The Archaeology of a hippie commune

Fascinating stuff here ...

The "White House of Hippiedom" was a legendary Marin County, California mansion that The Chose Family commune called home in the 1960s. (A Grateful Dead album cover photo was shot outside the house.)

In 1969, the house burned to the ground, exposing a pre-1834 Adobe home.

Excavation of the site began in 1997 but the discovery of asbestos led to the stuff being put into barrels and stored.

Now, researchers from the California Department of Parks and Recreation, aided by hazmat crews, are going through the barrels and finding a jumble of interesting pioneer artifacts and hippie detritus.

From the San Francisco Chronicle ( photo by Kim Jomenich/The Chronicle):

The artifacts from the Age of Aquarius were laid out Tuesday on a plastic sheet in an old barn in Marin County's Olompali State Historic Park.

There, stiff and rumpled from being in storage so long, was a leather jacket with a rainbow colored flower motif, some old boots, dozens of melted records, burned-out speakers, charred beads, monopoly pieces, soot-covered reel-to-reel tapes, pieces of a porcelain toilet and beer cans - lots of beer cans...

No bongs have been found...

"Adobe home found under Marin hippie commune"