Lets Remember Rainbow Farms

[Maskan]

 

Im only 24 am i the onlyone?

 

Any thoughts on this?

 

 

 

 

 

sorry if this is the wrong place i couldent find anywhere els to put it.

[rockinlespaul]

RIP Tom and Rollie.

[Afi]

I miss Rainbow Farms. They were some great people and will be greatly missed. I have probably meet many of you there I am sure and don't even know it. If you never made it to 1 of there festivals you really missed out.

[Maskan]

I miss Rainbow Farms. They were some great people and will be greatly missed. I have probably meet many of you there I am sure and don't even know it. If you never made it to 1 of there festivals you really missed out.

 

 

what was it like?

[GREENkZOO]

I grew up right around the way from Rainbow. By all accounts Tom and Rollie were good people. It is so sad that things like this can happen with no consequences for the thugs that executed them.

[bobandtorey]

http://rainbowfarmcamp.com/

let keep planting them rainbows

[Maskan]

Do we know of anyother campgrounds or multi day festivals like what was at rainbow?

 

 

Other than burning man lol

[Afi]

what was it like?

It was a 3 day festival that had marijuana speakers during the day and live music all night. Everyone was free with the weed and just had a blast. They had Hightimes there and Tommy Chong and several other Marijuana advocates. They had the first person to ever be aloud Medical Marijuana to speak and she was actually given MM from the Gov. and it was ditch weed. I have never experienced anything like it in my life. Everyone was happy and had very little problems for such a large group of people having a good time and this just drove LEO crazy. I guess they won in the end. Sad but true.

[Royal Smoke]

Do we know of anyother campgrounds or multi day festivals like what was at rainbow?

 

 

Other than burning man lol

 

I went to a Bliss Fest a couple years ago in Harbor Springs. It was a hippy atmosphere....

 

http://www.blissfest.org/

 

I had never heard of Rainbow Farm before...

[AmishRnot4ganja]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

 

Coordinates: 41°55′41″N 85°52′17″W / 41.928048°N 85.871469°W / 41.928048; -85.871469 Rainbow Farm was a pro-marijuana, libertarian campground in Newberg Township, Cass County, Michigan, that was involved in a deadly police standoff on Sept. 3, 2001. It was run by Tom Crosslin and his lover Rolland "Rollie" Rohm, and was home to two annual festivals, 'HempAid' and 'Roach Roast,' which ran from 1996 through 2001. The organization ended with the burning down of all the structures on the property and the shooting deaths of both Tom Crosslin and Rolland Rohm.

Contents

[hide]

 

* 1 Background

* 2 Investigation and arrests

* 3 September 2001

* 4 Time Line

* 5 References

 

[edit] Background

 

Beginning in 1996, the two annual Rainbow Farm events, 'HempAid' (on Memorial Day) and 'Roach Roast' (on Labor Day), were part Woodstock, part union picnic. They were family-oriented affairs, with Rohm's son, Robert, wheeling his golf cart among the soft-drink stands and hemp clothing vendors and representatives from the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws. Cannabis smoke in the air, festival-goers listened to onstage speakers rally against government oppression. Guests included the chairman of the Van Buren County Libertarian Party, Tommy Chong of "Cheech and Chong" fame, High Times editor Steve Hager, Merle Haggard, members of Big Brother and the Holding Company, and John Sinclair, the White Panther Party jefe and MC5 manager who, in 1969, had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for possessing two joints. Most of these guests, unlike Crosslin or Rohm, could trace a linage to radicalism of the 1960s, when they played to a more engaged audience. The legal loophole that Crosslin used to hold these gatherings without sparking mass arrests was that he, his employees and the concessionaires who paid to be a part of the festival sold absolutely no drugs.[1]

 

These events from 1996 through 2001 made Rainbow Farm the center of marijuana activism in Michigan. It was listed by High Times magazine as "fourteenth on the list of twenty-five Top Stoner Travel Spots in the world".[2]

[edit] Investigation and arrests

 

Rainbow Farm was the focus of an intensive investigation by Cass County prosecutor Scott Teter. A Rainbow Farm festival was linked to the death of a Berrien County teenager killed April 21, 2001, after his car crashed into a school bus carrying Eau Claire High School students. After a few months of unsuccessfully trying to gather evidence using undercover police officers, the investigation eventually came to a head in early September 2001, when Michigan State Police troopers served a tax-fraud warrant and found more than 200 marijuana plants. Tom and Rollie were arrested on felony manufacture and weapons charges, and Rollie's son, Robert, was taken into foster care. Crosslin was charged with felony possession of a firearm, growing marijuana and maintaining a drug house. He faced 20 years in prison and was out of jail on a $150,000 bail bond, as the state was moving to seize Rainbow Farm under civil asset forfeiture proceedings. During this time Crosslin publicly violated his bail agreement by announcing that he would throw another festival.

 

In August 2001, Crosslin and Rohm failed to appear at their appointed court date, and set fire to a building on their property. Throughout Labor Day weekend, according to law enforcement accounts, Crosslin and Rohm systematically burned down the ten structures on their farm, shot at and hit a news helicopter filming the fires, shot at and missed a police surveillance plane, and sprayed the woods bordering the 34-acre (140,000 m2) property with gunfire to keep police at bay. Crosslin and Rohm also began procuring assault rifles and claiming that the farm had been mined and booby-trapped.

