*Meanwhile, a handful of civilians who live near Jonestown and make sure they are on their way home before nightfall have been waging a holding action against the jungle. Besides trimming the grass with machetes, they also see that flapping shutter is stilled or that shredded canvas roofing is replaced with tin. They feed the dozen or so pigs and cows that remain and, with the help of sometimes as many as 100 day laborers, they are growing casava, bananas and greens.*

*The doors and shutters on most of the rough wood cottages have been nailed shut and the tractors and bulldozers and heavy trucks have been parked together. The electric generator and the power saws, the drill presses and the chain hoists, look as good as new.*

*Jonestown is clean and neat now. There is no litter, no disorder and, except for the caretakers and a few policemen, no life.*

*- A Forlorn Jonestown Slumbers, NY Times, 1979*

The pictures of the empty playground, Mr. Muggs’ cage…the garage that the pioneers probably spent so much time in as they attempted to fix broken tools and equipment…it’s heartbreaking.

Photos: Peoples Temple Flickr, The Jonestown Institute

A Forlorn Jonestown: https://www.nytimes.com/1979/10/11/archives/a-forlorn-jonestown-slumbers-as-guyana-seeks-only-to-forget.html

Pictures of Jonestown after November 18