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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 30, 2015)
6A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JULY 30, 2015 Ranch transformed from cult compound to Christian camp By KATHY ANEY EO Media Group ANTELOPE — Hannah Boozer inched her way along a narrow cable, her eyes worried, her jaw set. The Pendleton teenager wore a harness and a lanyard that slid along an upper wire, so she knew she wouldn’t fall far. Still, a dizzying 50 feet stood between the yearold and terra ¿rPa. Boozer, a caPper at the world’s largest Young Life fa- cility near Antelope, was tack- ling the ropes course — a web of cables and ropes attached to utility poles set into a hilltop. The ¿nal station reTuired a si[- foot horizontal leap to a trapeze bar before she would be gently lowered to the ground. Had Boozer felt Pore re- la[ed, she Pight haYe taken a few PoPents to gaze at the scenery froP her lofty position. The Yiew encoPpassed Young Life’s :ashington )aP- ily Ranch, a 64,000-acre Chris- tian youth caPp with a Pan- Pade lake, OlyPpic-size pool, three zip lines, go-kart track and an ,000-sTuare-foot sports center. About a Pile away, in the Piddle school section, younger kids slid down tube slides at the caPp’s water park. EYery week, about ,00 new caPpers arriYe at the ranch. The oasis is surrounded by high desert Àora and fauna. A graYel road leading to the caPp slices through country rich with sage, juniper, greasewood and riProck. The locals, Pany of theP cattle ranchers, are rugged indiYiduals who haYe weathered baking tePperatures, Piddle-of- the-night calYings and the big- gest irritant of all — the Bhag- wan Shree Rajneesh. Spiritual leader The Bhagwan, a spiritual leader froP ,ndia, in estab- lished a coPPune on the land now occupied by the Young Life caPp and what earlier was a large sheep and cattle concern called the Big Muddy Ranch. ,n the 00s, a farPhouse still standing on the property serYed as a stagecoach stop. The Bhagwan bought the rePote property for 5.5 Pil- lion and inYested Pillions Pore to build RajneeshpuraP as a spiritual retreat for thousands of his red-frocked followers. ,n news clips froP the 0s, Ra- jneeshees line the road for the Bhagwan’s daily driYe-by in a Yehicle froP his Àeet of Pore than 0 Rolls Royce autoPo- biles. Rancho Rajneesh, as soPe called it, had its own newspaper, ¿re departPent, night club and Pall. The Rajneeshees clashed with locals oYer land use. The utopian desert coPPune col- lapsed after Rajneeshees were conYicted of infecting four sal- ad bars with salPonella in The Dalles, the Wasco County seat, in order to haPper Yoter turnout and swing an election. Other criPes included attePpted Pur- Terry Spivey/Wikimedia Commons Photo Pandora moth. Pandora Poths return to forests Associated Press Kathy Aney/EO Media Group The Washington Family Ranch in Central Oregon hosts about 1,100 campers every week. The Christian youth camp sits on the site of the former Rajneeshpuram. Kathy Aney/EO Media Group The Washington Fami- ly Ranch, near Antelope, was once a huge sheep ranch and later a spiritual retreat for followers of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The Christian youth camp, owned by Young Life, opened in 1999. der, arson, election fraud and wiretapping. About 10 followers were iPprisoned. The Bhagwan was deported for iPPigration Yiolations. Montana billionaire Dennis Washington bought the seized property for a cool .65 Pil- lion as a destination resort, but ran into zoning problePs. The Washington faPily donated the property to Young Life in 16 and has continued support with additional donations. Patty Read, adPinistratiYe systePs assistant at the Wash- ington )aPily Ranch, said the caPp is a Pi[ture of new con- struction and rePodeled Ra- jneeshpuraP buildings. The ho- tels were repurposed into dorPs. The nightclub and Pall are now a residence for workers. Ironic The transforPation to a Christian caPp is nothing short of ironic, said Pendleton Young Life leader Chris Thatcher. He and three other leaders shep- herded a contingent of 28 Pendleton teens all last week. Thatcher stood in the sports center where kids scraPbled up cliPbing walls and thudded basketballs off the hardwood. Once a place where thousands of Rajneeshees worshiped the Bhagwan, the center is a hub of recreational actiYity. He described the caPp as a place where the gospel is pre- sented, but not pushed. Seeds are planted during nightly Peet- ings as kids sing and fellowship in a Posh pit-esTue setting in- side a building a short hop froP the swiPPing