Imagine owning an entire town that could be remade to your liking. That's what people did when they heard Tiller, a former timber town aligned with the South Umpqua River in Oregon and devoid of cellphone towers, was for sale.

If you drive very slowly on the country highway fronting the downtown, the ride takes about three minutes from end to end. And yet, this remote, unknown and mostly unoccupied pinpoint on the map captured the imagination of people around the world. To many, it seemed idyllic.

People pondered: What would I do if I owned a town? Here are some ideas.

-- Janet Eastman | 503-799-8739

jeastman@oregonian.com

Google map

Own everything

It's one of the rarest real estate deals: Buying an entire town. Tiny Tiller, hidden in the hillside in southern Oregon, just sold. The asking price: $3.85 million for 257 contiguous acres bundled together. That's everything, except for the community church and pastor's residence, the volunteer-staffed fire station and a retired school teacher's house.



Don't Edit

Land and Wildlife Realty

Go wild with ideas

After news about the opportunity to purchase a slice of the American dream with little red tape went viral, offers and ideas for Tiller started pouring in.

Don't Edit

Janet Eastman | The Oregonian/OregonLive

No need to start from scratch

What makes buying an entire town so valuable? Almost everything you need -- water, electricity and addresses -- is already in place. The new owners of Tiller even have a school.

Don't Edit

US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service

Add to the history

The new owner of Tiller bought an unincorporated town with sidewalks, fire hydrants and history. This 1930s-era photo shows a forest workers in Tiller.

Don't Edit

Janet Eastman

Play with the zones

Tiller's different tax lots are zoned for rural commercial, industrial, residential, agricultural, farm forest and timber resource use. This makes it easier to start businesses and have houses for workers.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Janet Eastman | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Reimagine the buildings

The land, acquired over about four decades by one family, has buildings, houses and workshops. "It's rare for 257 acres of land and property to become available," said Garrett Zoller, broker for Medford-based Land and Wildlife Realty.

Don't Edit

US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service

Be the mayor

The buyer of tiny Tiller could be the mayor and head every committee. If adhering to county, state and federal laws, an owner can write covenants that say a tenant has to have a vegetable garden or [fill in the blank].

Don't Edit

Janet Eastman | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Rename it

Can you rename the town? If residents agree, you can start the long process by petitioning the post office, which opened in Tiller in 1902.

Don't Edit

Janet Eastman | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Fullfill a childhood dream

A Singaporean living in Hawaii wrote of his interest in Tiller, as inspired by a program in Japan to revive deserted villages. "I read of Tiller's condition and I was amazed by some similarities [of] factors in play to rejuvenate deserted villages," he wrote. "The boy in me that has not grown up is fascinated by such questions. I'd dearly love the challenge to participate in the rejuvenating of a village/town if such an opportunity arose."

Don't Edit

Oregonian archive

Take the town back in time

How about a throwback to the good old days? Long-timers reminisce about the one-room schoolhouse, people arriving in horse and buggies to watch the rodeo, and neighbors helping each other out.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Janet Eastman | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Blast into the future

The new owners of Tiller describe their ambitious plan like a Shangri-La: The forests will be maintained, workers will be hired, local products will be sold and forward-thinking experts will work on crucial social issues such as creating "healthy homes" and relying on biofuel public transportation while vacationers hike trails and ride ziplines over the water.

Don't Edit

Janet Eastman | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Connect to wi-fi or not

There's a Pacific Power station in Tiller, but no cell service tower...yet.

Don't Edit

Land and Wildlife Realty

Live with less red tape

The owner of the unincorporated town can create a quasi fiefdom while still adhering to the laws and zoning of Douglas County.

Don't Edit

Land and Wildlife Realty

Be neighbor-free

If you owned an entire town, you could decide not to sell or rent to anyone else.

Don't Edit

Janet Eastman

Populate the place

If you build it, they will come. People volunteered to be a part of the reborn town, from developers to do-gooders, carpenters in need of a job to retirees who want to live out their life there. A man from Texas hoped to meet the "church ladies."

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Janet Eastman

Create a self-sufficient utopia

What if the whole city were a permaculture (or prepper's) paradise, that is an ecovillage where residents rethink their life-support systems, redesign water catchment, completely recycle waste, capture and use sun and wind, eat food grown on the land, regenerate the soils, build homes with local natural materials, raise children with a maximum amount of nature connection, keep the economy as local as possible, build social structures that encourage cooperation in work and governance. Melanie Mindlin of Siskiyou Permaculture explains: "One of the permaculture principles is to create a closed loop system, meaning that we use no more resources than are generated on the land and recapture the nutrient or other value before the flows leave the land. This can refer to water, soil nutrients, heat, or social and economic structures."

Don't Edit

Janet Eastman | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Repurpose the buildings

Statewide preservation group Restore Oregon promotes the idea of updating old buildings to be of value today. What could these old structures be used for?

Don't Edit

LC- Terry Richard/Staff

Preserve the land

Oregon Wild and other conservation organizations promote the importance of protecting and restoring land, water and wildlife. A town that's underdeveloped is already ahead of game.

Don't Edit

Build inspired housing

An owner could create affordable homes, from a tiny house village to cohousing community.

Don't Edit

Owner

Recreate yourself

Actors aren't the only ones who can recreate themselves. You can too. If you're frustrated with life in the big city, you can dream like a man in New Jersey, hoping to escape the East Coast rat race, who wanted to put together a group of friends to buy Tiller, then spend his days fishing.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Janet Eastman

Start a ministry

The town could be the place to create a new type of ministry, suggested an Arkansas evangelist. "If God were to open the minds of people in Tiller to an opportunity to become the internet home for America's speakers and preachers, groups of talented new people could create a central hub there, providing the talents to produce radio and online/YouTube-type programming for people looking for a pulpit."

Don't Edit

What would you do?

Once the story went viral, listing agent Garrett Zoller of Medford-based Land and Wildlife Realty was bombarded with calls from media and potential buyers, from the U.K. to China. Regardless of their location, they all asked about purchasing the American Dream. "They used those words," Zoller says. "They also were interested in 'getting back to the land.'"

What's your idea?