This past week, ten Oxbow students had the pretty incredible opportunity to become part of the vast community at Fritz Haeg's Salmon Creek Farm in Mendocino, CA. Prior to going to Salmon Creek Farm, students read excerpts from "A Pattern Language" that address aspects of society through a progressive architectural lens. This followed their close reading of "Walden" in their Humanities classes. Both texts framed the Oxpedition experience and served to underscore the pedagogical and mental compatibility of the spirits of Oxbow and Salmon Creek.

Established as a commune in 1971, Salmon Creek Farm grew out of the student protest culture of the late 60's that promoted issues like civil rights, gay liberation, and environmental consciousness. Communards built their own homes, made their own clothes, grew their own food, lived communally, explored Native American rituals, and practiced consensus decision-making.

With its purchase by artist Fritz Haeg in November 2014, Salmon Creek Farm started a new chapter as a long-term art project formed by many hands, a new sort of commune-farm-homestead-sanctuary-school hybrid. An extended community of regularly returning comrades contribute to its revival and daily operations, propose projects, host gatherings, lead workshops, and shape its future. Each person asks how their skills/interests/curiosities meet the needs/potentials/resources of the place.

Normally, people write letters to Fritz musing on the above. They are then invited to Salmon Creek Farm for stays of a week to a few months, and are always in their 20s or older. So the Oxbow School students were in a unique position (!) and represented a poignant return of younger people to Salmon Creek - a deep connection made clear by its history of housing people of all ages.

Marcus M. has written the following about Oxbow's time at Salmon Creek Farm:

Let me start off this paragraph by acknowledging the fact that it may be impossible to put such an extraordinary, life changing experience into the written word.

When we arrived, the stars were bright, showcasing the milkyway and the cold wind smelt of the near by coast and the scent of fresh pines. We were given a night tour, and promptly dropped off at our cabins. By morning it was quite brisk as we shuffled into the communal cabin, Dawn Cabin, to learn our tasks for the day. Split into groups, we worked in the kitchen along side Niki Ford, canning, preserving, and cooking foods from Salmon Creek Farm, Nye Ranch, and other local sources. The rest of us helped Fritz Haeg with his amazing garden harvesting flower seeds, apples, doing some trail maintenance, collecting material for a fence, and spreading compost over several new and old garden beds. Over the four days spent on Fritz' property, the Oxbow students who were honored with an opportunity to attend this trip experienced a glimpse into the Thoreau way of living. Overall it was an enlightening stay, that changed the way we perceive and interact with our surroundings.