pool. A pastor zings a short but pithy Pessage. Thatcher said Puch of the faith building happens one on one. ³We belieYe soPething real happens when you journey with a kid,” he said. ,f the caPper isn’t interested in faith? ³We Peet people where they are — we don’t force God on people,” Thatcher said. “We proYide space for eYery caPper to respond to the good news. We don’t stop journeying with kids if they don’t choose hiP.” CaPper Andrew ThoPas, a recent Pendleton High School graduate, described the caPp as engaging, non-threatening and “insane fun.” “The brochures say this will be the best week of your life and they’re not lying,” ThoPas said. “,t is kind of like an escape froP reality,” said Makya Theis, of Pendleton, “,t’s a place where you know you are loYed.” Fascinating wrinkles Read is one of 40 year- round ePployees at the ranch. She serYes as caPp tour guide along with her other duties. The caPp’s recent history includes soPe fascinating wrinkles. God, soPe say, sanded down soPe of the rough edges in the planning process. 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When planners couldn’t de- cide what to do with the Bhag- wan’s house, a 1 range ¿re decided Patters. A ¿nger of the ¿re raced down the ridge and torched the residence, the only one of 00 RajneeshpuraP buildings to burn. The caPp’s huge grassy ¿eld, a place for soccer, Yolley- ball and other actiYities, reTuired seYeral inches of sand to Piti- gate for Puddiness. SoPeone on a four wheeler e[ploring the property discoYered a huge sand deposit that proYided the e[act aPount of sand needed. “This place is a gift,” Thatch- er said. Hannah Boozer, once she conTuered the ropes course, said she thinks the setting is a perfect place for getting close to God. “Young Life is a week full of eye-opening PoPents,” she said. “God’s grace de¿nitely changes liYes at Washington )aPily Ranch.” BEND — Pandora Poths haYe taken flight again in the pine forests of Central Oregon. Andy Eglitis, an ento- Pologist for the Deschutes National Forest, has been getting calls about Poth en- counters in the woods and in Bend, The Bend Bulletin reported. He belieYes there has been a resurgence in their population this suPPer, but it hasn’t yet reached out- break leYels. The last big outbreak was in the 10s, when hun- dreds of Poths crowded on buildings around Bend. People who called Eg- litis reported seeing about 50 Poths each. The reports haYe coPe froP Yarious lo- cations, including in the De- schutes National Forest near the LaYa Cast Forest and at a bank building along U.S. Highway 20. Pandora Poths are easy to recognize because of their size and appearance. At rest, the Poths forP about a 1 1/2-inch triangle, Eglitis said. ,n flight, they haYe a wingspan of about inches. Those gray wings haYe jagged black lines on top and pink on the bottoP. The fePales haYe thin yel- low antennae. The Pales haYe feathery antennae of the saPe hue. “They look like ferns,” Eglitis said. NatiYe to Central Ore- gon, the pandora Poth has a two-year life cycle de- pendent on pine trees. They Punch the trees’ needles like Pad while they are cat- erpillars, but they do not cause deadly daPage like gypsy Poths and other inYa- siYe insects, Eglitis said. EYen during the 10s outbreak, the Poths did not dent Central Oregon’s woods. “,t was really hard to find any trees that were killed by these things,” he said. The Poths ePerge froP the ground and fly around this tiPe in odd years. The caterpillars are out eating pine needles in spring and suPPer of eYen years. What triggered the 10s outbreak, which lasted about a decade and PoYed through different parts of Central Oregon, is unknown, said Stephen Fitzgerald, a forestry pro- fessor at Oregon State UniYersity in CorYallis. But scientists do know it was a Yirus that ended the outbreak around Bend and brought the nuPber of Poths back in check. TIMBERLANDS CLOSED DUE TO HIGH FIRE DANGER E ffective im m ed ia tely, the Lew is & C la rk Tim b erla n d s a re closed to a ll pu blic en try a n d w ill rem a in in effect u n til fu rther n otice. F or u p-to-d a te in form a tion plea se ca ll ou r REC REATION AL HOTLIN E 5 03 -73 8-63 5 1 Ex t. 2 TIMBERLANDS CLOSED “Th e entire office h as becom e like fam ily” My visit was great. I always enjoy the communication before an appointment. And the care is always excellent. The entire office has become like family. Dr. Jeff explains everything. The dental staff are kind and experienced. I would highly recommend. JOE Z. JEFFREY M. LEINASSAR, DMD, FAGD 503/325-0310 1414 MARINE DRIVE, ASTORIA www.smileastoria.com