names. Within the first ten years, it expanded to a network of about twelve communal homes and businesses. As more people arrived and settled in the surrounding neighborhood, Erdmann, as the leader, continued to inherit land and homes (primarily from those who joined) in other, more rural areas of Washington state, Alaska, and Hawaii. In 1972, two members of the family died after ritually breathing toluene fumes out of a plastic bag. In 1974, plenty of Love Israel Family members danced and sang on stage at the World’s Fair in Spokane, Washington. By 1979, the group had about 300 members. In 1983 a conflict emerged within the family, led by members such as Logic Israel (Brian Allen), one of the principal elders in the family. This culminated in 1984, when the family returned $1.6 million and 14 Seattle properties to former member Daniel Gruener (Richness Love) as part of an out-of-court settlement. Membership dwindled from 500 to 100 as the group was forced to give back assets and money to disenchanted members. After the conflict, about 40 remaining members moved to properties in Arlington, and around 30 moved to Los Angeles. The Arlington commune supported both a local organic restaurant and an annual festival open to the public called the Garlic Festival, which drew crowds to the property. In early 2004 the family sold their Arlington properties to the Union for Reform Judaism due to bankruptcy. In 2007, the former Arlington family grounds became Camp Kalsman, a Jewish summer camp. The remaining members moved to China Bend, a property along the Columbia River, in April 2004, and later to a property in Bothell, Washington. In January 2016, it was reported that Love Israel was battling stage 4 cancer. He died on February 1. Gruener died in 2019. Current status The small remaining core of Erdmann's community continues to this day. The Love Family evolved from being a highly concentrated communal society with a shared economy to what some non-members call a cult with their own laws and ways. The greater community became a social network of autonomous households that interacted through a shared culture they have continued to create together, without the robes and peer-enforced order. Presently, those that continue to claim membership in what remains of the Family are concentrated in homes and lots on the shore of the Columbia River (Lake Roosevelt), where they own the China Bend