Bohemian Grove

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"Bohemian Grove" is an 11 km² (2700-acre) campground located at 20601 Bohemian Avenue, in Monte Rio, California^[1] belonging to a private San Francisco-based men's fine arts club known as the Bohemian Club. In mid-July each year, Bohemian Grove hosts a two-week encampment of some of the most powerful men in the world.

Ronald Reagan, Glenn T. Seaborg and Richard Nixon at the Bohemian Grove

1 Introduction
2 History
3 Past attendees
4 Facilities
5 Symbolism and rituals
- 5.1 Cremation of Care
6 Protests and Controversies
7 Quotations
8 Further reading
9 See also
10 References
11 External links

[edit] Introduction

The Bohemian Club's membership includes many artists, particularly musicians, as well as many high-ranking business leaders, government officials (including some US Presidents) and senior media executives. As a measure of the Club's exclusivity, it is reported the waiting list for membership is from 15 to 20 years, though a fast track, three-year membership process is possible. Two current members must sponsor a prospective member. An initiation fee of $25,000 as of 2006 is required in addition to yearly membership dues. Elected members are also allowed to prorate the initiation fee into equal annual payments until they reach the age of 45.

After 40 years of membership the men earn "Old Guard" status, giving them reserved seating at the Grove's daily talks, as well as other perquisites. Members may also invite guests to the Grove although those guests are subject to a rigorous screening procedure. Guests come from across America and overseas. Californian guests are generally limited to attendance at the "Spring Jinks", in June, preceding the main July encampment.

The Grove motto is "Weaving Spiders Come Not Here", which implies that outside concerns and business deals are to be left outside. However, there is demonstrable evidence of political and business deals having been developed at the Grove. The Grove is particularly famous for a Manhattan Project planning meeting that took place there in September of 1942, which subsequently led to the atomic bomb. Those attending, apart from Ernest Lawrence and military officials, included the president of Harvard and representatives of Standard Oil and General Electric. Grove members take particular pride in this event and often relate the story to new attendees.^[2]

[edit] History

Bohemian Grove was established over time, shortly after the founding of the Bohemian Club in 1872. For several years, the members of the Club camped together at various locations, including the present Muir Woods, Samuel P. Taylor State Park, and a separate redwood grove near Duncan Mills, down river from the current location. Regular July encampments similar to those held today began in 1899.

The first parcel of the grove was purchased from Melvin Cyrus Meeker who developed a successful logging operation in the area. Gradually over the next decades, members of the Club purchased land surrounding the original location to the perimeter of the basin in which it resides. This was done to secure the rights to the water, so that its water supply would not be affected by uphill operations.

Not long after the Club's establishment by newspaper journalists, it was commandeered by prominent San Francisco-based businessmen, who provided the financial resources necessary to acquire further acreage and facilities at the Grove. They still retained the "bohemians" however — the artists and musicians — who continued to entertain international members and guests.

The Grove itself consists of redwood trees over 1,500 years old. It is a spectacular nature preserve, untouched by logging, and containing many elevated walkways. The longevity of the redwoods stands as emblematic of an untouched natural setting, far removed from modern day vulgarity. This traditional "purity" underpins the Cremation of Care ceremony (see below).

[edit] Past attendees

The Bohemian Club is a private club; only active members of the Club (known as "Bohos") and their guests may visit the Grove. These guests have been known to include politicians and notable figures from countries outside the US. Particularly during the midsummer encampment, the number of guests is strictly limited due to the small size of the facilities and membership in the Bohemian Club does not necessarily confer the right to attend the annual encampment. Nevertheless, up to 1,500 members and guests have been reported as attending some of the annual encampments.

[edit] Facilities

The primary activities taking place at the Grove are varied and expensive entertainment, such as an elaborate Grove Play (known as "High Jinx") and musical comedies ("Low Jinx") — where female roles are played by men in drag — produced by the members and associate members of the Club. Thus, the majority of common facilities are entertainment venues, interspersed among the giant redwoods.

There are also sleeping quarters, or "camps" scattered throughout the grove, of which it is reported there were a total of 104 as of 2005. These camps, which are frequently patrilineal, are the principal means through which high-level business and political contacts and friendships are formed. For senior corporate executives, the camps are said to be the pinnacle of socio-political networking in the US.

