Waldport Event Marks 50 Years to the Day Heaven's Gate Cult Came to Oregon Coast

Published 08/26/25 at 4:55 a.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Waldport, Oregon) – In the middle of September, an unusual, even other-worldly anniversary will occur for the Oregon coastline. September 14, 1975 was the date of an infamous lecture in Waldport, where an oddball group held an event talking about UFOs and humankind's purpose in the universe.

Some from the Waldport event took off with the group, and some of those folks sold off all their possessions and disappeared. Eventually, all of them would leave the group, but about 20 years later – and a few name changes – the group showed up again in the news as Heaven's Gate. 39 of them offed themselves in a mansion in California in 1997

Now, on September 14, 2025 – 50 years to the day - three of the locals who attended the original event will be holding their own event in Waldport. It happens in the same room and the same resort at the same hour: the Alsi Resort at 2 p.m. (called the Bayshore Inn back in the '70s).

It's entitled “Heaven's Gate Waldport Revisited 50 Years later,” given by Aaron Greenberg, Rudy Draco and Robert Rubin.

Restaurant at Bayshore Inn in 2001 (Oregon Coast Beach Connection)

They were three of the early followers of what was then called “The Two,” and this is their first time in the same room where they met 50 years ago, telling their stories to the public.

It's a story that's been told in-depth and around the world, but never like this, said Rubin – who talked to Oregon Coast Beach Connection. The trio are now in the their 70s, and they will be sharing their personal experiences with the group back then, talking about their lives before, during and after. Tickets available online only at purplepass.com.

Bayshore Inn some 26 years after the event

“The mainstream media has focused on the sensationalist aspect of the cult, the disappearances and suicides,” he said. “We will discuss what we did during the 5-6 months while on 'the process.' “

Heaven's Gate Suicide Cult and its Connections to Oregon Coast The group had distinct connections to Gold Beach and Waldport

Questions will be taken, Rubin said.

The original postcard promo

The Two were created by Marshall Herff Applewhite and Bonnie Lou Nettles in 1973 – and some stories maintain the idea came to them during a camping trip in Gold Beach on the south Oregon coast.

By 1975, they had decided to actually start recruiting members, with the idea of working together to reach a state where your soul would be taken into space by aliens. The Two handed out postcards and posters around town (see the included graphic), and the event drew 150 people.

Out of that, about 20 headed off with The Two.

Rubin told Oregon Coast Beach Connection it definitely did not resemble a cult at the time.

“I saw it as a different response to the questions `Why are we here? and What is the purpose of our lives?' “ he said.

The message intrigued him and others, and so did the leaders' responses to questions posed to them. Still, Rubin, Greenberg and Draco were only in the outfit for around half a year.

News coverage at the time showed some locals worried about their friends or relatives who had just disappeared, having taken off with the The Two.

“We were part of the group that left from Waldport,” Rubin said. “I think people worried about us three only briefly because we returned.”

The future cult leaders' gig in Waldport is a bit of notorious history for the area, given what Heaven's Gate did later. But it's not a well known chapter.

The '75 event happened just a few years after another interesting installment in Waldport history: the Bayshore Inn started in '69 as the Pat Boone Inn. Partially owned by the famed crooner, it failed a little over a year later and was bought up by another company. Waldport's Pat Boone Inn: Oregon Coast Finance Tale That Reached Ocean Shores, Washington

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