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October 19, 2006
One of earth's wierder places
CENTRAL TEXAS - I swung by the former home of the Branch Davidan cult today. It's in the middle of nowhere on a road called Double EE Ranch Road, a narrow road that quickly turns to dirt. The nearby area has a few houses, mostly trailers really. It feels like high land, and clearly there are more cows here than humans. Just before the road turns to dirt, one passes a fenced compound with three houses, one of which is a double-wide trailer. The fence is decorated with a "PRIVATE PROPERTY" sign as well as a faded "No stopping, standing, or parking" sign erected by the road authorities. That's odd, since the road has only three houses along its long stretch. One of the two gates was open, behind which stands a giant polished red granite stone reading "Welcome to the Branch." That big rock is strangely out-of-place, like a giant plasma screen in the apartment of someone living in a housing project.
It's easy to imagine how nightmarish it might have been to have lived in the cult, led by a 33-year old full-time madman, part-time child molester. There's pretty much nothing nearby, no people, no jobs, no excitement of any sort. That all changed in March 1993 where the Clinton FBI made a military-style assault on peaceful civilians. Six Davidians were killed before the government retreated, leading to a 51-day standoff that culminated when the FBI launched grenades into the rickety wooden compound, provoking a fire that killed another 74 people, including dozens of women and children. A few members of The Branch survived, and a couple of them occupy the place today. There's pretty much no sign of the old compound visible from the road, since the FBI bulldozed the site less than a month after the fire, long before enough evidence could be collected to determine whether the government lit or substantially contributed to the fire that destroyed the building.
My next visit will be to the President's ranch, which is less than 30 miles from the cult compound.
Posted by adrianjo at October 19, 2006 08:24 PM