Quote:A major part of my consulting work revolves around relocation and retreat property selection, for my clients. When I have conversations with clients from the eastern United States, they often have difficulty grasping just how [i]empty[/i] The American Redoubt is. Their view of “The West” is often skewed by the teeming masses of California that they see on television.


I’d like to quantify, describe, and anecdotally illustrate the American Redoubt in this brief article.  As our friend Joerg Sprave would say: “Let me tell you about its [i]features[/i].”

VAST AND LIGHTLY-POPULATED

First, let’s discuss basic geography. The American Redoubt consists of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and the eastern halves of both Oregon and Washington. This is a vast and lightly-populated region. The region is dominated by the northern Rocky Mountains. The terrain varies from wide open prairies to steep mountainous canyons.

The driving distances in the Redoubt can be daunting. For example, it takes nearly 14 hours to drive across the width of Montana. Some Redoubters have work commute distances of more than 60 miles, twice a day, five days a week. A lot of places are[i] truly[/i] remote. If you lived in Winnett, Montana, the nearest Walmart would be 85 miles away, in Billings. Thankfully, the speed limits on the Interstate freeways are as high as 80 miles per hour.  For folks in Dubois, Wyoming, it is 193 miles (2 hours and 50 minutes, in good weather) to the nearest good-sized city, for shopping. That is Casper  — the second largest city in the state, and Casper has a population of just under 60,000. If you lived in Augusta, Montana, driving to Kalispell, Montana for shopping would take you 3 hours and 5 minutes, in good weather. This is because Augusta sits on the east side of the roadless 1.5 million-acre Bob Marshall Wilderness area. The straight-line distance from Augusta to Kalispell is only 100 miles, but the[i] road[/i] distance between them is 198 miles.


Idaho has the most designated wilderness land of any of the “Lower 48” continental United States (CONUS.)  The largest of these is the Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness Area: 2,366,827 acres. (That Wilderness is bigger than Delaware.) Transiting the Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness Area from the little off-grid hamlet of Shoup, Idaho, west to Riggins, Idaho, is normally done only in [i]one[/i] direction, downstream, by whitewater raft. (Hence the name “River of No Return.”) But driving from Shoup to Riggins takes 6 hours and 35 minutes via the shortest route, even though the straight-line distance is only 98 miles. Driving around that big roadless wilderness does take a while!

[b]Population and Population Densities:[/b]

Idaho: 1,634,000 (22 people per square mile)
Montana: 1,024,000 (7.5 people per square mile)
Wyoming: 584,000 (6 people per square mile)
Eastern Oregon:  About 300,000 (6.5 people per square mile).
[b]Note:[/b] Nearly half of the population of Eastern Oregon lives within a 50-mile radius of the city of Bend.
Eastern Washington: About 475,000 (11 people per square mile).
[b]Note: [/b] More than half of the population of Eastern Washington resides in Spokane or in the Tri-Cities.  This leaves the rest of eastern Washington very lightly populated. For example, Ferry County has just 7,178 people. (3.5 people per square mile)
[b]To put those figures in perspective:[/b]

• The[i] average[/i] population density for the 48 contiguous states (CONUS) is 111 people per square mile.
  
• The population density of Pennsylvania and Ohio are both around 285 people per square mile.
  
• The population density of Tennessee is 159 people per square mile.
  
• The population density of Texas is 103 people per square mile.
  

And,

• The entire population of Wyoming is less than the population of metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia.
  
• You could fit 10 and a half Vermonts in the landmass of Wyoming.
  
• You could fit nearly 30 Virginias in the landmass of Montana.
  
• Montana’s landmass is 18 times the size of Illinois. But Illinois has 12.5 times as many residents as Montana.
  
• Owyhee County, Idaho — Idaho’s second-largest county — has a population density of 1.48 people per square mile and measures 7,665 square miles. That [i]county[/i] is four times the size of the state of Delaware, and a little bigger than New Jersey. (And notably, New Jersey’s population density is 1,215 people per square mile.)
  

POWER GENERATION
The American Redoubt region is blessed with [i]lots[/i] of energy sources: hydroelectric, wind, coal, oil, and natural gas. There is also some geothermal potential, but that is largely untapped. Unlike the eastern states that are mostly net energy [i]importers[/i], the American Redoubt is a net energy [i]exporter[/i].

(07-08-2023, 04:22 PM)Snarl Wrote: Back in the '80s, me and some Army buddies pitched in and bought some land in NW Wyoming to hunt on. As memory serves, the total land area exceeded 3,000 acres (don't quote me). Taxes were negligible and we quietly allowed people to 'trespass' there for enough to pay for everything. Elk hunters are always willing to shell out big bucks for someone to drive them around a little.

That was the first place I ever built something resembling a shelter with my own two hands. Never heard a damned thing about it being there from an 'agency' either. I think about it from time-to-time, but getting out there involves too much for the ROI. I really balk at the thought of having to walk out to an outhouse to take a dump too.

