California
Hundreds of modern-day hippies known as ‘Rainbow Family’ ordered to leave California forest — or face fines
Peace out!
Hundreds of modern-day hippies who form a commune known as the “Rainbow Family” are being kicked out of their campsites at a California national forest with the threat of fines and jail time.
The US Forest Service ordered about 500 of the permitless campers to leave Plumas National Forest within 48 hours on Wednesday or face a fine of up to $5,000 and/or prison time of up to six months, according to the vacate order.
The California eviction is the first time the Rainbow Family of Living Light — a loose-knit group of free-spirited people who gather to camp together in a different national forest each year during the first week of July — has been forced to end its annual camping tradition since its first gathering in 1972.
The free annual gatherings attract between 5,000 and 10,000 people each year.
The group calls itself the “largest non-organization of non-members in the world” and as such, organizers do not get the required permits as they claim they do not have leaders to sign them on behalf of the group, according to the US Forest Service.
The leaderless commune then sets up a welcome tent, camping and social areas, parking areas, health care sites and several outdoor kitchens. The members develop water sources and dig trench latrines to use as bathrooms.
The Rainbow Family also designates different areas of the campsite for group gatherings, partygoers, families with children, women and men, according to the park service.
This summer’s camping event was expected to bring roughly 10,000 visitors to the Plumas National Forest, near Quincy in northern California — which officials said would overwhelm the area and its natural environment.
Some 500 Rainbow Family members had already set up camp this week in an area near the Indian Creek Headwaters, about five miles north of Antelope Lake in the national forest.
The US Forest Service ordered the group to vacate “for the protection of natural, Tribal and cultural resources, concerns about fire danger, public health and sanitation, and upholding permitted special uses.”
The order went into effect Wednesday and is being evaluated daily to determine when it can be lifted.
“The Forest is concerned about the 500 plus individuals already dispersed camping in a concentrated area… There are existing and projected impacts on natural and cultural resources and other authorized uses,” Plumas National Forest Supervisor Chris Carlton said in a statement. “Our priority is maintaining public health and safety and the appropriate stewardship of public lands and natural resources.”
Locals were not pleased by the late announced arrival of the band of hippies and fought against their stay in town, according to local reports.
Four tribes in the region, the Mountain Maidu, Paiute, Pit River, and Washoe, each wrote to the Rainbow Family asking them to reconsider their camping location, according to SFist.
And Lassen County Supervisor Jason Ingram had been fighting the incoming since he learned of it, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
“As I’ve said from the beginning, my concerns with this gathering were always the illegality aspect, the
increased fire risk this would have created, the environmental impact, and the blatant disrespect shown to our local tribes,” Ingram said. “Events are fine, but not events that blatantly disregard the law and endanger our land and community fire safety.”
He celebrated the news of the commune’s first forced cancellation in over 50 years.
“I believe this is the first rainbow gathering event to be shut down, and you all had a hand in that,” Ingram said.
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Eagles singer Don Henley filed a lawsuit in New York on Friday (June 28) seeking the return of his handwritten notes and song lyrics from the band’s 1976 album Hotel California.
The civil complaint filed in Manhattan federal court comes after prosecutors in March abruptly dropped criminal charges midway through a trial against three collectibles experts accused of scheming to sell the documents.
The Eagles co-founder has maintained the pages were stolen and had vowed to pursue a lawsuit when the criminal case was dropped against rare books dealer Glenn Horowitz, former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and rock memorabilia seller Edward Kosinski.
“These 100 pages of personal lyric sheets belong to Mr. Henley and his family, and he has never authorized defendants or anyone else to peddle them for profit,” Daniel Petrocelli, Henley’s lawyer, said in an emailed statement Friday.
According to the lawsuit, the handwritten pages remain in the custody of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, which declined to comment Friday on the litigation.
Lawyers for Kosinski and Inciardi dismissed the legal action as baseless, noting the criminal case was dropped after it was determined that Henley misled prosecutors by withholding critical information.
“Don Henley is desperate to rewrite history,” Shawn Crowley, Kosinski’s lawyer, said in an emailed statement. “We look forward to litigating this case and bringing a lawsuit against Henley to hold him accountable for his repeated lies and misuse of the justice system.”
Inciardi’s lawyer, Stacey Richman, said in a separate statement that the lawsuit attempts to “bully” and “perpetuate a false narrative.”
A lawyer for Horowitz, who isn’t named as a defendant as he doesn’t claim ownership of the materials, didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.
During the trial, the men’s lawyers argued that Henley gave the lyrics pages decades ago to a writer who worked on a never-published Eagles biography and later sold the handwritten sheets to Horowitz. He, in turn, sold them to Inciardi and Kosinski, who started putting some of the pages up for auction in 2012.
The criminal case was abruptly dropped after prosecutors agreed that defense lawyers had essentially been blindsided by 6,000 pages of communications involving Henley and his attorneys and associates.
Prosecutors and the defense said they received the material only after Henley and his lawyers made a last-minute decision to waive their attorney-client privilege shielding legal discussions.
Judge Curtis Farber, who presided over the nonjury trial that opened in late February, said witnesses and their lawyers used attorney-client privilege “to obfuscate and hide information that they believed would be damaging” and that prosecutors “were apparently manipulated.”
When thinking about vacations in Southern California, destinations such as Los Angeles, San Diego and Palm Springs may come to mind.
However, according to Airbnb, none of the three – or maybe any SoCal city you are thinking of – ranked among their top ten trending destinations for this year’s Fourth of July weekend.
That would be Lancaster.
The short and long-term rental service’s list of trending July 4 weekend destinations includes locations renowned for scenic landscapes (such as Cle Elum, Washington and Saratoga Springs, New York) and others known for significant Fourth of July celebrations (Marshfield, Massachusetts and Sanibel Island, Florida) in addition to desirable locations as picked by potential renters themselves.
Airbnb’s top ten trending destinations for Fourth of July 2024 are:
- Pocono Township, Pennsylvania
- Saratoga Springs, New York
- Marshfield, Massachusetts
- Leadville, Colorado
- Bangor, Maine
- Lancaster, California
- Cle Elum, Washington
- Wenatchee, Washington
- Sanibel-Sanibel Island, Florida
- Fort Myers Beach, Florida
Breaking it down further, Airbnb found the “most wishlisted” home in each state; California’s was the Invisible House, located within Joshua Tree National Park.
A one-night stay at the Invisible House from July 7 to July 8 will cost $2,934 before taxes.
To view Airbnb’s list of trending towns and “most wishlisted” homes, click here.
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