I relocated my family to Crawford Co. in 1998 in preparation for whatever y2k would bring, and after reading "Strategic Relocation". This area does not figure heavily in the book, so I make this contribution.
This is a rural farming area with little industry, hilly and heavily forested with mixed hardwoods where not cleared. Corn, wheat and soybeans are grown here. Much of it is marginal, abandoned farmland. Maps show a "Hoosier National Forest", which is an area in which the state and federal government has bought acreage, but it is mostly undeveloped. This is not a vacation destination, and has none of the pros and cons of those areas. It is largely quiet and ignored, slowly growing back up in the native hardwoods.
The climate is moderate, with very little winter snowfall until you get up near Indianapolis. Winter temps rarely hit 0, and seem to average around 20. Summers are humid with temps in the 80s regularly. Long, lovely spring and fall. Few insect pests except for ticks. Plenty of rainfall, but fall tends to be dry.
Louisville is the nearest large city, or possibly Indianapolis depending on where you locate. It is possible to follow Joel's relocation strategy and find a very rural location within 1-2 hours drive time from Louisville or Indianapolis, so you can maintain an economic connection with a large city without living in suburbia.
We have the Ohio River just to the south and very few bridges, which would give good insulation from the population of Louisville in an emergency evacuation, assuming that the major highways were controlled. We are also far from the population and power centers of northern Indiana, making this area a kind of orphan which has been economically adopted by the Louisville metro area under the phrase "Kentuckiana".
Crawford Co. has NO zoning and NO requirements for building permits or inspections. You can build here without ever seeing a representative of government. The people are very traditional, live-and-let-live in many ways, and welcoming of outsiders. A large number commute to Louisville for employment. This is the poorest and least populated county in Indiana, possibly the most rural, with a correspondingly high percentage of welfare clients of various types.
There are no major nuclear targets nearby. The major fallout danger is from the big Missouri bases to the west.
Another year has gone by and I am more than ever glad of having come here to the woods of Crawford County. Joel has correctly pointed out some the the general disadvantages of the eastern states as compared with some areas west of the Mississippi. On the other hand, here are some advantages of my own location over many western locations.
1) Far removed from proposed invasion routes, such as up through Mexico, down through Alaska, over from Cuba to Florida, or directly from China into the US west coast. Nuclear attack is the major threat, but infiltration or outright attack by conventional forces is also in the cards.
2) Far removed from concentrations of illegal aliens, hispanics, orientals, blacks and other unassimilated ethnic groups who are currently or potentially hostile to traditional white Americans. Compare this with California, where it was recently reported that whites now comprise less than 50% of the population. The population here is 99.99% white and we are not attracting foreign immigration. It is sad that this has become a strategic relocation issue, but the old melting-pot ideal is dead, and we are well into the era of deliberately fomented racial and ethnic strife. It's nice to live somewhere where my neighbors all speak English as their primary language and are not being actively encouraged to hate me for the color of my skin or for the evils done by generations past.
Thanks for the update. Its good to hear what others are doing....
What kind of mindset do the locals have in regards to the NWO and Government in general?
Alonzo,
Same question, and are the locals in a preparation/awareness mode?
Many of the virtues of this place are negative and consist of all the things government doesn't yet do, largely because the population is small and dispersed they haven't gotten around to doing them yet.
As you might expect, we have a mixture of opinion. As I see it, the general view is quite traditional. On the one hand, people know little about and have less interest in the NWO, the UN or other such far away outfits. Nobody promotes that cause overtly. On the other hand, people still display a lot of the traditional trust in government, and government authority has not suffered as greatly here as it has in more urban areas. Being a poor county, many people depend on government for food stamps, unemployment, social security and other relief programs. Most have not learned to be suspicious or hostile toward government since it still presents a benevolent face and has not become intrusive.
But the largest employer in the county is the public school system. This is the major source of "permanent" jobs and retirement pensions. It also sponsors all the local high school sports, which are a major cultural feature. Many people depend for their livelihood on this government program, and it is by far the largest direct influence of government on the life of the county. People still see it as a benefit provider rather than as a tax consumer.
Nevertheless, we are seeing a lot of defections to homeschooling because there are no private schools in the county and few could afford them if they existed. Parents are beginning to fear the corrosive effects of high school on their teenagers, though most are still hopeful. But even here we are seeing the intrusion of wicca (witchcraft) and homosexuality into the highschool, unopposed by the administration. The school system takes a hostile approach to home schoolers, but Indiana law at present does not give them much scope for direct persecution.
As to awareness of and preparation for the dangers that face us, I see very little. During the y2k scare, people were more willing here than in Louisville to consider the danger and make modest preparations, probably because they did not first have to face the relocation issue. But there could be a lot going on privately of which I am unaware.
Back again, 7 years after my big y2k move. And my old Joel Skousen user name and password still work! Nobody else ever wrote about Indiana, too bad. It's one of the better places I've ever lived.
This is my final report. I sold the perfect country retreat last year and built a new house one county closer to Louisville. It's not near as good a retreat, but it is still a good distance west of the city, and much more practical for day-to day living. Driving 57 miles each way to work just gets old. It was a grand adventure for those 6 years, but without the fixed deadline of y2k, it's hard to live in a constant state of disaster preparedness, year after year. Life has a lot of other priorities. I do notice how the timetable for the nuclear attack keeps slipping . . .
We have cut way down on our stored supplies, steadily using them up or selling them and replacing them as they run low. "Store what you eat, and eat what you store" is a good long term practice. Don't know if I'll EVER use up all the ammo, but my sons may (grin). Good thing it keeps.
Meanwhile, the One World Order just keeps getting closer and closer at its glacial pace. I'm not sure they need to nuke us, we are steadily destroying ourselves without much help.
Best Wishes to All