Here's a book describing 20,000+ hippies, New Agers, and camp followers descending on an isolated rural community. Imagine a conservative federal district judge conducting a "jury view" of the site to settle conflicts between state public health rules and First Amendment constitutional rights to peacefully assemble in a national forest. "Judge Dave and the Rainbow People" describes this encounter.

Prior to his elevation to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, Hon. David Sentelle was a federal district judge in North Carolina. During the Senate confirmation hearings in 1987, this difficult, indeed bizarre, case appeared. It featured conflicts among liberty, ecology, cultures, and jurisdictions. A decade after his ruling, we had the great good fortune to host Judge Dave at a weeklong seminar for federal judges exploring ways to harmonize environmental values with economic and cultural realities.

A Rainbow Family web site for this "non-organization of non-members" describes the group as "brothers & sisters, children of God, families of life on earth, friends of nature & of all people, children of humankind." Each July 1-7, give or take a few weeks at either end, the Rainbow Family holds its annual North American Rainbow Gathering at a national forest. Two years ago we were accidental but captivated observers of this event when it came to Montana.

Ramona, a professor at Montana State, was studying the accommodation of multigenerational ranch families to fundamental change in their economic, political, and cultural environment. Her study site was the Big Hole Valley of Beaverhead County, Montana. This is one of America's largest, most remote, and most conservative counties. Although larger than Connecticut, its population is less than 10,000.

Because we ranch several hours east of the Big Hole, we leased quarters in Jackson, Montana, population 47. From there, Ramona conducted her interviews. One of her primary sources was Harold Peterson, a highly respected third-generation rancher, community leader, and conservationist.

The federal government owns roughly half of the land west of the 100th meridian. In Beaverhead County it's nearly 60%. The valley floors were homesteaded a century ago. Ranchers run their cows on Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management land in the summer and raise hay and winter their stock in the valley. Most ranchers have an assigned allotment on a specific area of the forest. They "turn out" their stock on a designated date.

But in the summer of 2000, 23,000 members of the Rainbow Family drifted into the Beaverhead National Forest. Their huge camp gradually expanded into the corrals and loading chutes and part of Peterson's allotment just before the Petersons were to turn out their stock. It would be difficult to conjure a more extreme clash of cultures. But both groups adjusted. Peterson waited over ten days, until he was out of feed, to move in cattle and the Rainbows finally moved out their makeshift dwellings, colorfully festooned VW vans, and assorted paraphernalia. Each was shooting photos of the other as the semi trucks unloaded cattle into the corrals recently evicted of Rainbows by Forest Service personnel.

Later, after most Rainbows had drifted out of the forest, we were eating in the Jackson Hot Springs Lodge, across from our apartment. Leaders of this "leaderless" group were meeting at the adjacent table. We asked to join them, to discuss how they dealt with constraints imposed by the local law enforcement and Forest Service personnel. We had spoken with a number of sheriff's deputies and members of the Forest Service's Strategic Management teams and had watched some drug busts. "Welcome Woman," aka Joanee Freedom, enthusiastically told us about Judge Dave and his 1987 rulings in North Carolina. When we told them Judge Dave is our friend they smiled and shared their experiences. We are fortunate indeed that a person of Judge Dave's character, temperament, and intelligence heard and settled this case, for there were no easy or obvious answers.

Enjoy this book--but when you select your reading site be as careful as the Rainbows are in picking annual meeting places. It's likely that you will be unable to contain your laughter and will be sorely tempted to share passages with those around you. Welcome home.