BAYFIELD, Wis. -- Rain on the roof is one of the wonders of a Wisconsin spring, but there are few who can hear it quite as well as Mary Thomas, who lives on Happy Hollow Road southeast of Cornucopia. In her home, spring showers sound like they are beating against the roof of a tent, and, as a matter of fact, they are.
Early this spring, Thomas fulfilled a long-held dream and moved into a newly constructed yurt, a portable, tent-like dwelling favored by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia.
The word "yurt" is derived from the Turkic word meaning "dwelling place," in the sense of "homeland." It has come to mean the tent-like structures used by pastoral shepherds from Kazakhstan to Mongolia. A yurt consists of a lattice-like wall structure that forms the circular frame and wall.
On the steppe, the lattices, called shangrak by Kazakh herders, are covered with felted wool, with long poles that meet in the center of the structure to form a cone-like roof. A center hole allows smoke from fires to vent out of the structure.
Like the "ger," as it is called by the Mongolian herdsmen, Thomas' yurt makes use of the unique lattice wall, which when folded up, makes the traditional yurt portable. However, in place of the felted sheep's wool used in the traditional model, Thomas' home is a high-tech model, with two thick layers of vinyl-like material separated with two layers of reflective insulating bubble-wrap that keep the structure warm, even in a Wisconsin winter.
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In place of the nomad's dirt floor, a heated concrete pad forms the base of the yurt, and interior walls of tongue-in-groove pine, plus a modern kitchen and bathroom, make Thomas' abode very different from anything a Kyrgyz tribesman ever dreamed of.
It's unlikely that Thomas will be hitching her yurt to a pony and dragging it to greener pastures anytime soon; it took her too long to find the right place to build the home of her dreams.
"I had a vision about a place and about a plan," Thomas said. "I spent two and a half years looking for land, but had no idea where it was going to be, but I certainly never had any idea that it was going to be on the Bayfield peninsula."
Thomas, a retired social worker and counselor, wanted to build a kind of sanctuary where people could come to enjoy the kind of restoration that being close to nature can provide.
"What I wanted to do was to start a respite center, a wilderness spot," she said. "I believe that nature is the healing force, not me. I think a lot of people just need a grandma, for a weekend or a week. That is how the idea came together."
Thomas hasn't found the road to her dream easy. She said people told her that she was crazy to be looking for 40 to 80 acres of that kind of land for only $25,000.
"I got to the place where I thought I might be," she said.
One day, an ad caught her eye; it offered a "small, 2-bedroom house, as is, on 80 acres" for exactly $25,000.
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Thomas parlayed her purchase, selling 24 acres of land to finance the building of her yurt. The firm she contracted to build the structure proved problematic, so she wound up having to be her own contractor halfway through the process. Helping her to complete the project were a number of local people, including carpenter Jim McCarthy, who lives on nearby Star Route Road.
"It's a beautiful structure," McCarthy said. "I love working here, I love the sounds."
Thomas said she chose the yurt because of the ease of construction and relatively low cost, as well as the ability to make a small environmental footprint on the land. Among the other advantage is freedom from the dust and mold of houses that have conventional forced-air heat and damp basements.
The result is a cozy and attractive 710-square-foot home. The circular lattice wall, the exposed ceiling poles, the tongue-in-groove interior walls and tile kitchen counter add up to a harmonious and attractive whole.
"It's a real house," she says with pride.
Thomas hopes to build an additional pair of yurts on the property to complete her dream of a Northwoods respite. In the meantime, she is content to share her home with her grandson, Ethan Moore, a kindergarten student at the Bayfield School.
"When he first came here, he said, 'Oh, grandma, smell that air; I wouldn't want to live anywhere else but here.' "
