Were outsiders able to visit Jonestown?

While it is impossible to give a definitive number of the people who visited Jonestown but who were not associated with Peoples Temple , it is accurate to say that the number is in the hundreds.

The largest collection of names comes from a Guest Book signed by visitors to Jonestown in 1978. Most of those names are of Guyanese who either arrived from Georgetown in an official capacity, who came to the agricultural project to exchange information on farming techniques in the country’s Northwest District, or – especially local populations – who received medical services from the Jonestown clinic. Others who signed the guest book were personnel from both the American and Soviet embassies in Georgetown. Friends, supporters, and those with professional contacts with the Temple – including Temple attorney Charles Garry and  private investigator Joseph Mazor – also signed the book. Finally, the book includes names of several relatives of Jonestown residents, most notably those of Marceline Jones’ parents, Walter and Charlotte Baldwin, the week before the tragedy of November 18.

Nevertheless, the guest book is not definitive in its coverage. Other family members visited their relatives and documented their travels either in their own writings or in Temple records. The names of attorney Mark Lane, Danish filmmaker Peter Elsass, and San Francisco physician and newspaper publisher Carlton Goodlett, all known to have visited the community, are also not included.

Finally, countless unnamed guests – documented especially in the community’s preparation in anticipation of their arrival, which consisted principally of cleaning up and removing eyesores – appear throughout the journals of Edith Roller and the Jonestown tapes recovered by the FBI.