a rider on a pale horse

Ostero, Florida - Koreshean Historical Site

In 1965 I rented a 50 CC motorcycle and drove past this place on a 12 hour trip at 30 MPH from Tampa to Miami to see Mrs. Phred (Miss Phred at the time). I vaguely remember seeing the Koreshian General Store and thinking “cult”. At one time it was the only stop on the Tamiami Trail (US 41) on the 60 mile stretch from Fort Myers to Naples. The road is six lanes now with lots of stops.

The Koreshian State park is typical Florida palmetto scrub. They rent canoes here. The brackish river leads though mangroves out to “Mound Key” in the Gulf of Mexico four miles distant.


Cyrus Teed was a physician living in Utica, New York in 1870. He liked to experiment with electricity and once shocked himself into unconsciousness. When he awoke, he had seen God, who he said was both male and female and had learned that mankind lived inside a hollow sphere 8,000 miles in diameter.

The Koresheans moved here from Chicago in 1893 and acquired 3,000 wilderness acres including a great amount of “worthless” pristine beachfront. They lived at first in tents in the mud, but soon cleared the land and built more than 50 structures, including this house for the Planetary Sisters.


They believed in celibacy and for that reason the cult died out by the 1960s. Their affairs were ruled by seven women who represented the seven known planets. The aging remnants of the cult deeded the land to the state in 1963 and a State park was created. When married couples joined the cult, they lived in separate dormitories.

The members of the cult signed over all material possessions to Cyrus. He had an appeal to the women of his time. Many left husbands to join the settlement.

Once firmly established, the Koresheans incorporated the town of Ostero a few miles south of Fort Myers. The Founder, Cyrus Teed, was beaten badly by the Marshall and his assistant in Fort Myers after a political argument and eventually died of the injuries he received. Cyrus is Koresh in Hebrew. They conducted experiments to prove that the horizon curved upward.


The Koresheans believed that we lived inside a hollow sphere with a crust 100 miles thick surrounded by a great void of nothing...the sun moon and planets were mere reflections ...night was a vast cloud of dark gases that powered the revolution of the sphere much like an electric motor...the strange mammal with the "big brain" remains capable of the most astounding delusions (present company excepted, of course)...the leader, Cyrus, was kept in a bathtub after his death for a week, since it was assumed that he would reanimate. His grave was washed into the Gulf by a 1920 hurricane and he has not been seen since.


I walked though the Koreshian compound today...the last of them gave up her belief in the hollow sphere. She said in 1973 that the American boys walking on the moon convinced her that we lived outside the sphere...

In an unrelated matter, David Koresh (an assumed name) of the Branch Dividians in Waco was also impressed with the name of the man who led the Jews away from Babylon. David Koresh (the Hebrew name for Cyrus) had the following discussion with FBI negotiators:

Koresh: "What is Christ revealed as, according to the fourth seal?"
FBI: "Pale... a rider on a pale horse."
Koresh: "And his name is what?"
FBI: "Death."
Koresh: "Now, do you know what the name Koresh means?"
FBI: "Go ahead..."
Koresh: "It means death.


The unfortunate conflagration at the Branch Davidian compound led to the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal building in 1995 by a disturbed American Iraq veteran (Iraq I) resulting in 250 deaths, including a large number of young children at the day care center.

Ranch Apocalypse

Waco, Texas

We drove to Waco yesterday to see what's left of the Branch Davidian compound and also to see the Texas Ranger Museum. The compound is about ten miles outside Waco just off Farm Road 2491.


As we drive though this bucolic and sparsely populated area, I can't help visualizing carloads full of FBI Agents in black Suburban SUVs and an occasional flatbed truck hauling out an Abrams M1A1 tank or some other exotic piece of equipment.

The original Government raid on Mt. Carmel in 1993 went badly wrong, leaving four dead ATF agents and six dead Branch Davidians. The FBI took over at that point because of the death of Federal agents and a 51-day standoff began.



The siege ended even more badly than it began with the death of 82 Branch Davidians. Autopsies revealed that 20 had been shot to death and the rest died in a flaming building, including 20 children and two pregnant women. If you read Wiki about David Koresh, you find that Mt. Carmel had a somewhat turbulent history even before this disaster.

"By late 1987, George Roden's support had withered. To regain it, he challenged Koresh to a contest to raise the dead, even digging up one corpse to practice on it. Koresh went to authorities to file charges of corpse abuse against Roden, but was told he would have to show proof (such as a photograph of the corpse). Koresh returned to Mount Carmel in camouflage, with seven armed followers. All but one - who managed to escape - were arrested by the local police, who had been alerted by the sound of gunfire.^[1] When deputy sheriffs arrived, they found Koresh and six followers firing their rifles at Roden, who was also armed. Roden had already suffered a minor gunshot wound and was pinned down behind a tree at the Compound. The sheriff called into the chapel by telephone and talked Koresh into surrender.^[6] As a result of the incident, Koresh and his followers were charged with attempted murder. At the trial, Koresh testified that he went to Mount Carmel to uncover evidence of corpse abuse by George Roden. Koresh's followers were acquitted, and in Koresh's case a mistrial was declared."

It was always a strange place. Now the compound has a sign warning off trespassers. We drive in and take some snapshots of a granite stone and a small new church. A man comes out of the church to stare at us, so we wave "hello". Today we are the only visitors.


Koresh took over Mt. Carmel in 1989.

In 1989 Roden murdered Wayman Dale Adair with an axe blow to the skull after Adair stated his belief that he (Adair) was the true Messiah.^[7] Roden was convicted of murder and imprisoned in a mental hospital at Vernon, Texas. Because Roden owed thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes, Mount Carmel was placed for sale. Koresh and his followers raised the money and purchased the property, which he subsequently renamed "Ranch Apocalypse."^[1] Roden continued to harass the Koresh faction by filing legal papers while imprisoned. When Koresh and his followers reclaimed Mt. Carmel, they discovered that tenants who had rented from Roden had left behind a methamphetamine laboratory, which Koresh reported to the local police department and asked to have removed.^[8]

A UPS driver reported that a package broken open on delivery contained grenade casings and black powder. That and the frequent sound of automatic weapons fire led to the ill-fated ATF raid on the compound.

The Texas Ranger Musuem is interesting. They have a 45 minute video about the 185 year history of the Rangers and lots of very pretty firearms elaborately engraved. The many portraits of the rangers seem less steely-eyed than I had imagined.

After that we visit relatives in Killeen and are treated to a Texas steak dinner.