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Stelle, Illinois

Coordinates: 40°57′00″N 088°09′13″W / 40.95000°N 88.15361°W / 40.95000; -88.15361
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Stelle, Illinois
Unincorporated community
Stelle subdivision entrance sign
Stelle subdivision entrance sign
Stelle is located in Illinois
Stelle
Stelle
Location within the state of Illinois
Coordinates: 40°57′00″N 088°09′13″W / 40.95000°N 88.15361°W / 40.95000; -88.15361[1]
CountryUnited States
StateIllinois
CountyFord County
TownshipRogers Township
Elevation
[1]
705 ft (215 m)
ZIP code
60919
Area code815
GNIS feature ID[1]2011616

Stelle is an unincorporated community located in Rogers Township in northern Ford County, Illinois, United States. Its estimated population as of 2013 is 100.

Although Stelle started as an intentional community in the early 1970s, it became a simple homeowner's association in 1982 when the community opened up and continues on to this day.

Contemporary Stelle

Midwest Permaculture, an educational business offering permaculture training in Stelle and around the U.S., was started and developed by two Stelle residents and contributes to the national conversation about why and how the human family should learn to live in harmony with each other and the natural world. Midwest Permaculture's training sessions have been strongly influenced by the founders' three decades of living in Stelle; participants learn the skills necessary to create long-term, productive, and healthy landscapes/dwellings as well as skills important for building authentic community.

Historical overview

Stelle is a small village in N.E. Illinois that began as an intentional community during the early 1970s. The founding residents belonged to a recently formed group from Chicago, whose vision was to create a more sustainable and compassionate way of living. The group purchased a farm in the northern tip of Ford County and built a traditional-looking suburban community. Stelle maintained itself as a private community for about ten years, at which point a majority of the residents decided to govern themselves through a conventional homeowner's association and become an open village with no formal residency requirements.

During those first ten years, Stelle residents discovered that it is easier to agree on a positive vision for the future than to agree on the steps necessary to manifest that future. Stelle was one of thousands of intentional communities that sprang up during the 1960s and 1970s whose highly idealistic visions for the future have not yet been achieved.

After Stelle transitioned to a "normal" village in 1982, it became notable for its suburban design, the solar panels on many homes, and the residents' enthusiasm for lifelong education and co-operative enterprises. The village has its own telephone company, which provides telephone, television, and internet access. Stelle also boasts a community garden co-op, a tool co-op, and a Monday night dinner co-op, and hosts a variety of educational events that are open to the public.

Early history

Although the early history of Stelle (1970–1982) is mostly irrelevant to what is happening in the community today, those who study intentional community, or who wish to participate in community living, often find Stelle's early history of interest.

Stelle was founded in 1973 by the Stelle Group, a Chicago organization created by Richard Kieninger, a writer and teacher who was also instrumental in founding Adelphi, Texas. During the 1950s, Kieninger had been a student of the Lemurian Fellowship in Ramona, California, where he was instructed in a set of beliefs called “Lemurian Philosophy.”

After leaving Stelle, Kieninger founded another community, Adelphi, Texas, which is located approximately 25 miles (40 km) east of Dallas. Many of Stelle's residents followed him there, and Adelphi grew to a peak population of 30 before declining to its present size of 16. Residence in Adelphi is open only to members of the Adelphi Organization, which continues to teach the tenets of Lemurian philosophy and make available Kieninger's writings. All date-specific predictions have been removed from the current edition of The Ultimate Frontier, though references remain as to the eventual occurrence of cataclysmic earth changes.

Further reading

  • Kueshana, Eklal (1963). The Ultimate Frontier. Stelle Group. ISBN 0-9632252-0-0.
  • Fesperman, Dan (April 4, 1997). "Galactic cult prefers suburbia". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on March 30, 2016.
  • Weiner, Debra (January 6, 2011). "Apocalypse Never Happened, But a Community Did". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 3, 2017.

References

  1. ^ a b c "Stelle, Illinois". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
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