Rajneeshpuram Commune and the 1984 Bioterror Attack

Followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh purchased the Big Muddy Ranch and built Rajneeshpuram, rapidly creating housing, infrastructure and political organisation in rural Wasco County.

Conflict over land use, immigration and local elections escalated. In 1984 commune members contaminated restaurant salad bars with salmonella in an attempt to influence voting, sickening hundreds in the first large bioterror attack in the United States.