1.  Why are the neighbors complaining?

A few facts to remember:

A.   The Oak Glen Apple Growers have encouraged reenactments for years in their brochure, stating, “Oak Glen offers clean family fun in every season... You can visit the one room schoolhouse, take a hay ride or see one of several historical reenactments.”
B.   The complainers themselves were in the habit of borrowing our muskets to conduct musket fire demonstrations themselves.    Musket fire only became a problem for them when we began to operate profitably.    (They now complain it's a community problem, but they never made that claim when they were doing it themselves.)
C.   Two of the complainers, in the past, leased our family's packing shed and conducted amplified music concerts until 10 PM at night, several nights per week, during the banquet season.     The noise signature of amplified music is far greater, and more sustained, than any musket fire demonstration.    Once again, noise issues only became an issue for them when they could accuse another establishment of creating it.
D.   One of the complainers has taken to using a sound system and bullhorn to disrupt our events.    Another of the complainers physically assaulted the manger of our packing shed.    We have tried to make peace with them, and have attempted to reach a compromise, but how do you negotiate in the face of this behavior?
E.    Our complainers have admitted, verbally, on several occasions that they have more of a problem with the sound of school children than they do with the muskets.     That objection doesn't play very well, so they complain about gunfire.    It is a smokescreen to protect their competitive interest.
F.   Our neighbors claim they are protecting their residential property value, but they are in business for themselves, and we are surrounded by commercial and institutional uses of the land.    There is a prison camp up the street.   The Wildlands Conservancy operates a restaurant and camp across the street.    Pilgrim Pines operates an extension camp and challenge rope walks course across the street.    The Wilshire family has a sales facility and delicatessen up the street, and the county recently approved a wedding facility down the street from us, with rights to play amplified music until 10 PM.   This is hardly a purely residential neighborhood.     We do have homeowners in our vicinity, and we want to respect their rights;  we only hope they respect our right to host the public as well.
G.   If a battle reenactment cannot be seen here, in remote Oak Glen, where else would be a proper place for it in San Bernardino County?     Downtown Redlands?    Downtown San Bernardino?   A remote stretch of sandy desert?       
 

"I'm tired of hearing people say, 'You can't make a living selling apples. "

Here's a picture of Sharon Riley, Dennis's wife, in their General Store.    Obviously, Dennis Riley allows himself the opportunity to make money on more than just apples.    Those aren't fruit bushels stacked up behind Sharon.    You're looking at books and pens and stationery and gift items.      There's nothing wrong with that;  in fact it's a privilege all Oak Glen farmers should enjoy.    The reality, however, is that Dennis Riley reserves the right to determine how he can supplement his apple sales, when he would deny that same right to us.    We have supplemented our apple sales with living history.    He adds the missing revenue with general store souvenirs.   In both cases, it's an admission that we need to be able to sell more than just fruit.

The fact is that we love raising apples.    We want to raise apples.   We plant more apple trees every year.  The global and regional economies, however, make it nearly impossible to do that profitably.    If you want to see the orchards, we need to purchase liability insurance--in one of the world's most expensive markets.    Our workers compensation rates are sky high, certainly higher than farmers in New Zealand, Washington, and Chile.     Our property taxes are a good deal higher than any of those places as well--so high--in fact that fruit can be air lifted here, and sold, cheaper than we can grow it.   

The logical response to these conditions is to recognize that farm land, in Southern California, represents a cultural asset the public is willing to pay for.    When they purchase apples, they should have a place to stay overnight, a place to eat, a place that offers agricultural tours and extended vacation experiences.    There aren't enough organized camps in Southern California and an apple farm would be a perfect place for such a camp, featuring equestrian attractions, farm education, and living history.    

The fruit, in other words, becomes a loss leader for other appropriate attractions the community is willing to pay for.    One of our most vocal critics put it this way:

"[Oak Glen] went from being a farming community to a community of shops and restaurants,' [Alison] Law said.   The reason is simple....  "People now buy a bag of apples instead of a bushel.." 
                       ---Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, December 9, 2002     

We don't agree that we've become, completely, a community of "shops and restaurants."     In reality, agritourism and living history have been the response to these realities all over the country.    Farmers are hosting gourmet dinners.     Vineyards are opening restaurants and small hotels.    Farms host living history encampments.   Some dairy farms in the Midwest sell a sizeable portion of their product directly to consumers, who tour the farms with their families.   

