Independent research · Built by Jon Ragsdale
Why Bolthole Index exists
Bolthole Index is a passion project that grew from one question: if a family wanted a modest, reachable piece of land that could remain useful through ordinary setbacks and extraordinary disruption, where in America should they start looking?
The word
What is a bolthole?
A bolthole is a place of refuge: somewhere to go when you need to get away or get through. It is familiar British English but still new to many Americans. The ordinary dictionary meaning is simply a place of escape; in this project, it means practical backup land—a rural property close enough to reach, capable enough to support a household, and affordable enough to hold before it is ever urgently needed.
The ideal is not a fortress or a trophy ranch. It is large enough to sustain a family comfortably, yet modest and inconspicuous enough not to become an obvious target for seizure or violence in a true crisis. Water, soil, climate, local rules, seclusion, and carrying cost matter more than luxury.
Language reference: Cambridge Dictionary, “bolthole”.
The spark
Wealth, War & Wisdom
I built the project after reading Barton Biggs’s Wealth, War & Wisdom. Biggs studied how markets and real assets behaved around World War II and how families preserved wealth when normal systems broke down. He compared equities with bonds, land, property, gold, and other stores of value across victorious and defeated countries.
My lasting takeaway—not a promise of investment returns or a formal universal backtest—was that the most resilient asset of a violent twentieth century was often a useful place: productive land and a modest bolthole that could feed a household. Viewed against a century that included two world wars, the 1918 influenza pandemic, political upheaval, inflation, and financial collapse, that kind of useful place seemed to endure better than many paper claims. It also suggested a useful design constraint: enough land to work, but not so much wealth on display that it invites confiscation.
Bolthole Index turns that historical curiosity into a modern American screening question. It does not try to predict catastrophe. It asks which counties combine reachability, water, productive capacity, durable conditions, workable rules, property autonomy, and a manageable cost to carry.
Book references: Wiley’s description and author biography · 2008 book record and preview.
The author
Who was Barton Biggs?
Barton M. Biggs (1932–2012) was an American investor, writer, and pioneering global market strategist. He spent thirty years at Morgan Stanley, where he built its investment-management business, led research, and became the firm’s chief global strategist. He was repeatedly ranked among the leading U.S. and global investment strategists. In 2003 he left Morgan Stanley and co-founded the hedge fund Traxis Partners.
Published by Wiley in 2008, Wealth, War & Wisdom combines financial-market history with a study of World War II’s turning points. Its unusual contribution is to treat survival and preservation of real wealth as historical questions, not just portfolio-allocation exercises. Biggs also wrote Hedgehogging and A Hedge Fund Tale of Reach and Grasp.
Founder
About Jon Ragsdale
Jon Ragsdale is the founder and builder of Bolthole Index. He created the project out of curiosity and a desire to make fragmented county-level facts—water, hazards, land costs, zoning, permits, taxes, and rural capacity—easier to compare. The work is independent and operated by 1732 Studios LLC.
The index is a starting point, not a substitute for visiting land, testing water and soil, reading a deed, or speaking with county officials. Scores are generated consistently from documented inputs; sponsored or affiliate relationships do not change rankings.
How we work
Editorial standards and corrections
- Show the method. Factor definitions, weights, limitations, versions, and source vintages are public.
- Prefer first-party evidence. County and state rules link to government sources wherever available.
- Label uncertainty. Unknown local rules remain unknown; estimates and geographic proxies are identified.
- Keep money separate from rank. Affiliate relationships never alter a score, ranking, or recommendation.
- Correct the record. Send a government source or documented data issue to [email protected]; material corrections ship with the next data release.
Last reviewed August 8, 2026.