Land of The Free

I finished all the machine applique and got this assembled!! Woo-Hoo! Although now that the top is together I'm not quite sure I'm done with it. I'd like to add another striped border and maybe a wider border so it can be a bed topper. I have plenty of Americana wall hangings. I'll have to mull it over a bit.

Sunday, my hubby and I were invited for dinner and a tour of a family camp. Visiting brought this story to my mind so I thought I'd share it. It is how I remember it, so all the facts may not be completely accurate. You can easily do a google search to get more info if you wish.

Once upon a time there was a sleepy little town in the middle of nowhere,



in the middle of Oregon. This town was called Antelope. The good folk who lived there and in the surrounding area went to church, helped their neighbors and were good God fearing people. My husband's great grandfather was a sheriff in the town of Antelope and is buried there in the unkempt cemetery.


Around 1980 a guru and his right hand lady from India found out about a very large property for sale outside of Antelope and thought it would be a perfect place to set up utopia.


They did a lot of work on the property, built lots of buildings, made an extensive watering system for their fields, orchards, fruits, vegetables, and greenhouses.
Many followers came and thought they really had joined the perfect utopia. Then greed set in and when they couldn't get all the permits they wanted they decided to take over the town of Antelope and change the rules to suit them. Many people of the sleepy town of Antelope did not want to stay in the town that changed it's name to Rajneeshpurim and they didn't want their children attending school after the commune members voted their way into the the school board.
The commune wasn't enough so they literally took over the town.

Then that wasn't enough, because the voting power was in another larger town called The Dalles. So they sent buses out across the Northwest to pick up homeless people and offer them food, clothes, utopia, as long as they cast a vote. The commune at it's largest boasted 5,000 people.

They worried as they were investigated for immigration and tax fraud. Armed men stood at checkpoints, they started setting up elaborate wire tapping schemes of Oregon politicians, and even went as far to spray salmonella on a salad bar, making 750 people sick trying to keep them away from the polls!


It was an evil and dark time.
The guru and his right hand woman were eventually arrested. She spent some time in a federal prison, but is living in Switzerland now. He was deported and died about 5 years later.

I love stories that have happy endings and where good triumphs over evil. The former commune is now a massive camp for kids and non-profit organizations. Thanks to a generous donor of property and finances Young Life now owns this ranch. Millions of dollars have been saved from having to build everything from scratch. Remodeling, re-piping and generally updating was in order after being neglected for about 15 years. But the bones were there and the camp is a fantastic ministry.

And the nearby town of Antelope went back to being a sleepy little town, who helped their neighbors and were good God fearing people.

The end.