Last of the Mohicans -- in SOMA?

Amid the proliferating SOMA offices and condos apparently modeled after the background art on a Stolichnaya bottle stands a structure reminiscent of a wholly different time and place. Yes, someone is living in a tepee in a vacant San Francisco lot.

The structure is around eight feet tall, and constructed of 20-odd thin PVC tubes lashed together at one end and forming the distinctive conical shape. A layer of cardboard (which, from a distance, resembles tanned animal hides) has been affixed to the PVC skeleton with twine and wire, and a layer of clear plastic tarpaulin has been wrapped over that.

We knocked at the "door," but no one was there to answer it. A quick peek inside the structure revealed a couple of pallets -- which would give a man shorter than around six feet the chance to sleep off the moist ground. The day's light rain crackled like popcorn on the plastic and the odd drop of water breached the tepee's open top. It is a rather well-made structure and, if only for a moment, the odor of the grassy earth combined with the rain's stacatto to create a most cathartic experience.

In the days to come, we'll attempt to track down the owner of this abode. If he or she is off roaming with the buffalo, then he or she is on the other end of town.