Up a winding road through a coastal forest northwest of Santa Cruz, California, is the village of Bonny Doon. Amid a seemingly endless array of towering redwoods are six acres of land that a young man who grew up here, Ashtyn Davis, jokingly calls “The Compound.”



At The Compound there is heavy machinery, downed logs and bundles of wire fence. There also are wild animals like mountain lions and domesticated ones like the family-owned goats, cows and horses. There is the house where Davis grew up, one his dad built and his mom still lives in. Next to that is his grandfather’s house. His uncle lived in a third house on the property.



Davis spent much of his time here climbing trees, riding dirt bikes or playing baseball with his friends. His passion for sports — baseball, football and basketball — as a kid is commemorated in a water-logged binder that his maternal grandfather still keeps close at hand.



It was Davis’...