The West is littered with cow towns that came and went, but none to rival the one planned by William Buck Johns and Henry Orlosky.
Amid the tumbleweeds and dust devils of Harper Dry Lake, a scorched, wind-blasted depression in the high desert just north of Barstow, the two men -- visionaries maybe, or perhaps just energy developers on the make -- see a cow utopia.
They want to build the dairy equivalent of a shining city on a hill: the perfect community where farmers and cattle live together in harmony with the environment while turning cow patties into clean, renewable energy for the Los Angeles region.
"We're talking cow condos, a complete gated community, sharing all sorts of services. It will be good for dairymen and a good way to dispose of animal waste. We're doing a great service," Orlosky said.
Not everyone is convinced.
Some dairymen question the feasibility of the proposal. Some environmentalists fear the plan cannot be as clean as Johns and Orlosky insist.
"That type of massive dairy operation comes with massive environmental effects. I'm not sure how excited the public is going to be on a threatened desert wetland when you have tens of thousands of dairy cows and the associated stench and flies," said Daniel Patterson, biologist for the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity.
Even supporters concede that the idea of putting 90,000 Holsteins in the midst of the Mojave Desert is, at minimum, unusual. Nevertheless, the project is being propelled by two potent political currents: the need to reduce agricultural pollution and the need to diversify and expand California's sources of electricity.
"On the surface it seems crazy, but we have to start thinking outside the box," said Assemblywoman Barbara Matthews (D-Tracy), who chairs the Assembly Agriculture Committee.
The plan calls for building from scratch 30 dairy farms with 3,000 cows each on a 1,920-acre former alfalfa field off California 58 near Hinkley.
Using methane from manure as fuel, a power plant would generate 50 megawatts of electricity. The plant would be part of a giant energy complex -- Harper Lake Energy Park -- that also would include a 550-acre solar power station to be built in conjunction with Solargenix Energy LLC and a pair of 400-megawatt natural gas-fired turbines. Estimated cost for the entire project: $1 billion.
