By Mike Weland
It’s been nearly two years since Boundary County has heard much of anything from Big Bear Owen Benjamin, his 10-acre property on the banks of the Moyie River off Earl Lane in northern Boundary he dubbed “Beartaria” or “Ursa Rio” or his collective of followers he calls “bears,” but that may be changing soon if his recent daily podcasts are to be believed.
Benjamin’s financial fortunes appear to have taken a serious turn for the worse of late, adversely affecting his latest crowd-funded utopia, a 200-acre spread in Mountain Grove, Missouri, deep in the heart of the Ozarks, and he’s turning his attention back to Boundary County.
In February, Benjamin received notice that Worldline SA, parent company of payment processor Saferpay, had unilaterally terminated their credit card contract, meaning no credit card transactions through Benjamin’s web host, Unauthorized TV, perhaps the only host to still carry his podcast, can be completed. Those transactions are said by former Bears to be his primary source of income.
He says donors have requested refunds, growing disillusioned that they’ll see a functional Beartaria living up to Benjamin’s promises, but claiming his scheme comprises a trust, he refuses, explaining in his cutting edge and controversial comedic style that served him so well through his long and illustrious Hollywood career:
“People give me money, I buy land so we can have festivals outside of Babylon and the beast and hell!”
He says he has no money, but tons of wealth in land and (hang on for a quick blast of his edgy humor) respect.
On March 7, his former videographer, Adam Camacho, who in 2021 filmed much of the construction that took place at Beartaria, shot a documentary on the project and who was documenting development of the Mountain Grove property until he and Benjamin had a recent falling out, sued his former mentor and his many business entities for breach of contact, seeking in excess of $35,000 for unpaid professional fees, forcing Benjamin to hire attorneys.
Camacho is the videographer who showed up with his sound man at my home and office on Main Street Bonners Ferry in May, 2021, after I published an article on a meeting of several concerned Earl Lane residents and county commissioners, shooting disparaging footage causing the story to go national. He called earlier this year and apologized.
According to a stopowenbenjamin podcast by Camacho, the local residents in Mountain Grove, Missouri, are no more welcoming to Benjamin and his bears than were locals in Sandpoint and Bonners Ferry … if anything, they’re more hostile, and in his podcasts Benjamin admits to dissension in the ranks of donors who are crowdfunding Benjamin’s acquisitions … mostly bears who also contribute most of the equipment and labor as well.
Here at Ursa Rio, Benjamin was offering donors from as far away as Australia who “donated” $400 unlimited access to unlimited camping and a long and varied list of activities, depending not on the season, but on who was asking and what they wanted to hear.
But at a public hearing before the planning and zoning commission in June, 2022, he changed his plans, saying he as building a total of six dry cabins and a shed on a ten acre parcel in north Boundary County, he said, as a place where he, his friends and family could recreate and join together to garden, grow crops, teach kids to fish … a bucolic paradise.
Unable to render a decision as to approving the conditional use permit and what, if any, conditions to impose, P&Z deferred the decision to county commissioners. But Benjamin, who denied crowdfunding, made the contention that the use proposed was not commercial or residential, but recreational, and therefore not requiring a conditional use permit, never followed up and he soon went off to Missouri.
He still asks for his loyal bears to send him money on promises of access, though the latest unique Bear offer is a true doozy few, I imagine, will easily refuse … for a mere $10,000, the discerning investor bear will get two tickets to the 2024 Beartaria Times National Festival August located in the Ozarks and consisting of three days and two nights of camping, Bonfires, games, and a conference from experienced professionals in the areas of homesteading, homeschooling and community building, a $120 per person value; two tickets to the 2024 Beartaria Ozark Campground banquet, a bench that stays on the property made from lumber on the property, marked with your name, and a week’s stay at Owen’s Private Property (Ursa Rio). Spend the evening around the campfire with the world’s most banned comedian!
He also says he’s planning on a June concert at Ursa Rio featuring two bands but, alas, no edgy banned stand up comedy.
Despite everything, Benjamin is handling his travails with dignity and aplomb.
“I hope Adam gets to own Beartaria then throws a big gamma barbecue, invites Elaine Duncan and all the neighbors and promises not to form a militia,” he grouses. “I think that would be a good ending to the story.”