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Au Revoir Communistes LbNA #31063 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:The Olde Oak
Plant date:May 20, 2007
Location:
City:Cloverdale
County:Sonoma
State:California
Boxes:1
Found by: Human Ills
Last found:Nov 23, 2007
Status:FFFFFFFa
Last edited:May 20, 2007
Despite recent unsuccessful attempt, Au Revoir Communistes is still there as of 2/3/08

The Au Revoir Communistes letterbox is virtually a drive-by and easy to find once you have located California Landmark 981 followed by an on-line map site. There are however, a few feet of weeds to negotiate with a scattering of stickers to adhere to your socks.

The plaque at the landmark sits on the site where once stood a school. It commemorates the Icaria-Speranza utopian community, alive and soon dying 1881-1886. Fueled by a lovely idealistic notion from France, this small settlement was last in a series of seven unsuccessful experimental communes in this county and the only Icarian commune in California, just another in a grand tradition of failed utopian efforts in Northern California. The Icarian communes were inspired by the writings of the French communist writer Etienne Cabet from his novel Voyage en Icarie. Agricultural in scope and taking up “885 acres of the best kind of land for vineyard and orchard” according to the local newspaper, the community was doomed from the start: Foremost, the small settlement inherited debts from its defunct Iowa experiment it could not hope to pay. The Speranza members refused to advertise and recruit. And if that were not bad enough they would not accept members who could not speak French. And then along came California’s economic slump of 1884. Not a winning situation! So that was that for the Icaria-Speranzans, some of whom stayed to divide the communal land and some who moved on. The school house was deeded to the county in 1886.

I drove by California Landmark 981 twice looking before I spotted it, so keep a sharp eye out. When you find it park next to the landmark and parallel to the road. Walk around and behind the landmark and note there’s not a board or ruined foundation or anything else to indicate a school once was there. Take the last two digits from the year the Icaria-Speranza community was establised, add the two and walk that many steps away from the landmark. Now you must decide whether to proceed left or right to a large deciduous oak tree. Walk in the direction a good communist would not. Go left or right? Hmm. When you have reached the tree take out your compass. Walk across the field at 300 degrees to reach the next large deciduous oak. On the trunk's east side at the base you will find a large hole. You cannot see the Au Revoir letterbox, but it is there waiting for you at the bottom of the hole next to the part of the trunk closest to you.

Thanks for coming.