Three days after being ousted from their gathering site near Susanville, members of the Rainbow Family were setting up a new location 25 miles away, the U.S. Forest Service said.
As of Monday, July 1, there were an estimated 853 people at the new site — far fewer than the 5,000 to 10,000 originally expected for the counterculture group’s annual gathering.
The second campsite is near Dixie Creek, about 12 miles north of Beckwourth. Like the first, it is in Plumas National Forest.
On Monday, the Rainbow Family campers were still declining to apply for the permit that the Forest Service requires of all groups larger than 75 people, the agency said.
The original site, at the Indian Creek headwaters, was closed to the public on Wednesday, June 26, about a week after participants started arriving to set up for the event, in the first week of July. The Forest Service cited concerns about public safety and natural resources.
At a community meeting the night before the closure, residents of the Susanville area had reiterated their own concerns about fire hazards, damage to natural and cultural resources, and crime because of the large influx of people to the rural area.
Monday’s update from forest managers said about 80 people remained at the Indian Creek site.
Forest Service employees learned of the new camp on Saturday, June 29, and on Monday imposed a 15-mph speed limit in the area. Since June 23, Plumas National Forest has been under Stage 1 fire restrictions, which include a ban on campfires except in designated fire rings at some recreation sites.
The Rainbow Family of Living Light has converged each summer since 1972 on undeveloped public land for what one member’s website described as “a non-commercial backcountry camping experience where we practice how to live in peace.” This year, the location was announced on June 17, and people begin arriving for the event shortly afterward.
More than 10,000 people attended the 2022 gathering, in Colorado; last year, in New Mexico, there were about 3,000.