Every July, some of the richest and most powerful men in the world come to the Bohemian Grove, an enormous campground in Monte Rio, California, for two weeks of drinking, secretive rituals, and making global decisions.
Members of the Bohemian Club have included former U.S. presidents, musicians, oil barons and more. Presidents include Nixon, Eisenhower, Roosevelt, both Bush’s, Hoover, Ford, and Raegan. Colin Powell, Dick Cheney and a healthy selection of White House chiefs of staff, senators, secretaries of state, secretaries of defense, army generals have also attended the camp. In fact, in 1942 the Manhattan Project was organized at the camp festivities. Even Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth showed up in 1983 but she was denied membership into the Bohemian Club because she was not male.
There are many conspiracies that surround the Bohemian Grove. One theory is that there are ritualistic human sacrifices. Others believe that the club picks the future presidents and create the plans for the fate of the world.
“Anybody can be President of the United States, but very few canever have any hope of becoming President of the Bohemian Club.” – President Richard Nixon, 1972
The Cremation of Care, photographed 1907, is an annual theatrical production written, produced and performed by and for members of the Bohemian Club, The dramatic performance is presented on the first night of the annual encampment as an allegorical banishing of worldly cares for the club members, and “to present symbolically the salvation of the trees by the club”. WikipediaA Bohemian tent in the 1900s, sheltering Porter Garnett, George Sterling, and Jack London. WikipediaA dress rehearsal for the 1909 Grove Play, St. Patrick at Tara. WikipediaIn the 1870s, Henry Harry Edwards was an actor with the California Theatre Stock Company, a founding Bohemian and the head entomologist at the California Academy of Sciences. WikipediaSummer, 1967 at Owls Nest Camp. Around the table, left to right- Preston Hotchkis, Ronald Reagan, Harvey Hancock (standing), Richard Nixon, Glenn T. Seaborg, Jack Sparks, (unidentified individual), (unidentified individual), Edwin W. Pauley. EbaumsworldThe Owl Shrine covered in moss, standing among trees behind a stage at one edge of a man-made pond. WikipediaGeorge Bush Jr., George Bush Sr., and Newt Gingrich photographed at the Bohemian Grove during Lakeside Talks, significant informal talks (many on public policy issues) have been given over the years by entertainers, professors, astronauts, business leaders, cabinet officers, Central Intelligence Agency directors, future presidents and former presidents. ebaumsworldGerman politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1974 to 1982, Helmut Schmidt, speaking at the Lakeside Talks in 1991. ebaumsworldYou know you are inside the Bohemian Grove when you come down a trail in the woods and hear piano music from amid a group of tents and then round a bend to see a man with a beer in one hand and his penis in the other, urinating into the bushes. EbaumsworldThe Owl Shrine, a 30-foot (9 m) hollow owl statue made of concrete over steel supports. The moss- and lichen-covered statue simulates a natural rock formation, yet holds electrical and audio equipment within it. For many years, a recording of the voice of club member Walter Cronkite was used as the voice of The Owl. EbaumsworldJack Kemp, Former United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and New York Congressman, Jim Stockdale, former United States Navy vice admiral, and Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 198, at the Lakeside Talks at the Bohemian Grove. EbaumsworldEach year, a Grove Play is performed for one night during the final weekend of the summer encampment. The play is a large-scale musical theatrical production, written and composed by club members, involving some 300 people, including chorus, cast, stage crew and orchestra. EbaumsworldIn 1975, an observer estimated that the Grove Play cost between $20,000 and $30,000, an amount that would be as high as $134,000 in today’s dollars. EbaumsworldOscar Wilde, upon visiting the club in 1882, is reported to have said I never saw so many well-dressed, well-fed, business-looking Bohemians in my life. Ebaumsworld
