Wendy McElroy might have her personal short-comings as who does not, but she cleared a lot of intellectual forest when libertarians were pioneering the works of Ayn Rand with campus "Radicals for Capitalism" clubs. She's been around the block, knows the streets. Her ex, George Smith (_Atheism: the Case Against God_ and other works), is a regular on MSK's Objectivist Living. Her bio on Wikipedia is a good start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_McElr... She has her own website and blog, of course. http://www.wendymcelroy.com/news.php Use a search engine for much more.

I knew she was an easy mark when I got to the tree hugging part

This has always been my reaction. Real estate and Constitutions which read like HOA covenants. In this case apparently a lack of water rights and grifting of the locals as well.

It is an old story. See "How to Start Your Own Country" by Erwin S. Strauss reviewed in the Gulch here:
http://necessaryfacts.blogspot.com/2014/...
Strauss tells the stories of several libertarian "new country" ventures.

And see also "The Constitution of Galt's Gulch" by Wolf Devoon reviewed in the Gulch here:
http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/9f...
The book is a narrative, perhaps a rhapsody, so some relevant facts slip by the casual reader. I think of the musical "BACH Motif."

This "Galt's Gulch in Costa Rica - the IRS" page is tangentially related to that:
http://www.galtsgulch-cr.com/?page_id=24...

There's a bit of history here, also. Those who are ignorant of the past, etc. In numismatics, we know an interesting array of unofficial or irregular currencies from Patagonian colonies to Hutt River Principality. (HRP website here: http://www.principality-hutt-river.com/ and Wikipedia overview here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutt_River_... ) We even have a speciality collector's club dedicated to them and have taken the term known to our philatelist friends: "cinderellas." Anyone can _declare_ a new nation, make stamps and coins, and whatever else. Actually being a community is a different problem, entirely.

In science, we say that extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence.

I briefly looked into this two or three years ago and it just smelled bad. I don't think they can apply enough deodorant to ever look like an actual Gulch and they've only besmirched the name and idea.