Rainbows at the border?

The first gathering of the Rainbow Family of Living Light (Rainbow Family) took place in July 1972 at Strawberry Lake, Colorado. Now, 50 years later, the counterculture movement may be returning to the area. 

Other potential locations, however, could be closer to Carbon County and the Platte Valley.

The Board of Carbon County Commissioners (BOCCC) were provided information on the potential gathering during the May 3 meeting by Lenny Layman, Carbon County Emergency Manager.

“It came to my attention last week that they’re planning another very large scale gathering and it’s going to be, most likely, in Colorado,” said Layman. “That location has not been determined. Within two weeks, I’m hoping that that location will be determined between five locations.”

Since their first gathering five decades ago, the Rainbow Family has held gatherings throughout the country. They have no formal structure and no official leader.

According to “Somewhere Under the Rainbow” by Tom Thumb, and the website of the same name, Rainbow Gatherings have been held in Wyoming three times since 1972. The first gathering in Wyoming was in the Shoshone National Forest in 1973. In 1994 and 2008, Rainbow Gatherings were held in the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

The unofficial Rainbow Family website, www.welcomehome.org,  posted the 2022 Rainbow Gathering will be held “somewhere in Colorado” and directions would be available following the Spring Council in June.

Layman told the county commissioners he had been made aware of five potential locations where the Rainbow Gathering may be held. Two of those locations were near Durango, Colorado and in Mesa County, Colorado. The other three locations were Jackson, Moffatt and Routt counties. All three share a border with Wyoming. According to a web page set up by the United States Forest Service specifically for the 2022 Rainbow Gathering, the federal agency also stated they believed Grand County—where Strawberry Lake is located—is a potential location for the 50th Anniversary.

“The one that has me most concerned is the one that’s in Jackson, which is the one that sounds like they may end up choosing,” Layman said. “The information I have at the time is that there could be anywhere between 30,000 to 50,000 (people) on any given day. It’s 30 days long and my grave concern would be … if they gather down in Colorado and something were to happen like a lightning strike or a fire, that population certainly would be driven north and once they hit the freeway they’ll either head to Laramie or come to Carbon (County).”

Because the Rainbow Family has no formal structure and is composed of individuals loosely affiliated with each other, it has made it difficult for the USFS to work with the group to obtain a permit. The Forest Service requires a special use permit for any group of 75 people or more holding a meeting or event in the National Forests. As the Rainbow Family has no leader, there is not a point of contact for the USFS and nobody who can fill out or sign a permit on behalf of the event.

“(The) Forest Service is a little bit concerned in that it’s not a ‘formal’ gathering. It’s just a whole bunch of people that come together at one time and it’s hard to permit, it’s hard to regulate,” said Layman. “It sounds like they’re going to manage it with two incident management teams; one on the law enforcement side and one on the forest service side, both ran by the forest service.”

In a Frequently Asked Questions section of the 2022 Rainbow Gathering page on the USFS website, the federal agency addressed the issue of working with an event which has not obtained a permit.

“The Forest Service has periodically cited Rainbow Family members for failing to obtain a permit,” reads the webpage. “However, the agency also works with the family to adhere to a resource protection plan in lieu of a special use permit to protect the health and safety of individuals at the gathering and in the surrounding community, to ensure sensitive resources are protected, to minimize any environmental damage and to coordinate post-event cleanup and rehabilitation of the event site.”

Commissioner Byron Barkhurst asked Layman if the Rainbow Family cleaned up after themselves as they were “all about the environment and earth”. According to the 2022 Rainbow Gathering page on the USFS website, the Rainbow Family is responsible for site rehabilitation after any gathering with guidelines outlined in a resource protection plan.

According to the web page, “At past events, many individuals have stayed to assist in site clean-up and have paid for trash disposal with a local vendor. Forest officials anticipate this will occur again this year.”

On the Rainbow Family unofficial website, a 16 page PDF document details the post-event cleanup following the 2008 Rainbow Gathering near Pinedale with pictures of the area before and after the event.

“This is a tough beast,” said Chairman John Johnson. “You don’t want to not allow somebody to go into public land because it’s their right to do that but it certainly proposes a challenge or a strain on our governmental processes like the sheriff and emergency management.”

While Layman said he anticipated the event to be a month long, beginning June 15 and ending July 15, the unofficial Rainbow Family website has the date listed as July 1 through July 7.

The next meeting of the Board of Carbon County Commissioners will be at 2 p.m. on May 17 at the Hanna Town Hall in Hanna.