“It won’t work.”

So declared a prominent Lopez real estate broker on hearing from one of his salesmen that a group of people from Seattle wanted to buy the old McCauley Farm on Mud Bay Road and form a land cooperative.

That was in May, 1975. Forty years later what became the McCauley Farm Community is still thriving.

Known locally as “the farm,” its 40 acres are held as a tenancy-in-common, meaning that each of its 12 owners has an equal, undivided interest in the whole. Residents have individually owned homes but share infrastructure, such as roads, common buildings and a water system.

The community arose out of the popularity in the early 1970s of moving “back to the land.” Neil Young’s refrain, “Are you ready for the country, because it’s time to go,” resonated with many younger people tired of urban life.

A group of friends and acquaintances who shared this feeling began meeting early in 1975. They agreed that each member would have an equal voice in decisions and that expenses would be the same for each.

By early May of that year an owners agreement had been finalized. What remained was to find land. Lopez Island was the most popular option.

Soon two members of the group were in a realty office in Lopez Village looking at listings. One was the McCauley family’s old farm. The property, with its orchard, farm buildings, yellow farmhouse, two pastures, deep woods and a rocky bluff with views of the Olympics, immediately appealed to them. An offer was made and accepted. Possession was taken July 1.

In a vignette published years later, the seller, Gardiner Davis, described the land he had purchased in the late 1960s as “a derelict farm.” The new owners had many improvements to make. Over the years they re-roofed all the buildings, expanded the orchard, drilled a new well and laid out a water system, in the meantime building homes for themselves.

They were also learning what it means to share land and make decisions together. A few moved elsewhere on the island, while some discovered they were indeed not ready for the country and were replaced by others who were, the last such change occurring in 1993.

The farm was originally developed by James McCauley, a well-known farmer who raised sheep and cattle. He purchased the place in 1918 and moved the present farmhouse from another property to the east. Honoring him, the residents who took over the place 40 years ago decided to name their community “The Old McCauley Place,” its official name even today.

Recently the community worked together to repaint the old farmhouse. No longer derelict, it stands on a rise above Mud Bay Road. As James McCauley’s granddaughter Barbara Pickering remarked a few years ago, after saying she liked to point it out to visitors, “It is quite a landmark, you know.” Its present owners intend to keep it that way.