Beginning

I have a project.
It begins with a chapter sample that goes to the publisher, and then grows into a book.

Because I don't seem to be able to do things the easy way I am building a chapter from scratch, even though I already have an article all written up and ready to go. It makes sense in a way, it takes longer but this way I have a chapter instead of an adapted article, and I am that much closer to being done.

The book? It is a history of shanty towns and squatting in the US. The chapter is about the politics of squatting, how squatters were able to gain access to Tammany Hall and other political offices. The longest part will be a case study of East San Pedro, out in the bay on the breakwater. The origins of the colony are fuzzy, but at some point soon after the government built the breakwater connecting Rattlesnake Island to Deadman's Island shacks began appearing along its length. Twenty-five years later the community consisted of hundreds of people, dozens of shacks, and was the target of a campaign by the Salt Lake Railroad to evict them. That is where it gets interesting.
More on this as I pull the chapter together.

Anyone with knowledge, stories, or resources about squatters anywhere in the US can feel free to contact me through this page. I am particularly in examples of urban squatters because that seems to me to be the great untold story.

Happy Trails to us all.