A Handmade Wilderness

This back-to-the-land story has a novel twist: a white man and a black man living together in the backwoods of Mississippi. In 1968, Schueler (Temple of the Jaguar) and Willie Brown bought 80 acres of worn-out land, known locally as the sandhills, about 25 miles from the Gulf Coast. It had been logged, burned and generally ravaged; it contained two bogs, a stand of live oaks and numerous ravines. The author gives an engaging account of their efforts to restore ``The Place.'' They encountered moonshiners, poachers and snakes (Willie was terrified). Despite devastation by Hurricane Camille, the pair persevered, and eventually they brought back the native wildlife and plants, restoring a complete ``handmade'' ecosystem. After Willie's death in 1992, Schueler donated The Place, now 200 acres, to the Nature Conservancy as the Willie Farrell Brown Nature Reserve. A rewarding story. (Jan.)