(07-08-2023, 05:01 PM)F2d5thCav Wrote: "Empty Quarter".

I know where that refers to; probably only map aficionados know that term, other than the people from that area.

Cheers

Quote:Deeper concerns


If your concerns run deeper, to the financial instability, civil unrest, and authoritarianism that seem imminent, then your process is more complicated. In a financial crisis or breakdown in the food supply chain, no city will be safe, and smaller towns and rural areas will only thrive if they have certain fairly specific characteristics. Some things the best place for riding out the storm would have:

[b]Distance from major cities. [/b]The typical major city has, at best, a few weeks of food on hand. What happens when new supplies stop coming? Chaos, obviously, as cars full of hungry, desperate people swarm the surrounding countryside in search of their next meal. So your ideal future home would be more than a full tank of gas away from the nearest big city.

[b]Access to food and water. [/b]Many western states depend on snowmelt running through a handful of rivers to fill a few big reservoirs. One of the first things to go in a crisis will be the agreements that allocate this water, leaving some places high and dry. Food, meanwhile, is produced in some places and exported to others. So it’s better to be in a place with plenty of water and lots of farms. One published list of states with the most water includes Alaska, Michigan, Florida, Wisconsin, Louisiana, California, New York, Minnesota, and North Carolina.

[b]Moderate climate. [/b]Brutal winters and extended summer droughts make everything harder. So the ideal location would have seasons in which life doesn’t stop because of snow, rain, or heat.

[b]Low population density. [/b]As a general rule, the more crowded a place, the crazier it can get in a crisis. So a low-population state or region is much safer than a big city or sprawling megalopolis. Low-population states include Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada, and Kansas.

[b]Freedom-oriented culture.[/b] States in which rural voters have influence tend to be less susceptible to authoritarianism. Note how different states behaved during the recent pandemic. So — a very general rule of thumb — avoid places that seem likely to panic in a crisis and seek out places where the interests of landholders, farmers, and small towns dictate policy.

[b]Low land prices. [/b]Today’s real estate market is an epic bubble, which makes relocating far more expensive than it used to be. A lot of obvious destinations — because they’re also obvious to the people fleeing San Francisco and New York — have already been discovered and are now prohibitively expensive. So it might be wise to look off the beaten track for places that meet most criteria but not all. People with the skills to take on a fixer-upper have a big advantage in this kind of real estate market.

[b]Rare natural disasters. [/b]Just about every state has something to worry about on this front, from earthquakes to hurricanes to fires. A propensity for one or more of these things isn’t a deal breaker but you don’t want to flee societal breakdown only to be wiped out by a recurring natural event. So give preference to places that have relatively few natural disasters. And if, for instance, you move to Florida for its politics despite it being in hurricane alley, skew your prepping toward that particular kind of risk.

[b]Low taxes. [/b]High-tax states tend to be badly-run states. Very few of them appear on the many “best of” lists in this space.

[b]Favorable gun laws. [/b]There’s a saying, “If you can’t defend your rights, you have no rights.” This becomes more true as societal stress increases, so a state that values its gun owners gains lots of points in this search.
The overall best states

There is no one perfect place for strategic relocation. But some states that appear on various “best of” lists are Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North and South Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming.

(07-08-2023, 11:39 PM)Michigan Swamp Buck Wrote: I know of the redoubt from the survival blog as well. My concern is the Yellowstone Caldera, but if the SHTF and Patriots converge there, I'll be heading that way. I don't have much hope for Michigan unless we can take it back from the socialist Democrats and reinvigorate the militias. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening but hope I'm wrong.

(07-09-2023, 11:15 PM)NightskyeB4Dawn Wrote:

(07-08-2023, 11:39 PM)Michigan Swamp Buck Wrote: I know of the redoubt from the survival blog as well. My concern is the Yellowstone Caldera, but if the SHTF and Patriots converge there, I'll be heading that way. I don't have much hope for Michigan unless we can take it back from the socialist Democrats and reinvigorate the militias. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening but hope I'm wrong.

You and me both. My brother has been making noises about moving out into that area. I told him I have three reasons why I am not interested.

1. The Yellowstone Caldera
2. We have a huge family and I love them all. Every one of them. I don't think the majority of the people moving to the redoubt, would welcome some of them, and maybe harm a few. At least where I am I am known. While there would be some that may not be too happy to see them, I feel comfortable that they would not hurt them.
3. I am too darn old to leave my old homestead, that I know well, and where I already know who I can trust and who I can't.

(07-09-2023, 11:26 PM)Infolurker Wrote: Yeah, that yellowstone issue, I get it.

I prefer the Appalachian Mountains myself. Maybe the Ozarks but the last time Yellowstone blew it had covered crap all the way though St. Louis.