A
Papercrete
Concerned citizens who contemplate the
future may see that we need a new way of
thinking, a new way of conserving resources,
moving away from fossil fuels to renewable
energy if we are to save the planet. A new way
of building shelter could be a big part of that
too. New sustainable materials for building
are cropping up all the time. If you’re reading
this printed page, you’re looking at one right
now.
Nowadays many here in the Big Bend are
familiar with papercrete, a building material
that has become pretty popular around these
parts; but this was not always the case. There
was a time when you said you were building a
house out of paper, it left folks scratching their
heads and thinking maybe you weren’t the
sharpest crayon in the box. My own
introduction to the building material began in
the spring of 1998, standing in front of the
Starlight Theater in Terlingua, when the late
Hal Flanders (environmental legend and
father of recycling in Alpine) walked up and
handed me a newsletter called Earth
Quarterly by Gordon Solberg of Radium
Springs, New Mexico.
Inside were some photos of building
experiments done with paper, cement or earth
clay. I’d heard of straw bale building, earth
ships and so on but nothing about this
fascinating new alternative discovery. Having
a little experience while working on an adobe
house, this seemed like something to learn
more about.
Back in Alpine and talking with a friend
who had just moved here from Dallas, Bob
Brewer, who was also intrigued by the idea,
we decided to check out a workshop on
papercrete and earth bag construction we’d
12
heard about in Columbus, NM. It was there
we met some of the pioneers who were making
some interesting experiments using recycled
paper and adding cement. During the
workshop, everyone was trying different
things and some crazy looking structures were
forming up on the outskirts of Columbus, in
an area they called “City of the Sun.” There
were underground rooms with papercrete
domes, round looking houses, earth ships, and
other weird looking and unusual structures
that looked like a scene out a Mad Max movie.
One guy built a tiny PC house that somehow
caught on fire, but it didn’t go up in flames.
His house burned like a giant cigarette,
leaving nothing but a stack of ashes. It
obviously had too much paper and not enough
cement. But on the whole, there were some
innovative ideas by some creative people all
looking to build cheaply and in a very
environmentally friendly way.
No one knows for sure who actually came
up with the concept of using wastepaper as a
building material. Rumor has it there was an
attempt to patent it back in the 1920s that fell
through and never really caught on. Most
likely, it was because lumber was plentiful
and cheap and energy costs were low, so it
didn’t make much sense back then. More
recently, Eric Patterson from Silver City, NM
noticed something his daughter made for a
school science fair where she made a papier-
mâché block and happened to add a little
cement to it. After it dried Eric was curious to
see that it was very strong. Being a part-time
builder, he shared the idea with other like-
minded friends in the area. Interest grew and
papercrete construction had a modern day
beginning. Another builder and inventor,
by Tom Curry
Pump house at Sunny Glen barrel vault 1999.
Mike McCain of Columbus, came up with a
contraption known as the tow mixer, which to
this day seems to be the preferred way to
make papercrete. He took the rear end of a
vehicle and made a trailer out of it with the
differential inverted vertically into a tank. A
blade is attached to the yoke and when towed
by a vehicle, the blade spins, which makes it
look like a giant Cuisinart on wheels.
After the workshop in New Mexico, feeling
inspired, I shared some things I learned back
home in Alpine. Working with friends Randy
Guillotte and Alan King, we put together a
tow mixer. After much trial and error we
Big Bend Real Estate Guide • May 2020