Who are the Stick People?

We first started seeing the stick houses a few years ago. They started simply enough. I thought them cute, even playful, the dedicated musings of someone eccentric with too much time on their hands.


As time passed the structures became more and more elaborate. The complexity of the work was truly beautiful. It became obvious that whoever was making them was investing hours upon hours into their creation. I began to wonder who was doing this. No one was ever there when I was, no matter what time of the day I got there. I began to feel the odd combination of curiosity and being creeped out.


I mean, did people sleep here? Although this was supposed to be public land I felt like I was intruding. All the same time I wanted to investigate more. These structures are not limited to one area. We find them everywhere in the deepest area's of San Francisco's park land. Is it a group? Do they know each other? Is it all one person who just gets around? What is really going on here?

Until recently, even though the structures were getting more elaborate, they never were much larger than 3 or 4 feet tall. Recently, the structures have been getting larger, the workmanship grander. We have been finding more and more of them. Look at the size of this one. Mesa is a really large german shepard. Here, she is dwarfed by it.
This one is about 8 feet deep on the inside.


















Here is another large one in an early stage of construction.

Finally, here is one that has been there long enough for a layer of green ivy to grow over it, nearly concealing it completely to the naked eye. The only thing that gives it away is whoever is usig it chose fresh sticks to cover the door. How many bugs live in the roof of this structure? Knowing that much, who would go inside it?

I find these structures so interesting that I have chosen to not reveal their location for fear that if I did, the park police would destroy them in an effort to stop vagrants from living here. I think this phenomenon is one of the most interesting things I have found in all the doglands.