According to Joel van der Reijden (see External Links below for a full list of camps and substantive details on the past affiliations of the camps' members), the pre-eminent camps are:

Mandalay (Big Business/Defense Contractors/Politics/US Presidents);
Hill Billies (Big Business/Banking/Politics/Universities/Media);
Cave Man (Think Tanks/Oil Companies/Banking/Defense Contractors/Universities/Media);
Stowaway (Rockefeller Family Members/Oil Companies/Banking/Think Tanks);
Uplifters (Corporate Executives/Big Business);
Owls Nest (US Presidents/Military/Defense Contractors);
Hideaway (Foundations/Military/Defense Contractors);
Isle of Aves (Military/Defense Contractors);
Lost Angels (Banking/Defense Contractors/Media);
Silverado squatters (Big Business/Defense Contractors);
Sempervirens (Californian-based Corporations);
Hillside (Military — Joint Chiefs of Staff)

Grove Stage — it is an amphitheatre with seating for 2,000 used primarily for the Grove Play production, on the last Friday of the midsummer encampment. The stage extends up the hill side, and is also home to the second largest outdoor pipe organ in the world.
Field Circle — a bowl-shaped amphitheatre used for the mid-weekend, "Low Jinx" musical comedy, as well as for variety shows.
Campfire Circle — has a campfire pit in the middle of the circle, surrounded by carved redwood log benches. Used for smaller shows in a more intimate setting.
Museum Stage — a semi-outdoor venue with a covered stage. Lectures and small ensembles shows.
Dining Circle — seating approximately 1500 diners simultaneously.
Club House — built in 1903, it is the site of the Manhattan Project planning meeting held in 1942 (see above).
The Owl Shrine and the Lake — an artificial lake in the middle of the grove, used for the noon-time concerts and also the venue of the Cremation of Care, that takes place on the first Saturday of the encampment. It is also the location of the daily (12.30pm) "Lakeside Talks." Professor G. William Domhoff (see below) states these significant informal talks (many on public policy issues) have been given over the years by entertainers, professors, astronauts, business leaders, cabinet officers, CIA directors, future presidents and former presidents; these have been the subject of ongoing controversy, as the transcripts of these talks are rarely released to the public (though have been known to be used for such mundane purposes as reading for the lecturer's graduate students).

[edit] Symbolism and rituals

Since the founding of the club, the Bohemian Grove's symbol has been the owl, long held as a representative of wisdom. A forty-foot concrete owl stands at the head of the lake in the Grove and, since 1929, has served as the site of the yearly "Cremation of Care" ceremony (see below). The club's motto, Weaving Spiders Come Not Here, is taken from the second scene of Act 2 from A Midsummer Night's Dream; it signifies that the Grove is limited to exchanges about mutual concerns and is characterized by the term "the Bohemian Spirit."

The Club's patron saint is John of Nepomuk, who legend says suffered death at the hands of a Bohemian monarch rather than disclose the confessional secrets of the queen (this of course, is not historically accurate). In reality, John confirmed Archbishop John of Jenštejn's candidate for Abbot of Kladrau against the wishes of Wenceslaus, King of the Romans. John was thrown off the Charles Bridge at Prague on March 20, 1393. A large wood carving of St. John in cleric robes with his index finger over his lips stands at the shore of the lake in the Grove, symbolising the secrecy kept by the Grove's attendees throughout its long history.

[edit] Cremation of Care

The Cremation of Care was devised in 1893 by a member named Joseph D. Redding, a lawyer from New York.

During the ceremony, which serves as the opening to the Grove encampment, a mock human sacrifice representing "dull care" is cremated to symbolize the liberation of the participants.

Today, the ritual consists of hooded members accepting the effigy representing "dull care" from a ferryman traveling across a creek. Music and fireworks accompany the ritual, for dramatic effect. The mock human sacrifice is placed on an altar and set on fire. A loud blood curdling scream is played over the loud speakers as the "dull care" is set a light. The ritual represents the act of embracing the revelry of Bohemian Grove while setting aside the "dull cares" of the outside world.

The ceremony takes place next to a 45-foot (15 m) high concrete owl statue. During the ceremony, audio plays through nearby speakers providing the illusion of a speaking statue. The voice of the former-newsman Walter Cronkite, a member of the Bohemian Club, is used as the voice of The Owl during the ceremony.

