Miller Farm

Location:Ten Mile Road, Everson
Size:160 acres

Writing about Herman Miller’s farm and WLT at the same time brings to mind the phrase, “In the beginning….” Herman Miller was there in the basement of Dutch Mothers restaurant in Lynden when the then Whatcom County Land Trust was transformed from a vague idea into a reality brimming with potential.

Probably the hardest conservation easement for any land trust is it’s first one. As a brave pioneer, Herman got us past that hurdle when he donated an easement on the 160-acre farm that straddles Ten Mile Road where he has lived his entire life. Here we learned how to write a conservation easement and how to deal with landowners making critical decisions. Fortunately, Herman was a generous and patient teacher.

Born on the north side of Ten Mile in 1918, Herman Miller and his family moved across the road six years later to a house brought there by draft horses from the Hemmi Road. Herman described this as his “big move in life”. Herman’s interest in starting a land trust grew out of a conversation with a lawyer who told him that there was no way to make sure his land would always be a farm– “you can’t control it from the grave.” Anyone who knew Herman knew that to tell him he can’t do something is likely a futile act. Herman responded by starting the Land Trust and signing a conservation easement to make sure his farm would always be a farm.

 

 

Home, after all, is the place where finally we make our living. It is the place for which we take responsibility, the place we try to sustain so we can pass on what is best in it, and in ourselves, to our children. — William Cronon