The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Local News

August 27, 2007

Rainbow Family regional gathering continues in Pocahontas County

By Christian Giggenbach

A regional gathering of a newly formed pocket of the Rainbow Family began last week in Pocahontas County and is expected to continue through Labor Day weekend, officials say.

“They are on the same site that was used for the national gathering of the Rainbow Family in 2005, which is near the Cranberry Mountain Nature Center in the Monongahela National Forest,” Kate Goodrich-Arling, forest public and legislative affairs officer, said Monday.

Goodrich-Arling said the group had filed a special use permit that allows for more than 75 people to use the site until Sept. 2, but as of Monday, only about 25 to 30 people had been seen camping there. A fire pit and latrines have been built at the camp site., she said.

A Web site for the Rainbow Family listed the event as the “first regional gathering of the new Cherry River family.” The camp site is about 20 minutes east of Richwood.

“I don’t anticipate the gathering to exceed more than 100 peo-

ple,” Goodrich-Arlington said.

In 2005, a national gathering of the Rainbow Family brought about 10,000 people to Pocahontas County. The Rainbow Family also held a national gathering there in 1980.

According to their Web site, the Rainbow Family of Living Light “is said to be made up of tribes and families and people from all walks of life coming home together as one human family gathering together on land.”

It is believed Rainbow gatherings began about 1972.

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