A tiny American town’s plans for radical self-government
overlooked one hairy detail: no one told the bears.
Once upon a time, a
group of libertarians got together and hatched the Free Town Project,
a plan to take over an American town and completely eliminate its
government. In 2004, they set their sights on Grafton, NH, a barely
populated settlement with one paved road.
When they descended
on Grafton, public funding for pretty much everything shrank: the
fire department, the library, the schoolhouse. State and federal laws
became meek suggestions, scarcely heard in the town’s thick
wilderness.
The anything-goes
atmosphere soon caught the attention of Grafton’s neighbors: the
bears. Freedom-loving citizens ignored hunting laws and regulations
on food disposal. They built a tent city in an effort to get off the
grid. The bears smelled food and opportunity.
A Libertarian
Walks Into a Bear is the sometimes funny, sometimes terrifying
tale of what happens when a government disappears into the woods.
Complete with gunplay, adventure, and backstabbing politicians, this
is the ultimate story of a quintessential American experiment — to
live free or die, perhaps from a bear.
