Elected through Terror

Untitled Part 59

Back to the ranch. I don't recall just when it occurred, but there was a wildfire in south county that covered tens of thousands of acres – it passed through the ranch area. It burned the compound of the Rajneesh and a bit more before continuing on its journey. The bulk of the buildings remained untouched.

Eventually Washington donated the camp to a Christian Organization called Young Life Ministries; their base is in Seattle, although they have camps all over the northwest.

They focus on being an outreach for young people in the large cities. The county allowed them to use the camp, but have restricted occupancy to a little over 1000 people (I think it is around 1500) at any given time.

They have temporary help from volunteers. Some come for a year, others for a few weeks and others that bring their groups down and help with preparing food, etc. for them.

There have been people that went down to help and some individuals have taken root and live in their RV's as they do volunteer work year round.

Washington has donated millions of dollars to the rebuilding and upkeep of the property. The camp has been named in his honor; it is now call the Washington Young Life Camp.

While it purpose is to serve its own needs, mainly during the summer, it also opens the property up to other organizations. It quietly goes about its business and except for the busses coming and going, is hardly noticeable.

My grandson and I took a road trip about 7 years ago, I took him down to the ranch. We stayed on the main road and talked to a couple of the workers. They were volunteers. Most of the ranch was quiet.

The buildings looked to be in better repair. The first thing I noticed, however, was that many of the signs and posts the Rajneesh had erected were gone. I could still tell were most had been, but only because I had seen them there.

To a person coming into the ranch proper where the buildings are, the only real sign that it had been owned by the Rajneesh was the two doves on the dam.

My last trip to the ranch was about 5 years ago. During the summer many churches send their youth to another area to help missionaries for a short time.

Someone came up with the idea that The Dalles should be treated as a Missionary field. Several youth groups from area churches came together to do just that. I don't recall all they did, but they worked in the community.

One of the local ranchers (who is also a physician at the hospital) opened up his grounds so housing, restrooms, shower areas, food areas, etc. could be set up. The kids would work in the community then come back to the ranch to bond together, etc.

The first week though, was to be a history lesson of the area. Since their focus was to be on missions, they did not go home at night.

I was asked to come in one of those evenings and give a '15' minute talk on the Rajneesh. It turned into about an hour or so discourse and questions and answers.

Bright and early the next morning I met with the group, we were going to take a pre-arranged tour of the ranch. The kids were still eating when I got there; they were running a tad late.

Just before we got into the two vans taking us down, I told them to think about how long it was going to take to get there – to especially consider the time on the county roads that were just gravel.

We left Antelope and a couple of miles further we turned onto the county road – gravel – that led south. We came to the narrow county road leading down to the ranch; much to my surprise it had been paved by the Center.

We met up with our tour guide. I helped him fill some holes in the history of the ranch and gave him some more information as to what occurred. He told us they don't talk much about the Rajneesh when they give tours, preferring to focus on what the ranch stands for now.

The downtown mall area has been turned into dormitories for volunteers that come in. There is an area for those that are just there for a short time, and some set aside for those that come for a year. There are also quarters for those that are married.

Most of the activity takes place in the area that used to be Jesus Grove, the hotel and the 'green house.' They have a large cafeteria where food is served family style. In that building there is also a large laundry room.

Volunteers, from the groups that come down, usually appointed ahead of time by the group, do the bulk of the work of preparing meals, serving and doing laundry for their groups; they are supervised by camp staff.

The hotel has been turned into a dormitory for the groups coming in – the leaders of those groups are responsible for their charges.

They moved the visitor's center from the south part of the 'city' which was across from the Fire hall, to the activity compound and use it for an intake center for the kids to check in as they arrive.

The "green house" has been turned into an indoor activity center. The floor is now wood and several basketball courts as well as an indoor skate board area has been set up. There is still quite a bit of room left that hasn't been designated yet and was being used for storage when we were down there.

The Young Life people have done an amazing job of turning the ranch into a Christian retreat.