20 Years Ago Today: The Siege of Rainbow Farm

The forgotten legacy of the “Weed Waco”

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The standoff at Rainbow Farm ended 20 years ago on September 4, 2001. Two men dead, lots of unanswered questions. It’s hard to remember in this era of abundant legal weed, but there was a time when you could be martyred over it.

Tom Crosslin and his partner Rollie Rohm established Rainbow Farm in the early nineties as a campground and festival venue. In short order, it becomes a stop on the national jam band circuit, hosting acts from Tommy Chong to Merle Haggard. But this is rural Michigan, and soon law enforcement takes notice. When Crosslin and Rohm begin agitating for reform of marijuana laws, they became a threat. A threat that the local the DA wanted eliminated.

In May 2001, the couple were arrested for growing marijuana in their home, and Rollie’s 11-year-old son was placed in foster care. This turned into an armed standoff, which ended with the death of Crosslin on September 3, and Rohm the following day. When terrorists attacked the United States on September 11, Rainbow Farm was erased from public consciousness entirely.

Below is an excerpt from my story The Rainbow Farm Marijuana Redneck Rebellion.

Tracy “Buggy” Brown has led an interesting life. To hear him tell it, he might’ve been uniquely qualified to approach Rainbow Farm on Friday, August 31, 2001.

“And that goes back to my cult training,” he tells me. “Because I was explosives in my cult, as far as end-of-days stuff. So I was like, yeah, I know what detcord [detonating cord] is. It was wrapped around propane tanks [at Rainbow Farm].”

Brown was raised in New Vrindaban, West Virginia, the largest Hare Krishna community in North America. New Vrindaban gained notoriety in 1996 when its founder, a man called Kirtanananda Swami [born Keith Gordon Ham in Peekskill, New York] took a plea deal on a $10 million racketeering charge for mail fraud. As part of the deal, a charge related to the murder of two of the swami’s devotees was dropped. To understand where he’s coming from, Brown suggested that I read Monkey On A Stick, a true crime tale of drug running, polygamy, and weapons stockpiling that centers around life in New Vrindaban. I did as I was told, and after reading the book, I decided that it was probably safe to assume that Buggy Brown knows detcord when he sees it.

Rainbow Farm was a campground near the town of Vandalia in Cass County Michigan, known for music festivals with names like Hemp Aid and Roach Roast. It was also a hub of activism, part of the statewide fight for marijuana legalization. Over the years its owners, Grover “Tom” Crosslin and his partner, Roland “Rollie” Rohm, became locked in a bitter feud with with the county prosecutor. This, in turn, led to an armed standoff and the deaths of Crosslin and Rohm.

To merely call it an “armed standoff” and leave it at that fails to do the scene any justice. Instead of attending a court hearing, Crosslin and Rohm had torched Rainbow Farm and waited for law enforcement to arrive. This led to a five-day siege, with the sheriff’s department, state police, and FBI surrounding the property.

Some locals call it the “Weed Waco.”

Buggy Brown, who had moved to rural Cass County a year earlier, was milking cows when he saw smoke coming from Rainbow Farm. After finishing his shift, he drove to the farm in his van, where he was greeted by Rollie, who was “camo’d and armed.”

“He just told me it was time for me to go, things were going to happen” Brown says. “I was like, let’s smoke one more bowl. So I got my pipe and my weed, me and him sat there and smoked. Then I was like, I’ll see you when I can see you.”

Upon returning home, Buggy found a phone and called the Sheriff.

For the next several days, Buggy would serve as law enforcement’s hippie hostage negotiator — a familiar face who would drive up to the farm in his van, deliver food from McDonald’s, watch soccer on the television and try (without much luck) to open a line of communication between the men at Rainbow Farm and law enforcement officials. It was an unnerving task, but Buggy kept at it. He was determined to keep his friends alive.

“The Rainbow Farm Marijuana Redneck Rebellion” is available for $7.00 here.