Transcripts

AMY RADIL: Johanna and David Hecker entered the Y2K industry in an effort to get out of debt and sell off part of their 4,000 acres in the woods near Two Harbors. On their website, they offered to build cabins for families seeking a retreat from the predicted chaos surrounding January 1, 2000. Their phone began ringing off the hook, with prospective buyers coming to visit in droves. Customers wanted to give up their jobs and live off the land.

But many of those customers changed their minds when they realized all the work involved. As New Year's Eve approaches, the Heckers' home is quiet, and only a few cabins dot the surrounding woods. Johanna says they've had some disappointments along the way, including customers who took advantage of them.

JOHANNA HECKER: We've had a couple of cases where somebody's bought or wanted us to build for them or something, and then they weren't able to pay for what they had bargained for or what they had agreed to. So that put us way behind. And that puts a sour note on things so that it takes all the-- well, all the adventure out of it or the joy out of it.

AMY RADIL: One family moved into a cabin without ever paying for it. They're still there, and the Heckers are trying to work out exactly what to do. Johanna says the building process, carving out roads and transporting supplies, has been harder and slower than anyone expected.

With a booming building economy across the state, carpentry help has been scarce. She and her husband are building three cabins themselves, while five other families have purchased land and built their own homes. Over recent months, she says, people's fears of Y2K disasters waned, making them more reluctant to live the so-called simple life. Instead, most of these cabins will serve as vacation homes.

[MACHINERY SOUNDING]

Retired carpenter [? Louis ?] Mason is helping build a cabin on land bought from the Heckers as a vacation retreat for his daughter, who lives and works in southern Minnesota.

SPEAKER: She's a naturalist, very well-informed on birds and animals. She does a lot of travel, a lot of exploring, a lot of research.

AMY RADIL: Mason says it was his son, who was concerned about Y2K, who saw the Heckers' website and contacted his sister, telling her about the land for sale. Mason says his daughter has no Y2K-based worries.

SPEAKER: Not really. She went along with it because her brother was concerned, who actually built the main part of the cabin. But she wasn't, no.

AMY RADIL: Looking back, Johanna Hecker says worries over Y2K may have prompted people who were already considering country living to actually take the plunge. Meanwhile, Johanna says the frenzy around building homes and answering inquiries has interrupted her own search for the simple life. These days, she's more concerned with cars, cell phones, and generators than ever.

JOHANNA HECKER: When we first came here, we took this giant leap from having everything modern to everything primitive. But over the years, there's always been a constant pressure to modernize. And little by little, it pushes you that direction. And though we still don't have electricity, and we still haul our water in in buckets and haul it out in buckets, the matter of walking a half a mile to the house all the time has been something we've laid aside. And now we bring our vehicles close by.

AMY RADIL: Johanna says she hopes to retreat from such conveniences once they've sold more of their land, but admits that might not be realistic. Her husband David says their endeavor hasn't gone as expected, and he looks forward to a return to peace and quiet.

DAVID HECKER: My greatest satisfaction for the near future is when all of this stuff is over, the bulldozing is over and the building.

AMY RADIL: David has done much of the carpentry on the three cabins in progress. He says he still sees the potential for Y2K calamities this New Year's eve, in part because many of the people who contacted them work in the information technology field and were also nervous. He expects any problems to be centered around urban areas and the electrical grid. He says, American arrogance and addiction to luxury will be largely to blame if problems do arise.

DAVID HECKER: I think there's a real sense of protective denial. Who ever heard of the United States having a super tragedy? Who?

AMY RADIL: But David says, the fuss over a computer glitch simply underscores American's misplaced priorities. Johanna says, regardless of what happens at midnight New Year's eve, she believes a moral reckoning will eventually be at hand. She says technology has simply helped create a culture of greed.

JOHANNA HECKER: Whether Y2K is a problem or not, ever since the '60s, when prayer was taken out of the schools, the United States has been on a spiral where ethics and morals and all of that absolute values has been going down the tubes. And something's sooner or later going to crash.

AMY RADIL: The Heckers say they chose to live the best way they know how, no matter what happens outside of God's wilderness. They expect to be in bed asleep when the clock strikes 12:00 this New Year's Eve. In Duluth, I'm Amy Radil, Minnesota Public Radio.