If the county adopts standards that encourage farming families to use their land as a drawing card, we could save these farms without asking for any federal, state, or county money.     We invite--and hope, and beg, and plead-for competition in this area.   More Riley's Farms would be fantastic!     

We just want the government to help us hurdle the planning barriers without the same development expense a tract home builder would face.    Should a farm open to the public really have to face the same fee and study expense that is reserved for a large commercial developer?    We don't think so.   Do you?

We think Scott had a good, original idea.   Don't you?  

The only real difference between the "original" Rileys and us, is that we applaud their work;  we encourage guests to visit their business;  we pray for their prosperity.   They do not, however, return the favor, and they have taken their active dislike out to the broader community.

Since they aren't telling the truth, no.   

We observe strict quiet hours for overnight groups and we do not have any musket fire early in the morning or late at night.   Take a look, moreover, at the graphic below.  

As you can see, to our west, south, and east sides, there are very few neighbors, and the neighbors we do have, for the most part are of the institutional or commercial variety.    Our most vocal critics, Dennis Riley and Devon Riley, operate Riley's Frontier and Riley's Log Cabin farms, two businesses that routinely host thousands of school children every year and bring in thousands of guests during the harvest season.     (Thad Riley, Dennis Riley's son, does no rural commerce in this area, but apparently has no problem with his brother and his dad's business, but does with us.)     The private home to their north (white letters with pink outline) is owned by a family that also opens to the public;   their response to our activities has been mixed.   (When they first moved in, they told us they liked our field trips and they attended them with their friends.)   We are confident we can re-gain their trust, if Dennis and his family will learn to seek balance in their approach to this problem.

Oak Glen's "Rural Living" designation was a poor zoning choice for Oak Glen;   it doesn't reflect the sort of rural commerce that goes on here routinely, and it certainly doesn't promote the building of cideries and other attractions for the tourists.     Unfortunately, the only way to work within the system is to use the Conditional Use Permit process.    In our case, the application fee alone was $13,000, not to mention the additional fees, studies, engineering and drafting expense that has occurred since then.  In our case, by the time all mitigation efforts have been met, we believe it may run to as high as $250,000.   Most property owners don't even consider a conditional use permit, unless they are reasonably certain they will be able to subdivide or build facilities that can be operated at a profit.     In our case, we made the decision that using the very expensive CUP process could only be justified if we attempted more than just a U-pick farm with a few living history field trips.      We need to build facilities that can be used to house guests on an overnight basis, and we need to build craft structures that will draw family travelers to our facility.      If we are going to endure what we believe is an outrageous expense, we need to have some hope of getting a return on our planning investment.  

The picture above is of Devon Riley, one of the people trying to shut us down, burning a trailer on his property--without permits.   

It should be!    We've been doing it for nearly twenty years, and the community has been proud to feature us as a calling card.    A very popular, long standing, Oak Glen postcard features Riley's Farm, with a Civil War reenactment in progress.  The website on the right, that of the Oak Glen Apple Growers Association has nothing but pictures of our farm on its home page.    If our farm is not in the character of Oak Glen, what is? 

Oak Glen land use policies, however, are hopelessly out of touch with actual commercial practice here in the glen--not just for us, but for everyone.   Our neighbor detractors have no permits, neither health nor land use, and they continue to conduct business.    We have spent more than $70,000 on our conditional use application--more, we believe, than any other institution in Oak Glen--and we look forward to its approval.     

If however, the people of San Bernardino County, don't want an American Living history farm, we are likely to sell our property and move to some other part of the country.     There will be no hard feelings, just a fair amount of sadness, for both us and our customers.      What will be built here, after were' gone, is anybody's guess.

If, on the other hand, you help us get this established on a permanent footing, we are anxious to bring in partners.    Would you like to be a blacksmith in the country?   A colonial printer?    A fiddler?    Would you like to create a permanent, living community of Americans dedicated to preserving the memory of our past?    

We stand ready!

Banquet Expansion and Cidery


Group Overnight Bunk House

Craft Shops:  18th Century Printer, Potter, Weaver