On November 18, 1978, more than nine hundred members of the Peoples Temple, under the guidance of cult leader Rev. Jim Jones, killed themselves or were murdered in the jungles of Guyana. Five years before the mass suicide-murder though, Jones was a pillar of the San Francisco community, hobnobbing with government officials and other big-shots while leading his adoring congregation in religious, social, and political activism. It's an incredibly fascinating and tragic tale of power, corruption, and control. And now, nearly 50 years later, Guyana has officially approved a company bringing dark tourists into what's left of Jonestown, which isn't much.
From CNN:
"Welcome to Jonestown" a sign reads in large green letters, spanning the one-lane road winding into the jungle. The original sign added "Peoples Temple Agricultural Project." (See above.) The sign that greets visitors today was created by the local Neighborhood Democratic Council (NDC) in 2009.
"Locals avoid going to Jonestown," Adams said. Too superstitious, he explained. He had been there as a kid the Sunday before the massacre, heard the shots at the airstrip, and saw the gunmen pass through town. Now he and the rest of our group disembarked from the van, walked under the sign and into the woods.
Fifty years ago, the view would have been of a lively settlement, painstakingly cut out of the jungle by Peoples Temple "pioneers." With little more than machetes, they started clearing the 3,800 acres Jones leased from Guyana at 25 cents an acre (just under $1,000 total) a year. He and his followers called it Jonestown and also the PL, or The Promised Land[…]
Little evidence of their hard work remains today. In the massacre's wake, the local Arawak indigenous people and gold miners scavenged any useful materials and the jungle largely swallowed what was left[…]
What else is left? Old tires, a rusty tractor and pickup truck, and, in the clearing where the main pavilion once stood, a cement block with a small plaque : "In memory of the victims of the Jonestown tragedy"
Previously:
• On today's anniversary of Jonestown, here is a moving music video using footage from the Peoples Temple
• Andrew Brandou on his Jonestown paintings
• Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple released a pre-Jonestown gospel album
• Jonestown, 30 years Later: Inside People's Temple, the 1977 exposé.
