Collection is open for research.
Gift of Robert Thompson, February 6, 2019 (RL2019-022).
The followers of Baghwan Shree Rajneesh (1931-1990), known as Rajneeshees, purchased Big Muddy Ranch, a 64,229-acre site near Antelope, Oregon, in 1981 for $5.75 million. They used the site to build an intentional community named Rajneeshpuram. By 1984, Rajneeshpuram was a city of roughly 7,000 people with a fire department, a police force, restaurants, a sewage system, a post office, and an airport.
By 1986, following a criminal investigation of the Rajneeshees, Rajneeshpuram had become a ghost town. The firm Washington Construction purchased Big Muddy Ranch in 1991. In 1996, the property was sold to the Christian youth organization Young Life, which operated a summer camp at the site from 1999 onwards.
Rajneeshpuram plans and Big Muddy Ranch property records, Coll 796, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
The collection consists of two documents: a photocopy of volume 1 of the City of Rajneeshpuram Comprehensive Plan and a property inventory of Big Muddy Ranch. The comprehensive plan contains information regarding plans for buildings and land and water usage, and includes maps and figures. The property inventory evaluates structures on Big Muddy Ranch (the site of Rajneeshpuram), comparing their condition as of May 1996 to that from a 1991 inventory; it includes photographs of said structures.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.