Rajneesh Ranch Site, Oregon

Rajneeshpuram was the name of a large intentional community in an isolated valley in central Oregon, built from scratch in the 1980s as a home for the followers of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. In just a few years, after the 65,000 acre property, known as the Big Muddy Ranch was purchased in 1981, as many as 7,000 people had moved  there. The site had almost a million square feet of buildings, including a large meeting hall, and numerous residences, airport, fire station, sewage treatment plant, and a farm, much of which were constructed without building permits. Antagonism between the followers and local authorities grew. In 1984, some of his followers poisoned salad bars in restaurants in the Dalles, the county seat, in an attempt to limit votes against their interests in an election. Other crimes were also committed by the leaders of the group, including plotting to assassinate the state’s district attorney. The Bhagwan, who let others govern the community for him, was deported in 1985, and the property was vacated, eventually seized by the government, and sold at auction in 1988. In 1991, it was purchased by Dennis Washington, a wealthy construction and mining company owner from Montana (who also owned other large problematic sites, like the Berkley Pit mine in Butte, Montana). In 1996 he donated the ranch to a Christian group, which turned it into a youth camp, named after him. The Bhagwan, meanwhile, more famous for his 100 Rolls Royces than his spirituality, established a new ashram in Poona, India, where he died in 1990.