Elected through Terror

Untitled Part 57

After a couple years of trying to find a buyer the mortgage company sold it to a man named Dennis Washington, a wealthy industrialist from Montana, in the early 1990's.

The report of the sale had been posted in the local paper. Not sure just how it started but four of us, The Dalles Fire Chief, our Personnel Director, our Communications Director and I decided to go down the day he took possession.

We arrived mid-morning and made contact with some employees of Washington. I asked if they minded if we looked around. They said, no go ahead.

They weren't sure why their boss bought the ranch they said that he had purchased another cult's property in Montana a few years before – "I guess he just likes buying cult property."

None of us had thought to bring along a camera; but it is still, a good 20-25 years later, pretty clear in my mind.

First, we explored the "Jesus Grove" housing where Sheila and her closest captains resided. This was modular housing. Several units had been put together, in a hub, to form the unit.

Most of the rooms were empty, but the round bed that Sheila used was still there. She used to plan her nefarious schemes sitting there. I remember thinking that it was probably one item that none of the followers wanted anything to do with, even to destroy it.

She had an escape tunnel into a small ditch. The tunnel was about 10 -15 feet long as I recall and about 4 feet in diameter. It was a corrugated drainage pipe. The bottom had a floor about two feet wide made of wood with a rug covering it.

The two directors' couldn't wait to check it out. I let them get about halfway, when I told them to look closely at the rug, you never know how many bodies were pulled through there.

They stopped and looked back at my smiling face, and continued. As they got close to the outside covering, I reminded them they should be watching out for rattle snakes – that grew a tad bit more concern, but, like curious cats they HAD to go on, they opened it up to see the ditch it led into on the other side. No snakes.

We continued our self-guided tour and went into the Bhagwan's complex. It was empty. His housing, again modular units, included a stainless steel emergency room where the doctor could take care of almost any problem.

He had a large swimming pool in a section. There were several garages that once housed his Rolls Royces. Other than that there wasn't much to it.

The complex, ten acres +/- if I recall correctly, was fully enclosed by a deer proof (8 -10 feet high) fence. The grounds around the garages were graveled. There was a lot of open space between the complex and most of the fencing.

We went over to the large 'green house,' turned meeting arena. The south doors were open and we went inside. It was a massive building. Dominant were the stage where Bhagwan gave his lectures and a full wall of window at the north end.

The landscape, through that well placed window, was the beautiful natural and rugged stone columns, brown and yellow. Beyond was a glimpse of the John Day River area.

As we walked around inside, the Fire Chief noted that their sprinkler system was up to code.

The grounds of the property were returning to the native grass and weeds. We drove north on the road and saw where the Rajneesh had grown grapes and had built a medium sized barn. There was fencing up, but it was wooden, not the usual barbed wire.

They had sold cattle to a company in England that prized their hides for the lack of scratches from barbed wire. I hadn't realized that those scratches from cows rubbing against the wire caused scars which remained and were visible in the hides. Since the Rajneesh didn't use barbed wire the hide was relatively free from any scars and presented a better looking product.

We then drove through the downtown area. Everything was closed up and empty. The book store, where there used to be a few articles of clothing sold and lots of books and paraphernalia with Bhagwan's picture on everything, was now empty with some overturned furnishings.

Driving on through the 'city' and into the back area, everything was turning back to the native grass.

We then decided to visit the funeral pyre. We located the road and then followed it to the site; this was the same pyre that was used to cremate the Japanese drowning victim – giving them that fireworks display on July 4th, 1985 that the Antelope Peace officers thought was so funny.