The ceremony involves the poling of a small boat across a lake containing an effigy of Care. Contrary to rumor, Care is not a child. Although "dead", Care has a speaking part and a deep voice. As suggested by the title, Care is eventually burned under the Owl statue towards the end of ceremony. This cremation symbolizes that within the Bohemian Grove members leave the care of the outside world. Contrary to rumor, no parts of the script contain reference to prisoners of the Druids representing enemy tribes such as the Gauls and Celts.

G.W. Domhoff, a sociologist, was able to obtain an unusual amount of access to the Bohemian Club's records and membership and was able, accordingly, to complete extensive research about the organization and their activities. Accordingly, he was able to detail the Cremation of Care ceremony, along with the High and Low Jinx and other ceremonies and plays of the Club.

The ceremony is meant to represent the destruction or burning of worldly concern. Alex Jones infiltrated the Bohemian Grove in 2000 and filmed the final portion of the ceremony for his film Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove. The grove and Jones' investigation were also covered by Jon Ronson in Channel 4's four-part documentary, Secret Rulers of the World.

[edit] Protests and Controversies

With the combination of secrecy, power, and an elite bias, the Bohemian Grove has been a target for protest for many years. Specifically, the Bohemian Grove Action Network organizes protests and has aided journalists who wish to penetrate the secrecy surrounding the encampment. Over the years, individuals have infiltrated the Grove then later published video and claimed accounts of the activities at Bohemian Grove.

On July 15, 2000, Austin, Texas-based journalist and filmmaker Alex Jones and his cameraman, Mike Hanson, became the first people to successfully infiltrate the Grove and make it out with documented evidence. With hidden cameras, Jones and Hanson were able to film the Cremation of Care ritual. The footage was the centerpiece of Jones' documentary, Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove. Jones states that a large number of men were in attendance during an "ancient Canaanite, Luciferian, Babylon mystery religion ceremony" involving a 45-foot statue of an owl which he named Moloch.

A fellow British journalist, Jon Ronson of Channel 4, documented his view of the ritual in his book, Them: Adventures With Extremists. Ronson's interpretation of the ritual was more sanguine; he felt it was a startlingly immature and weird way for world leaders to behave on their summer vacation, but did not see evidence of covert Satanism.

In the summer of 2005, a Grove employee named "Kyle" clandestinely shot more revealing footage and sent it to Alex Jones, who made it the centerpiece of a sequel, The Order of Death, which was released in 2005. This new footage reveals the Owl statue is hollow with a stone exterior. The Grove's public address system is controlled from within the statue, which is also apparently used as a storage area. Various effigies of Care were also found here. "Kyle" was also able to obtain two brochures about the festivities and a membership list.

Actor/writer Harry Shearer (This is Spinal Tap, Saturday Night Live), who has attended at least one Bohemian Club event, wrote and directed The Teddy Bears' Picnic, a parody of the Bohemian Grove conspiracy.

[edit] Quotations

"The club, which holds two-week outings outside San Francisco at the Bohemian Grove, where members run about in the woods naked, includes many former Republican officials..."The New York Times
"The Bohemian Grove, that I attend from time to time — the (inaudible) and the others come there — but it is the most faggy goddamn thing that you would ever imagine. The San Francisco crowd, it's just terrible. I can't even shake hands with anybody from San Francisco." — President Richard M. Nixon, Bohemian Club member starting in 1953 (Domhoff, p 15);

"If I were to choose the speech that gave me the most pleasure and satisfaction in my political career, it would be my Lakeside Speech at the Bohemian Grove in July 1967. Because this speech traditionally was off the record it received no publicity at the time. But in many important ways it marked the first milestone on my road to the presidency." — President Richard Nixon again, in a more mellow mood, in his Memoirs (1978), cited by Domhoff below. (The rule that sitting presidents are not allowed to attend the Grove was sparked by a media clamour to cover a Lakeside Talk that Nixon wanted to give in 1971, but was forced by the directors of the Grove to withdraw.)

"The mood is reminiscent of high school. There's no end to the pee-pee and penis jokes, suggesting that these men, advanced in so many other ways, were emotionally arrested sometime during adolescence" — Philip Weiss, Spy Magazine journalist, who infiltrated the Grove in 1989.

