How a bunch of Hippies combined with (and often the same as) highly educated Ivy League graduates just may have changed the world.

This is a story – in writing and audio – about the so-called “Prickly Mountain Gang” from the 1970’s.

From the article:
“Prickly Mountain became a caldron of entrepreneurial stew. Suddenly, everyone had a business. Norton, along with other Prickly residents Andy Palmer, Chris McCarthy and Michael Goldfinger, started a furniture company called Union Woodworks. They leased space in the old Bibbin Mill, now co-owned by Sellers. Others soon followed: Randy Taplin was already established as a furniture maker; his wife, Nancy, was a working artist; Serena Fox started a graphic design business; Pierre Moffroid started importing tankless water heaters; Mac Rood and Rob Bass started exploring the manufacture and sale of composting toilets. Sellers also looked to be employed. He was hired at Goddard College in Plainfield to teach a class in design and building. One of his students, Don Mayer, was interested in bringing back the windmills that years earlier had been a common source of renewable energy on farms in the Midwest. Lessons of the past; solutions for the future. “Sure,” Sellers told him. “We can make that happen.” Before long Mayer, with Sellers, founded the North Wind Power company. And then two others, Duncan Syme and Richard Travers, started woodstove companies. It wasn’t long before many of these businesses and enterprises began cross-pollinating with the ideas and skills of other residents of Prickly Mountain. A wind turbine soon was constructed at Dimetrodon. (“The worst wind power site ever!” says Norton ruefully.) The commonalities soon led to a unique blend of practical skills and unbridled creativity.”

One might even say I, with a 40+ year career in Alt Energy and Tech, was directly influenced by this “gang”.