High Crimes: Remembering Rainbow Farm

VANDALIA, Mich. --- When the government threatened to take their land, they burned it to the ground. 

Grover Thomas Crosslin and Rolland “Rollie” Rohm were lovers, libertarians, and leaders in the fight to legalize marijuana. At Rainbow Farm they welcomed celebrities like Tommy Chong and Merle Haggard, hosting events that drew thousands to a rural corner of Southwest Michigan. But the open use of illicit drugs sparked a feud with local law enforcement.

Crosslin and Rohm burned Rainbow Farm and died in a four-day standoff.

ABC57 combed through hundreds of documents, examined the facts, and talked to the people closest to those involved to see why a dispute over a now-legal drug ended with the deaths of two men.