Rainbow Family
[2] Inspired in large part by the first Woodstock Festival, two attendees at Vortex, Barry "Plunker" Adams and Garrick Beck, are both considered among the founders of the Rainbow Family.
Use of this site was offered by Paul Geisendorfer, a local developer, after a court order was issued against their gathering at the original location on nearby Table Mountains.
[citation needed] Those who attend Rainbow Gatherings usually share an interest in intentional communities, ecology, spirituality, and entheogens.
[citation needed] The organization is a loose, international affiliation of individuals who have a stated goal of trying to achieve peace and love on Earth.
Also contained within the philosophy are the ideals of creating an intentional community, embodying spirituality and conscious evolution, and practicing non-commercialism.
[7] Money is not used (or not encouraged), camps set up kitchens to share food, and there is a circle on the Fourth of July to pray for peace.
[9] An outbreak of shigellosis (bloody diarrhoea) occurred at the 1987 gathering in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest in Graham County, North Carolina, in the remote southwestern NC Great Smoky Mountains.
State and federal criminal charges included hundreds of traffic and alcohol citations, with impoundment of dozens of vehicles.
A parvovirus outbreak among the dogs at a 2006 Rainbow Gathering in Big Red Park required 200 doses of vaccine and cost the Routt County Humane Society $800.
[10] Although Rainbow Family spokespeople have stated that the group removes its trash after gatherings, the Forest Service has criticized their cleanup efforts as being only "cosmetic" and "not rehabilitation by any stretch of the imagination.
"[11] In Montana in 2000, then-governor Marc Racicot declared a "state of emergency" because of fears of the coming environmental destruction of the Rainbows on the National Forest.
A year later, Dennis Havig, the District ranger from the nearby town of Wisdom, commented that "There were 23,000 people here and you can find virtually no trash.
[15][16] In an effort at self-policing and conflict resolution, Rainbow attendees have created a method they call "Shanti Sena," that involve peaceful nonviolent community response to issues.
[citation needed] In 1980, two young women were shot to death in late June while hitchhiking to the Rainbow Gathering at Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia, and members were questioned about possible involvement.
The killers remain at large and filmmaker Julia Huffman is working on a documentary, The Rainbow Murders, hoping to bring more facts to light.
"[27] On July 4 of the same year, the Winnemem Wintu issued a cease and desist letter, on behalf of itself and the Pit River and Modoc tribes, ordering the Rainbow Family off of sacred and sensitive lands in Shasta–Trinity National Forest.
