The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
IN A REDWOOD FOREST, Calif. ? President Herbert Hoover called it "the greatest men's party on earth." Others have named it the best stag in the universe, or "a summer camp for millionaires." This is the mysterious, famous Bohemian Grove, an hour north of San Francisco in the magnificent redwoods, where for a coupla weeks in July, some 2,200 grown men schlep down in 129 rough "camps" and have anonymous fun. William F. Buckley hangs out here. Merv Griffin once did a famous (and somehow photographed) can-can with Henry Kissinger dressed in leder-hosen. Every single Republican president since Hoover, who attended every year, has dropped in. Art Linkletter, from downtown Moose Jaw, a constant participant, now in his 90s in great health, does a gig in the evening High Jinx skits. You sort of get the drift. No women. The lads at play. There is no TV allowed, no radio, only six pay phones for the 2,200 inhabitants. Which means you can never get one to check with your broker. Which is the idea. The whole idea goes back to 1872, when five bored reporters from the old San Francisco Examiner decided to form a "Bohemian Club" from which all editors were barred. It was such a success in that fay businessmen joined up and by 1878 ? when the "Grove-fest" out in the woods was invented ? the money men had taken over and the journalists were out. The Bohemian Grove naturally owes its roots to an actual province which is now part of the Czech Republic. The Puccini opera La Boheme brought it into common speech. And so San Francisco's playful club became a world attraction. Mark Twain was a member. Oscar Wilde, on a 1892 lecture tour, dropped in. So did Kipling, on his way back from India. Jack London became one of the boys. Most impressive of all ? aside from the celebrities ? are the awesome redwoods. The oldest tree in the forest is 1,400 years ? 89 m high ? your neck-bending cannot follow it to its tips. Almost most dazzling is the sky is black with the executive jets zooming in at the tiny airport nearby, carrying Grove members from all over the U.S. (some from Canada) from their two weeks of fun with the other people who run the world.
