Founding of Aurora
spurred by idealism  
• By John Terry/ OREGON'S TRAILS • 

A group of folks looking for an ultimate paradise have been comparing notes in Aurora the last few days…Not that they expected to find it there, or anywhere else on Earth, for that matter. But the fact is that some people still long to live in some ideal society, an Eden, if you will.

That's why the Communal Studies Association was with us once again, in a place conceived, and to some extent once regarded, as a slice of heaven on earth --- the Aurora Colony. English statesman/philosopher Sir Robert More used the word "utopia" (Latin for "no place"), as the title for his 16th century treatise that visualized an ideal society.

Communal Studies Association members study utopian ideas and concepts past, present and future. As the name indicates, their interest lies in idealistic forms of community life -- societies divorced from, perhaps blissfully oblivious to, the world's traditional turmoil.  

"We not just an academic organization," said Kathleen Fernandez of Canton, Ohio, executive secretary of the association headquartered in Amana, Iowa.

"Most academic groups' members have similar backgrounds, but we have a wide array of people, everything from anthropologists to historians to sociologists. We have people from historic sites, from current communal groups, and just ordinary people who are interested in the idea that people can come together and share," Fernandez said. 

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