Cultural Writing. History. In 1933 a group of workers from New York, Detroit, and Chicago purchased the fourteen square mile Prarie Farm in Michigan's Saginaw Valley. This is the story of the libertarian collectivist colony known as the Sunrise Co-operative Farm Community. Written by its founder, Joseph J. Cohen, and first published by the Sunrise History Publishing Committee in 1957, IN QUEST OF HEAVEN describes the growth and development of the colony and offers insight into why it ultimately failed.