[edit] September 2001

 

The standoff began when deputies went to the farm after neighbors said Crosslin was burning buildings on his property. Believing they were outgunned, the local authorities called in the FBI. The state police and FBI agents surrounded Crosslin's house on August 31; with snipers in the woods watching the house.

 

Crosslin and Rohm fired several times at the police, striking both a helicopter and an armored vehicle.[3]

 

On Sept 2nd, Crosslin walked into the woods on his farm, and while walking back he spotted an FBI agent lying on the ground. Crosslin raised his rifle[4] and was shot in the forehead, he died before hitting the ground.

 

That morning, at 3:45 a.m., Rohm asked that his son be brought to see him and told police that if he was, he would surrender at 7 a.m.[5] Shortly after 6 a.m., a fire was reported at the Rainbow Farm residence. While walking outside the house Rohm was shot dead by another police marksman.

 

A third man, Brandon J. Peoples, suffered minor injuries when Crosslin was shot and was questioned by authorities.

[edit] Time Line

 

* 1993: Tom Crosslin buys the property for Rainbow Farm in Vandalia, Michigan. The farm begins holding annual "hemp festivals."

* 1996: Scott Teter is elected Cass County prosecutor.

* 1999-2000: Rainbow Farm campaigns for the Personal Responsibility Amendment, a failed measure that sought to legalize private use of marijuana.

* 2001 - April: Rainbow Farm is linked to the death of a Berrien County teenager killed April 21, 2001, after his car crashes into a school bus carrying Eau Claire High School students.

* 2001 - May: Early on the morning of May 9, some 30 state police officers raid Rainbow Farm.

* 2001 - August: Crosslin and Rohm skip their court date and set fire to a building on their property.

* 2001 - September 3, Crosslin and Rohm are killed.

 

[edit] References

 

1. ^ Spivak, Joshua. "Tragedy befalls a pot promoter". The San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/23/RVG07JTU4U1.DTL&type=books. Retrieved 2009-03-31.

2. ^ "Reefer madness". http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/06/13/kuipers/index.html. Retrieved 2009-03-31.

3. ^ "Police Kill Second Suspect In Standoff at Michigan Farm". The Washington Post. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-458379.html. Retrieved 2009-03-31.

4. ^ "F.B.I. Kills Man in Standoff". The New York Times. September 4, 2001. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/04/us/fbi-kills-man-in-standoff.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/D/Drug%20Abuse%20and%20Traffic. Retrieved 2009-03-31.

5. ^ "Campground standoff ends with second man dead". http://www.michigandaily.com/content/campground-standoff-ends-second-man-dead. Retrieved 2009-03-31.

 

* Kuipers, Dean (2006). Burning Rainbow Farm: How a Stoner Utopia Went Up in Smoke. Bloomsbury. ISBN 1596911425.

* Memorial Site for Rainbow Farm: Vandalia, Michigan

* A Festival Utopia: Rainbow Farm, five years after the flames by Rob Robinson

* In-Depth 2003 Playboy Article

* NPR audio interview with Dean Kuipers, author of 'Burning Rainbow Farm'

[AmishRnot4ganja]

The Rainbow Farms tragedy forever changed my mind about the "War on Drugs" and the power of the law enforcement arm of our government.

 

First they kill your spirit by taking all your property then they kill you when you attempt to hold onto any thread of respect they have left you.

 

All over an innocuous weed that grows wild in nature. Inexcusable.

[+JuztBudz]

To answer your question....no you aren't the only one! Anyone who met Tom and Rollie and the good folks that lived on the farm have great memories of those wonderful days. I only got to meet Tom and Rollie once, days before their untimely deaths, definately had an impact on my life...Peace...j.b.

[thanks2]

I had never heard of Rainbow Farm until after the law passed and I started reading this forum. It amazes me how few people know about this tragedy. I bought the book "Burning Rainbow Farm" to learn more about it.

[Maskan]

i think one of the main reasons that people never learned about it is that 8 days later was a pretty bad time for everyone in the usa.

 

 

september 11

[lwheidt]

There is a really great book Burning Rainbow Farm that really gets into what happened. Basically the local government hated Tom and Rollie and wanted their land and eventually they got it. Tom and Rollie prefered to die than to submit to unjust laws.

[+Annnie]

I went to a Bliss Fest a couple years ago in Harbor Springs. It was a hippy atmosphere....

 

http://www.blissfest.org/

 

I had never heard of Rainbow Farm before...

Blissfest is in the heart of emmet county and is nothing like rainbow farms.. I actually love blissfest dont get me wrong at all .. Ive been to 20 of them.. but not on the same level by any means.. In fact my blissy friends get nervous when i wear my marijuana tees.. and speak in hushed tones when discussing MM. at least those who live in emmet county.. read this link to find out more about the county.. http://michiganmedicalmarijuana.org/topic/27899-petoskeystoned420-raided-again/page__pid__266818__st__180#entry266818