A Place of Peace...

By William Hermann - The Arizona Republic, November 17, 1996

Excerpts from the Arizona Republic

Cornville Men who once howled away their days now quietly tend a garden. Men who once beat themselves with their fists now gently groom horses.

At Rusty's Morningstar Ranch,.. men racked by the incurable disorder of autism are making new lives.

Here in the outdoors they find much of the peace that eluded them in the city. Men who were cared for all their lives learn that they can be caregivers as they feed the horses, geese, and chickens.

Rusty's Morningstar Ranch is Arizona's only rural home for autistic men and one of only about 15 in the United States. There is a long waiting list for the ranch, and to accommodate future growth, a development fund has been established to build another ranch house on the property.

The namesake for the ranch is 38-year-old Rusty Armstrong. His parents founded the place 11 years ago, and Rusty's mother, Carlene, 66, is the executive director of the non-profit corporation that runs the 10-acre ranch. Rusty's father, Jack, 68 and retired from the restaurant-supply business, lends a hand at the ranch near Cornville, about 20 miles southwest of Sedona.

Autism impedes speech development and impairs the ability to relate to people and events, and 80 percent of its victims are male. It has claimed much of Rusty's ability to interact with the world.

Much of Rusty's time is spent standing still, a finger to his lips as if shushing the world.

"We couldn't find any place that we felt was right for Rusty," Carlene Armstrong said. "We didn't think he could make any progress, realize his potential, in a home or a hospital."

She believes in the curative powers of rural life.

"Being in the country helps the autistic develop whatever their capabilities are," Armstrong said. "It is peaceful here, with little confusion. Peace is important for the autistic because noises and other interference can be torture for them."

The ranch's desert setting is lovely. The Verde Rim towers to the south, the Mogollon Rim hovers to the east. Sedona's red rocks and the San Francisco Peaks loom to the north.

The ranch includes a small office building, a seven-bedroom ranch house and a big yard with a swimming pool. A trail from the ranch house meanders past a small barn and henhouse and into an orchard of apricot, apple, peach and cherry trees. Just beyond the orchard is a large, grassy field.

The men have ranch chores every day. Joe, 32, cares for the horses. "I feed them, I brush them," Joe said, looking off into the distance. "The horses are very nice."

Joe, like some autistic people, has an aptitude for numbers. Ask him what 987 times 685 is, and Joe will glance to the ground, then say, "It's 676,095." Tell Joe your birth date and he'll tell you what day of the week it was.

Joe once spent much of his time talking with imaginary people. But his grasp on reality has improved to the point where he can hold a job entering data into an inventory computer at a local hospital, Armstrong said.

Many autistic adults remain in their parents' homes for years. When their parents become too old to care for them, they spend the rest of their days in group homes or state hospitals.

Rusty's Morningstar Ranch offers an alternative that more and more people are seeking.

"We're seeing some success because we don't have them just sitting in rooms stringing beads or staring at a television all day," said Fred Saddler, ranch supervisor. "The guys do things here, worthwhile things, satisfying things, and they grow and change because of that."

Because Arizona's Division of Developmental Disabilities has placed three men at the ranch, a state caseworker monitors the work.

"I think it's good that the men not only go out and work but also have excellent and varied recreation," caseworker Bennett Harris said. "The autistic are very vulnerable, and though they (caregivers) protect them at the ranch, they also give them freedom. It seems to work, seems to help the men grow."

San Diego psychologist Bernard Rimland, founder of the Autism Society of America, believes that they approach taken at Rusty's Morningstar Ranch "is something of a model for how to help the autistic." Rimland served as technical advisor for the 1988 film RAIN MAN in which Dustin Hoffman played an autistic man with an aptitude for mathematics similar to Joe's. Hoffman serves on the honorary board of directors of Rusty's.

"I think it's a mistake putting the autistic into group homes in the heart of cities," Rimland said. "If anyone imagines grandmotherly types knocking on the doors of those group homes bearing apple pie, they imagine wrong. I'm afraid very few of the people put into city homes make much contact with their community. It just doesn't happen.

"In fact, a rural setting like at Rusty's is much better for the autistic.

"Doing meaningful work like gathering eggs, caring for animals, working in a garden, is far better than the kinds of work the autistic find in cities, which typically is sweeping parking lots or putting nuts and bolts in plastic bags."

Doing chores is at the heart of the day at Rusty's Morningstar Ranch.

The men care for the animals, the orchard and garden and wok in the house. They sweep and vacuum floors and clean their rooms.

But work is balanced by fun. A music therapist comes to the ranch once a week, and there is much tambourine-banging and loud singing.

On Thursdays, a riding instructor comes. "Caring for the animals is excellent therapy, and riding the horses does wonders for their confidence," Armstrong said.

"One day I looked out the window and say a horse come flying up the driveway, and Rusty was holding on for dear life," she said. "Well, that old horse is barn sour and runs back to her stall whenever she can. But Rusty was so proud of himself staying on. I never thought I'd live to see such a happy look on his face."

Saddler and the three aides share eight-hour shifts, and someone is on duty around the clock. They autistic often are tormented by sounds and voices that they alone can hear, and they sometimes inflict violence upon themselves and on those who try to stop them.

"It can be a long day for our staff," Armstrong said. "One of the men might begin beating himself on the head, and if you step in to stop him, he may begin beating on you. Our aides have to be able to control the men but also be very patient, very kind."

"We get through the days here just as peacefully as we can," Saddler said as he sat on a lawn chair on the porch of the ranch house.

"We all go out and work, and the men work at their own pace," Saddler said. "Peace and harmony is our goal."

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