The Creekside Preserve Lodge, located in Mayer, Arizona, is the first step toward the creation of a permanent cryonics community to be called Ventureville. The lodge is open to the general public and will help generate the necessary revenue to make the cryonics enclave a reality. The entire place is the brainchild of David Pizer, a former Alcor Vice President. He saw too many people fall by the wayside and never get suspended despite being signed-up cryonicists. He decided to do something about this problem.

Creekside is a very upscale, southwestern themed destination mini resort. It has a main lodge building which houses two conference rooms (the larger seats 80), a gym, a restaurant (opening in a few weeks), rooms, and a beautifully furnished great room. The woodwork and western decor impresses the many guests who have passed through.

We have fifteen extrememly nice cabins. Ten of the cabins are what we call "honeymoon style." These are equipped with king-sized beds with varnished, peeled-pine bed frames, a fireplace, cable TV, microwave, mini-fridge, sink, a hot tub/Jacuzzi complete with dimmer lights and even a roomy porch with cushioned chairs! When I give a tour of a cabin the product speaks for itself quite well.

The other style of cabin has twin beds instead of a king-sized bed and a hot tub/Jacuzzi. For those with children or simply looking for a cabin to crash, this is the one. We even have futons so they can accommodate additional people.

Among the other things we offer: an observatory on our local hill, a large firepit where we have cozy evenings talking or listening to live music, a stable where we can board horses for the night, and plenty of trails to keep you exploring.

Our cabins and main lodge are located on thirty-four acres of pristine land which have a creek running through it. The creek is framed by tall trees, rocks and rolling hills and many of our guests enjoy spending time just sitting in one of our benches and taking it all in. This whole area is hidden from the eyes of those who simply drive by.

This may sound like an advertisement (my apologies!) but I am trying to show that David Pizer has built a very impressive facility with the very noble goal of using capitalism to further his interests in cryonics. This is much like Saul Kent's accomplishments in founding the Life Extension Foundation so that he could fund cryonics research. Both men want to move cryonic suspension methods to the next level. These are men who - as the old saying goes - make castles in the sky, then bring them to earth to be made real.

David Pizer's vision for Ventureville is of a safe haven for cryonicists young and old. Participants such as myself contribute all sorts of talents for the development of our community. David intends to start things off slowly. As interest and revenue allows, we will then expand the necessary housing and infrastructure. We would be building both houses and apartment dwellings, with the aim of making things upscale for some and affordable for all. Twenty apartment buildings erected with three dwellings per unit would be the backbone of our initial housing effort.

As the momentum built up, we would eventually build a second lodge building. It would act as the headquarters and recreation center of the Ventureville cryonics community. This will be a place for cryonicists to relax, play, work and study. David is even considering outfitting it with an Olympic-sized indoor/outdoor swimming pool.

One of the most exciting plans we have is to create an immortalist and cryonics museum, open at first to cryonicists and later to the general public. This will be a very powerful way to explain subjects like cryonics, life extension, nanotech and transhumanism! I have a feeling that we will have film crews from The Discovery Channel and others to tell the world in due time.

The name "Ventureville" comes from "The Society for Venturism," founded by David Pizer. The primary goal of this organization is to gather like-minded signed-up cryonicists together to promote physical immortalism coupled with the desire to live ethical lives. As time goes by, I hope you will be seeing The Society for Venturism become one of the more prominent cryonics and transhumanist organizations. Our combination of capitalistic drive and real world community will certainly help.

We have been developing a relationship with Alcor, the leading cryonics provider organization. On October 27th, 2002 we had a "Cryonics" grand opening of the Creekside. Dr. Jerry Lemler, the Alcor gang and anyone else who wanted to attended. We gave them a grand tour of the property (with Albert, Dave's Great Dane in the lead) and then fed them a nice lunch. The day was concluded with Dr. Lemler giving a talk at which he announced his plans for an Alcor version of the "Ronald McDonald" house! It was quite a day.