[edit] Further reading

For a definitive look at the history of the Grove and the composition of Bohemian Club members and their social, business and political affiliations, updating Domhoff's book (below), see: A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club by Peter Martin Phillips, current Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University in California. The dissertation covers 167 pdf pages and contains appendices and a bibliography. Phillips attended the Grove and conducted scores of interviews with attendees in his research.[2]

Domhoff, G. William, The Bohemian Grove and Other Retreats: A study in ruling class cohesiveness, Harper and Row, 1974.
Field, Charles K. , The Cremation of Care, 1946, 1953
Fletcher, Robert H., The Annals of the Bohemian Club, Hicks-Judd, 1900
Hanson, Mike, Bohemian Grove: Cult Of Conspiracy, iUniverse Inc, 2004
Hoover, Herbert, Memoirs, Vol 2: The Cabinet and the Presidency, Macmillan, 1952. Hoover was a prominent figure in the Grove's history and coined the phrase: "The Greatest Men's Party on Earth".
Ickes, Harold L. , The Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes, Vol 1. The First Thousand Days, 1933-36. Simon and Schuster, 1953. Ickes was Secretary of the Interior during the New Deal.
Isaacson, Walter, Kissinger: A Biography, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992, (updated) 2005. Contains a brief reference to his attendance at the Grove and fame for his performances in various skits.
Maupin, Armistead, Significant Others, Chatto and Windus, 1988. A fictionalised account of the grove, as described from the point of view of one of the major characters in this the fourth of the 'Tales from the city' series. Sympathetic and well informed, it includes an accurate description of the cremation of care ceremony. .
McCartney, Laton, Friends in High Places: The Bechtel Story: The Most Secret Corporation and how It Engineered the World, Ballantine Books, Updated edition,1989. For the remarkable network of links between the Californian-based and privately-owned Bechtel Corporation and members of Reagan's Cabinet, along with their Camp membership in the Grove.
Nader, Ralph, The Big Boys, Pantheon, 1987. Contains a chapter on high-level businessmen and the tightly-held secrecy of their Club membership.
Nixon, Richard, RN : The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Grosset & Dunlap, 1978.
Quigley, Carroll, Tragedy And Hope: A History of the World in Our Time, G. S. G. & Associates, Incorporated, 1975. The seminal book by the history professor of Georgetown University that serves as the basis for many current conspiracy theories and studies of socio-economic elites.
Santilli, Armand, The Boys at Bohemian Grove, Xlibris Corporation, 2004
Schmidt, Helmut, Men and Powers : A Political Retrospective, Random House, 1990. He states in his memoirs that Germany had similar institutions, some of which included such rituals as Cremation of Care, but that his favorite was the Bohemian Grove.
Shultz, George P., Turmoil and Triumph: Diplomacy, Power and the Victory of the American Ideal, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1993.
van der Zee, John, Power at Ease: Inside the Greatest Men's Party on Earth, Harcourt Brace Javonovich, 1974. The author waited tables at the Grove in the summer of 1972. The book has a comprehensive history of the Grove and an extensive bibliography.
Warren, Earl, The Memoirs of Chief Justice Earl Warren , Madison Books, 2001. A frequent attendee, Warren mentions the Grove in his reminiscences.
Watson, Thomas J. Jr., & Peter Petre, Father, Son & Co. : My Life at IBM and Beyond, Bantam, 2000. A rare glimpse by a top IBM CEO of an insider's business perspective on the Grove.

[edit] See also

Sun Valley Conferences — Annual meetings held over five days in early July in Idaho of top media/communications/IT business leaders/CEO's. Known also as Allen & Company conferences for its investment bank founder, regular attendees have included Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Rupert Murdoch.
Pacific-Union Club — An elite San Francisco-based club whose membership interlinks with the Bohemian Club and Grove.
Rancheros visitadores — Annual meetings held in Santa Barbara in May.

Other international gatherings of high-level business/political/media officials:

World Economic Forum — Annual meetings, mostly held in Davos, Switzerland
Bilderberg Group — Annual meetings, rotated through the US, Canada, Europe and Asia
Trilateral Commission — Annual meetings, rotated through the US, Europe and Asia