[maine-iac7]

My kinda guy.

I think a lot of us have a little dream of such a simple, independent life. Had I no family, I'd be tempted to a similar situation.

I once knew such a man - lived off in the woods by himself with his 2 Shepherds. People knew him only a "Oh Be Joyful" and thought of him as an old coot a bit touched in the head.

Truth was, he - O.B.Tyler - had been a brilliant engineer for GE. Following a personal tragedy, he retired from 'civilization' and moved into a small shanty in the forest...far from "the Madding Crowd."

Few knew that, were they to to call on him, they might find him in conversation with one or many engineers who sought him out for advice.

Civilization eventually caught up with him and built near his home - and then complained because he was want to sunbath in the all together.

Eventually, the town moved him to a nursing home 'for his own good." (He had lived into is 90's fit as a fiddle, on his own. After the move, he died within 3 weeks.)

I love the part about this 'caveman', Dugout Dick, where he walked out of the care facility and hitchhiked 'home.' (As a portrait artist, who studies character in the face, I see a man who would have been a companionable person to visit.)

[STONEWALLS]

...I wonder if it’s still possible to build your own shelter in the woods in America anymore?...too damn many zoning codes/building codes/safety codes/health codes.

[maine-iac7]

lived an essentially 19th century lifestyle, a digital-age anachronism who never owned a telephone or a television and lived almost entirely off the land.

I really dislike 'lived OFF the land."

I grew up on a farm in the forests of northern Maine with my grandparents - in the 30'40's...no telephone, no electricity (TV hadn't even been thought of) and we grew, raised, fished, hunted and traded for 95% of everything we needed.

Grampa was a Maine Guide and had been a blacksmith and, with a gas lathe, made tennis racket frames and snowshoes and such endeavors that allowed him a totally independent life - never having to work for anyone else. We lived ON the land, and WITH the land.(That was not unusual at the time. The greater percentage of Americans produced most of their own needs, particularly food. We have become far to dependent on outside sources for our needs. Precarious way to live.)

Asked repeatedly to appear on the "Tonight Show" , he "...spurned repeated invitations to appear... "I ride Greyhounds, not airplanes," he said in a 1993 Statesman interview. "Besides, the show isn't in California. The show is here."

So true. Smarter than those city folk.

"People said he was the only person they'd ever known who was absolutely self-sufficient. He didn't work for anybody. He worked for himself."

Like so many of us used to.

[Snickering Hound]

Felicity Kendal looked cuter living like that.

[Ben Ficklin]

35 years ago, on a Snake River float trip, we stopped there. And like a good tourist, I bought some trinkets from him.

[Daffynition]

Connecticut had its own version of the wandering hobo who lived in caves and off the kindness of strangers, called the Leatherman.

[HEM]

In a few years people like this guy will be required to earn enough money to buy into Obamacare.

[ARepublicanForAllReasons]

Richard Zimmerman, known to all as Dugout Dick, succumbs at 94

Just shows how dangerous it is to live without the material blessings of civilization and modern medicine. Obamacare would have enabled him to live a full life. (/sarc)

[Mr. Lucky]

Richard Zimmerman had been in declining health when he died.

Does the reporter think we wouldn't have figured that out on our own?

[DuncanWaring]

Ping.

[stickandrudder]

Read the biography of Sylvan Hart, “Last of the Mountain Men” by Harold Peterson, years ago. Interesting group of people. Fascinating lifestyle, if you could do it. We will find out after a few more years of what is going on!

[Uncle Miltie]