the Elena Gallegos Land Grant. Sadly, Tollesfrud passed in the year that this plat survey was produced.
The notations on the map represent what appears to be a plan sketched out by a group of radicals who want to carve out this section of land in the hope of creating a Utopian society -- a plan that was never realized. A long inscription to Kezar from the annotater, identified only as "CWL," covers the reasoning behind the layout, and reads in part, as follows:
"Ron -- the land as it is now subdivided. It was done this way so that each party would have an above-the-concrete irrigation canal building site. All have a fair share of farm land; and part of the bosque / river natural area. All of us took some good and some bad. For example, we (CWL) took the road down into the property and all of Holt Gulch (bad), but we got good building sites (good).... Hurry down so we can get on with it! CWL."
Price: $650