Fearless Readers:
Normally I wait until during or even after a trip to tell you about a place. But this time I'm telling you in advance because I am super duper excited, and to be totally transparent I want to build up some anticipation because this isn't a place a lot of folks have heard of. And if I just drop a blog post in a few weeks called "13 Houses," most of you probably won't click on it unless I let you know NOW why this is going to be one of the coolest, most mysterious destinations I will have EVER been to.
13 Houses was an intentional community in the mountains of Washington State that lasted for less than five years in the early 1990s. It was completely abandoned by 1997, and there's no record of exactly what happened. The residents just left… or disappeared. Nobody who lived there has spoken out publicly about why the community didn't last.
Now this wasn't a Jonestown or a Waco. There was no pile of bodies, no standoff with a government agency. But for almost two hundred people to leave without a trace over the course of just a few months, and nobody knows why? That's pretty juicy! And I'm going there to see what I can find out.
The name 13 Houses was pretty literal. There were thirteen buildings in the original community.
By the way almost all the information I have about the community is from one (1) article from 1993 in Alternate Ways Magazine.
There were thirteen buildings:
- the main Depot which served as a general store, post office and bus station for the two vans that traveled into town and back
- the Bake House
- the Bath House, which apparently had a barber and beauty parlor in it
- the interfaith House of Worship
- the Coffee House
- the Play House arts center
- the Green House with surrounding gardens
- the House of Healing (clinic)
- the Public House (community center, city hall and tavern)
- the Chop House (a vegetarian restaurant)
- the Book House
- the School House
- the Fashion House, which seemed to be what we'd call a Makerspace today
Each building was 3 floors: the ground floor would serve a public purpose and the top two floors would hold eight apartments with a total of 10-15 residents. The Depot had guest apartments, and there were a few RVs and campers parked around the property for other residents.
By 2002, which is the last I could find any information at all about the place, all of the buildings and any remaining campers were abandoned. From what I heard, there wasn't as much vandalism as you'd expect to the buildings. The place is so out of the way, it's not attracting casual squatters or partying teens. In fact the roads leading to it are no longer accessible by vehicle, and nobody's maintaining any trails for hikers either.
So yes, I am going to be hiking solo to an abandoned commune on roads that possibly nobody has even walked on in a decade. But don't worry, Fearless Readers! I've got my satellite phone, my portable water filtration system, bear spray, bug spray, and a metric fuckton of trail mix. I will be OK! Promise.
comments on the blog from two weeks after the above post:
- He's dead, right?
- He's totally dead.
- Don't fearmonger, there's no indication that he's dead. He didn't say when he'd post the update.
- It's been fifteen days, that seems like long enough he should have checked in by now.
- Does anybody know how to contact his family? Roommate? Girlfriend?
- Don't be creepy. If Dave wanted us to know that stuff about himself, he would have shared it.
- OK but this might be an emergency.
- If it's an emergency, it's up to the people in his life to figure out what happened.
- But do they even know? We might be the only people who even have a clue.
- We're just some bozos on the internet, Numbchuck.
forum post from one year later by Numbchuck:
It's been a year since the disappearance of Dave Berlusconi, author of the blog Dave's Dives. Last April, he set out to investigate the abandoned intentional community 13 Houses. The last anyone heard from him was his girlfriend Magritte, who talked to him on the phone just before he went out of cell range. She told police that he was planning to spend three days tops investigating before leaving the mountain, since he only had supplies for that long. When she didn't hear from him by the end of the fourth day, she contacted his family and law enforcement. Since then, local and state police have searched the area where Berlusconi was hiking but have found no trace.
I've been researching the case for the last twelve months. The leading theory is that Berlusconi either intentionally went into a cave or was dragged by an animal, which is why no remains have been found. But the specific area he was investigating is nowhere near any cave entrance.
My theory is that Dave Berlusconi disappeared on purpose, for the same reason the residents of 13 Houses disappeared. What that reason is, I have no idea. But something he saw in that place made him go wherever they went.
I have been training and researching for most of the last year, and am planning to retrace his steps. I'm leaving next week. Two close friends have been informed of my plan and will contact authorities if I go missing, so please do not try to dox me if you don't get an update. One friend has also been instructed to post here by June if I haven't.
I'd say wish me luck, but maybe don't waste a wish on somebody doing something this dumb on purpose.