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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Jonestown

Peoples Temple cult settlement in Guyana, led by Jim Jones

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 23, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, better known by its informal name Jonestown, was a remote commune in Guyana established by the Peoples Temple, an American religious cult led by Jim Jones. On November 18, 1978, 918 people died in a coordinated mass murder-suicide across three locations: the Jonestown compound, a nearby airstrip in Port Kaituma, and the group's headquarters in Georgetown, making "Jonestown" internationally infamous. The name of the settlement became synonymous with the incidents at those locations.

Editorial summary

“Jonestown” enters the record as peoples Temple cult settlement in Guyana, led by Jim Jones. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Jonestown, Peoples and Temple can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1978—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Jonestown, Peoples and Temple.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Jonestown” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Jonestown, Peoples and Temple provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1978.

Critical limits

A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Jonestown”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Jonestown primary sources, Jonestown archive and Jonestown research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Jonestown”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Jonestown” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.