Who or what is Bohemian Grove?

By: William P. Christian @ 6:11 PM - EST

Bohemian Grove is a 2,700-acre campground located at 20601 Bohemian Avenue, in Monte Rio, California, belonging to a private San Francisco-based men’s art club known as the Bohemian Club. In mid-July each year, Bohemian Grove hosts a three-week encampment of some of the most powerful men in the world.

Modern members include:

-Arnold Schwarzenegger

-Newt Gingrich

-Dick Cheney

-Colin Powell

-Donald Rusfeld

-Riley Bectel

-David Rockefeller

-George W. Bush

-Henry Kissinger

-George H. Bush

The Bohemian Club began in 1872 camping in various locations around California, since 1899 they have been using a four square mile redwood grove along the Russian River. Canoing down the river is the only way the public can get a sneak peak at a remote part of the camp.

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 land 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.

There are also sleeping quarters, or “camps” scattered throughout the grove, of which it is reported there were a total of 118 as of 2007. These camps, which are frequently patria-lineal, 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.

The pre-eminent camps are:

• Hill Billies (Big Business/Banking/Politics/Universities/Media and the Bush Family);
• Mandalay (Big Business/Defense Contractors/Politics/U.S. Presidents);
• 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 (U.S. 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)

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.”

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