Poole's Land

Poole's Land was an Eco-village and a Counter Cultural Intentional Community located in Tofino on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada that operated between 1988 and 2020.

History
Founder Michael Poole
Communal kitchen and greenhouse used in Poole's Land
"The Magic Bus" - A school bus converted into a place of residence within Poole's Land

Poole's Land was created October 7, 1988[1] by Michael Poole when he purchased an 18-acre property in the area of Tofino, a small settlement on the west coast of Vancouver Island.[2] It cost Poole $50,000 to purchase the site, and afterwards, he had little funds remaining to develop it further. In keeping with his vision of creating a "communal living area free from any corporate structure", he began to offer accommodation on the site in exchange for labour. This formed the basis of what came to emerge on the site, a "Hippie Commune" run under Anarchist principles. If guests were unable to afford to pay for accommodation at the site, they could instead volunteer their labour, such as working in a communal kitchen or in a communal garden. Labour could also be undertaken in exchange for a gift of drugs as such as Cannabis, Magic Mushrooms or LSD, the use of which was promoted by founder Michael Poole as "Herbal Medicines". Inversely, hard narcotics such as Cocaine and Heroin were shunned by Poole and the community as destructive and addictive.[3][4]

Residents of Poole's Land lived in camp like settings, occupying tents, wooden cabins or tiny homes, many placed on the back of trailers in order to abide by local Tofino housing bylaws. Even the remains of a disused school bus (known as the Magic Bus) served as a place of residence. There was no on-site plumbing, with the community using making use of outhouses and composting toilets for bathroom facilities and using the nearby Pacific Ocean to wash.[5] Poole estimated that, in any given year, during the summer months there could be as many as 100 residents living simultaneously on Poole's Land.[1]

Many of Poole's Land residents were poor or even homeless as they arrived but often found work in the area as unskilled labour. Critics of Poole's Land associated the residents with criminality, but supporters suggested that Poole's Land offered some of the only affordable accommodation in the area during the summer, as all other accommodation in the town would let out to seasonal tourists, and thus was very important to the Tofino workforce.[2][6][7]

Poole's Land was a popular destination not just for prospective residents; It was estimated that approximately 20,000 people passed through Poole's Land in a 30 year period.[2][1]

Demise

In 2013 founder Michael Poole was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer.[8] This, coupled with a general feeling of being "burnt out" by 30 continuous years of running the community, resulted in Poole placing the property up for sale in 2018, hoping to secure a price of $2 to $3 million dollars. It was Poole's ambition to use these profits to purchase a 160-acre lot on nearby Long Beach, BC in order “to solve the staff-accommodation problem and the homelessness.”[2]

In the midst of the global COVID-19 Pandemic, Poole's Land was declared "permanently closed" as of March 2020.[9]

On 25 June 2020, Manisha Krishnan, the journalist from VICE who had written a number of articles about Poole's Land as well as creating a short documentary about it, wrote an article stating that Michael Poole had passed away on June 16 2020. He was 68 years old.[8]

References
  1. Bailey, Andrew (17 November 2019). "Poole's Land finale: Tofino's legendary 'hippie commune' being dismantled". Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  2. Renwick, Melissa (20 August 2018). "For years, it was an ecovillage and a commune. Now, Poole's Land in Tofino, B.C., is up for sale". Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  3. Hofmann, Robert. "This commune in BC lets you live for free and pays you in drugs". Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  4. Krishnan, Manisha (28 August 2018). "Inside the Oceanside Commune Where Young People Live In 'Anarchy'". VICE. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  5. Krishnan, Manisha (22 November 2018). "I Joined an Anarchist Commune Expecting To Hate It, But Coming Home Sucked". VICE. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  6. O'Malley, Nora (15 August 2017). "Where would all the workers stay without Poole's Land?". Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  7. Mac Quarrie, Ron (15 March 2018). "Poolesland, Tofino, British Columbia". Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  8. Krishnan, Manisha (25 June 2020). "The Founder of Poole's Land, a Psychedelic Commune in the Rainforest, Dies". VICE. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  9. Poole's Land is PERMANENTLY CLOSED. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
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