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lived an essentially 19th century lifestyle, a digital-age anachronism who never owned a telephone or a television and lived almost entirely off the land.

I really dislike 'lived OFF the land."

I grew up on a farm in the forests of northern Maine with my grandparents - in the 30'40's...no telephone, no electricity (TV hadn't even been thought of) and we grew, raised, fished, hunted and traded for 95% of everything we needed.

Grampa was a Maine Guide and had been a blacksmith and, with a gas lathe, made tennis racket frames and snowshoes and such endeavors that allowed him a totally independent life - never having to work for anyone else. We lived ON the land, and WITH the land.(That was not unusual at the time. The greater percentage of Americans produced most of their own needs, particularly food. We have become far to dependent on outside sources for our needs. Precarious way to live.)

Asked repeatedly to appear on the "Tonight Show" , he "...spurned repeated invitations to appear... "I ride Greyhounds, not airplanes," he said in a 1993 Statesman interview. "Besides, the show isn't in California. The show is here."

So true. Smarter than those city folk.

"People said he was the only person they'd ever known who was absolutely self-sufficient. He didn't work for anybody. He worked for himself."

Like so many of us used to.

He depended largely on the generosity of the locals...he couldn’t grow enough to feed a packrat on the little sliver of land that he squatted on. Hippie-type “tourists” would often stay a few days in one of his caves and pay him a few bucks. I’m wondering what happened to his Martin guitar??