“I was not designed to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.”
― Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
“We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods
After graduating from Appalachian State University, Eustace Conway moved to the wilds of North Carolina to get away from the government. He built a nature school to teach people about what it was like to live in the old days. He set out to build a life based on the American heritage of self sustainability and individual responsibility. But the local government of Watauga County isn’t having any of it.
The county has issued the man a cease and desist order, deeming his property to be unsafe according to local ordinances. Mr. Conway is a very shy person and has had extreme distress in trying to protect his property and way of life saying “This is supposed to the be land of the free. Government is supposed to help people, protect their individual liberties and freedom. That’s not what’s happening here. So I’m thinkin’, my gosh, this is the country I pledge my allegiance to each day?”
Eustace’s property has been assessed before but was deemed safe by the local government but now they have decided to shut down his nature school if he doesn’t get it up to code. Conway doesn’t believe he’ll win the fight.
The Blaze with more of the details here: HISTORY CHANNEL’S NORTH CAROLINA MOUNTAIN MAN FIGHTS GOV’T FOR CONTROL OF HIS PROPERTY
The History Channel ran a special on the Mountain Man here