Documents / Official release
This FOIA release contains two unclassified MS Mail messages sent on 7 and 9 August 1996 by Thomas S. Marsh to four colleagues, each forwarding an Associated Press wire story. The first, from The Arizona Republic, reports the 1995 disappearance of truck driver Devin Williams near the Mogollon Rim and UFO enthusiasts' comparisons to Travis Walton's 1975 abduction claim. The second describes Crestone, Colorado, a New Age community known for UFO sightings and cattle mutilation reports.
320B8A11.FIN MS Mail DATE-TIME 09 August 96 14:38 FROM Marsh, Thomas S. CLASSIFICATION UNCLASSIFIED SUB.Jl:CT I wonder what the rents are like.... [UNCLASSIFIED] TO Alijanil, Leyla Bakke, Kyle D. Carter, Michael E. Hasman, Thomas M. CARBON_COPY NO CC's on THIS MESSAGE TEXT_BODY CRESTONE, Colo. (AP) This Shangri-la for New Age spiritualists, carved out of a failed subdivision, is having trouble with more earthly matters. One of the directors has been suspended for throwing chairs at his colleagues on the Baca Grande Property Owner's Association board. The dispute stems partly from how much governing there should be at all. Some residents are pushing for more controls on development, while some owners would like even fewer controls. ''There will always be trouble in any paradise. I expect all the normal human behaviors even in a community with spiritual aspirations," says Saguache County Commissioner Robert Philleo, who lives in the unincorporated area called the Baca Grande. Religious groups began moving into the Baca Grande beneath 14,294-foot Crestone Peak in the Sangre de Cristo, or Blood of Christ Mountains, in the late 1970s when Canadian industrialist Maurice Strong and his wife, Hanne, began offering them free land for retreats, hermitages or eco-villages. The land became available when plans for a huge subdivision fell through. Even now only about 330 of 5,600 lots are occupied. Monks and nuns created a Carmelite Catholic Monastery. Zen Buddhists developed a Zen Center, monastery and retreat. Indian, Tibetan, Indonesian, Korean and other sects also built centers in the pinon pines high above Crestone. The area soon gained a reputation as a holy spot, or power center, where the spiritual forces of the universe converge. Reports of UFO sightings and cattle mutilations brought more attention. In 1993, a woman claiming to have talked with aliens by computer proposed building a 396-foot pink pyramid. Supporters of the pyramid, called the ''Pink Pyramid People," flocked to the area. The established religious groups joined with residents of the http://classified./email/data_source/msmail/non-record/cd023/aug l 996/320b8a I I .html Page 1 of 3 1/5/2010
Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 6 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.