There is much less to Bohemian Grove than meets the eye. The Club was founded 1872 as a drinking club in San Francisco which celebrated the 19th century infatuation with The Artiste. It has been infiltrated several times by enterprising reporters, engendered a number of left-wing protesters who view it as the secret (some secret!!) haunt of rich industrialists and conservative pollitcos. And, it has spawned a large number of contradictory conspiracy theories. It is in reality a male-only, artsy gathering of the well-heeled and famous. Here are some members or participants: Herbert Hoover, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Bush (41 and 43), James Baker, Henry Kissinger, Donald Rumsfeld, Alexander Haig, Walter Chronkite, Bob Hope, Ray Kroc, William Randolf Hurst, Neil Armstrong, Herman Wouk, Charlton Heston, Richard Nixon, Sierra Club founder John Muir, as well as Mark Twain, Jack London, Bret Harte, Ambrose Bierce and others. There are talks by various professors, musical performances, drama (often done in drag), fireworks, an organ recital and some really adolescent hokey rituals (think of the club founded by Calvin in the cartoon strip Calvin and Hobbes). The writer Hampton Sides (see In Darkest Bohemia in Americana [2004] which I recommend) says it costs (a few years ago) $8,400 to join and monthly dues of $110.00. There is obviously some networking going on but it is mostly self-indulgent male bonding, kind of like a fraternity party in the woods. I have heard that women are barred since their presence would make it awkwood for the guys to urinate in the woods. If this be Satanism or Pagan Worship, the occult has really been dumbed down.
