Robert Redford by Callan Michael Feeney

Author:Callan, Michael Feeney [Callan, Michael Feeney]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780307272973
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2011-05-03T07:00:00+00:00

It was one thing to preach conservation and energy restraint, another to practice it.

After Redford decided on a sabbatical from film, two priorities took precedence beyond politics: family and reordering Sundance as a model of self-sufficient eco-friendliness. The previous fall he had started planning a radical new home just up the meadow from the A-frame that would encompass cutting-edge design techniques and energy-saving devices. To develop it, he sought out the innovative architect Abe Christensen, who was currently exploring uses of solar and alternative sources in design. Construction of the house, affectionately tagged the Big House, would serve as a model for a scheme Christensen and Redford agreed on to build moderately priced solar-heated homes throughout Utah. In tandem with the new house, Redford decided to expand Sundance business into farming and horse breeding, nonpolluting initiatives long native to the area that would help fund the ailing resort.

As building commenced, Redford sent out the word about suitable new farmland. Brent Beck found a fifty-six-acre farm called Spanish Fork at the mouth of the canyon and, on a cross-country flight, Redford told Gary Hendler he wanted to buy it. Hendler said it made no commercial sense. “That was a blessing,” says Redford, “because I could then say to Gary, ‘Okay, let’s make changes: from now on you guide my tax affairs. I do not want guidance in my arts work or my businesses.’ ” The next day, Hendler called from Los Angeles to recommend a new adviser, his mild-mannered office manager, Reg Gipson. Gipson, a lawyer in his early thirties, was the Idaho-born son of a missionary who had reared his family in rural India. He recalls Hendler summoning him in some confusion: “Gary assumed that I’d have some agricultural experience, since I grew up on a mission settlement. I didn’t. But I did know you don’t buy a ranch from the comforts of an urban office. I flew to Utah to check out the water rights, sorted it and bought the ranch. So began Bob’s next phase of experiment with Sundance.”

Spanish Fork, rechristened Diamond Fork Ranch, became the base for breeding Arabian and quarter horses, an operation that ran for ten years until another farm, Charleston, replaced it and Redford started growing crops. Acres of corn, sugar beets, tomatoes and alfalfa were sown just a mile or two from Christensen’s new homestead. Jerry Hill, officially the mountain manager, served as a general overseer and worried that Sundance had overstepped. “We were still the same small group of caretakers, but the lands we were supervising grew. The task list became bigger and bigger. I’ve been in this area since I was a kid, and it was weird to see the canyon become like a little town. It just kept growing and growing. I thought, It’ll be real hard to keep up with all this. I also thought, A lot of the folk around here will resent Redford’s determination to keep expanding.”

Regardless of Redford’s motivation, the very sight of new faces on

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