Dan Price – Living 35 Years Underground

I’ll be honest with you, I’ve been playing with AI the last few months with mixed results. I’ve decided to come back and write as me and not let the machine do it for me.

So, for better or worse, you are stuck with my not-so-great writing, as many of you have been for the last 18-plus years.

I’ve had the privilege of meeting Dan here in Bend a few years ago, and I also covered him in a previous post. My friend Kirsten Dirksen, who also did a previous video on Dan, decided to revisit him and give an update. So I wanted to share this with my readers as well.

Kirsten gives the best outline of this 45-minute video below on her YouTube channel.

I suggest you sit back and relax, and enjoy Dan’s story.

For 35 years, Dan Price has lived underground in a tiny “hobbit hole” tucked into a quiet Oregon mountain meadow. When we first filmed him a decade ago, he showed us his 80-square-foot home and office where he once drew and printed Moonlight Chronicles, his hand-illustrated zine.

Now 68, Dan still lives simply, happily, and with no regrets, and the saplings he planted around his friends’ property are now towering trees.

He rents the meadow for just $100 a year, tending the land and keeping it fire-safe. His underground home stays a steady 50°F year-round—even through snowy winters—so his electric bill averages just $40 a month.

Over the years, he’s added small comforts: a new roof, a patio of salvaged bricks, and an outdoor earth-cooled fridge. Most of his food now comes from the land itself—dandelions, daisies, and wild greens—so he rarely buys vegetables.

Once a professional photographer, Dan gave it all up to live lightly—walking, drawing, and creating 77 issues of Moonlight Chronicles. Today, he continues his free-spirited path, splitting time between his Oregon meadow and winters surfing and busking with his handpan.