More recently, Alcor took over the Creekside Preserve/Ventureville for six days to perform their standby training session during the first week of March 2003. This session is used to train layman volunteers who swing into action when a signed-up member of Alcor has been declared dead by a medical professional. They will inject medication and immediately start cooling, to be later followed by a washout of the blood. A well-trained team is crucial to a recently deceased member getting a good "suspension" or freezing. Unless people start moving to Phoenix (home of Alcor) when they suspect death is close, the standby teams will always be vital and necessary.

Charles Platt was the person in charge, since he is the Director of Alcor Suspensions. His charm and intelligence made for a very entertaining week for everyone. He is a transplant from England who has found a home in Arizona.

One of the best momentos of the week was that our cook and housekeepers thought the attendees were very friendly and considerate people. I am grateful to know the words passed on into the local town grapevine will be positive ones. As one employee told me "the cryogenics people were really nice." I was very happy to hear that.

During the conference the Arizona Republic newspaper (a big one) had Dr. Lemler on the front page. The article was fairly objective in my view but the photo of him was unflattering. I suspect they went for the "crazy professor" look.

On the inside page was an interview with David Pizer, former Alcor Vice President, owner of the Creekside Preserve/Ventureville, and my employer. I was not too happy to read in the article that the press went to a county development officer and asked him if he knew David was planning to build a cryonics retirement community! It's funny in hindsight, but I hope the local people will keep this all in perspective and realize we are trying to build something good here. I don't want to see us chased out by a horde of people brandishing flaming torches and pitchforks (or even worse - legal documents)! David Pizer is a darn good self-taught businessman and philosopher, not a Dr. Frankenstein.

I learned so much from the two last days of the training, attending between my managerial duties. I got a lot out of the lectures on ischemic damage, cryobiology, cryonics and law, the history of cryonics and where cryonics and Alcor should be headed. This last topic was especially good. In Charle's mind the key thing that he and Alcor must do is develop a modern inventory system to keep track of their supplies. Amazingly, this has not yet been done, but Charles is determined to see it happen.

Another very important future goal for Alcor is to institute a means of rapidly cooling the body by using fluorocarbon liquids. Using a system to pump this in and out of the lungs could make core body temperature plummet to an extent never before seen. This would be a major step forward in truly slowing ischemic damage to the brain.

A vehicle is now being outfitted for Alcor which would allow the cooling and perfusion to take place right inside it; a cryonics amulance if you like. Alcor is examining the idea of one day having a semi truck with a specially outfitted trailer which would allow for a complete suspension in place.

Other areas important to Charles were new medical kits (which look much more professional), tests to perfect whole body vitrification, a fairly slim field manual for standby teams on the go, two operating rooms for simultaneous standbys, extensive cadaver practice for team members, alternate surgeons for suspensions, upgrading of United Kingdom Alcor facilities, meds compounding to fight ischemia, new ice bath designs, and even patient status monitors for pre and postmortem. Charles will need to stay in his position for at least another ten years...

I felt Charles was much too hard on himself as he reviewed how the training session had gone. He learned a great deal from this one in terms of what needs to be done (or not done) to rigorously train people, and the next will be so much the better for it.

But be warned, I suspect the next standby training to be made very demanding for the attendees. I half expect R. Lee Ermey to be there in full sergeant mode shouting at people "YOU CALL YOURSELF A STANDBY TEAM MEMBER? YOU DON'T KNOW JACK!!"

I hope the background and local color I have shared about us will help build understanding among all those who are interested in visiting or even in time signing up for cryonics themselves.

It will take time and money to erect the Ventureville cryonics community, but with the business leadership present here and the revenues already coming in, I can confidently say it is not if it happens, but when. And over the next five to ten years you will be seeing this community take root to be a beacon to the world.

To David Pizer's frustration, so many transhumanists would only talk about doing great things. We are now doing our part to reverse this trend.