Deep in the redwoods of Sonoma County, about 75 miles north of San Francisco, the Bohemian Club has hosted a strictly private summer retreat for more than 150 years. Presidents, industrialists, Supreme Court justices, and other influential figures have gathered there behind locked gates and armed guards, with no press allowed. The site has long been a magnet for speculation. In 2000, broadcaster Alex Jones smuggled a hidden camera past the perimeter and filmed the group’s ceremonial opening, known as the Cremation of Care.
His footage showed robed figures, torches, and a coffin set ablaze beside a 40-foot stone owl shrine. Jones described the ceremony as evidence of a ritual sacrifice. No other reporter or researcher has ever substantiated that claim, and no documented victims have ever been connected to the club. What the footage actually shows is a theatrical performance that the club has never denied staging.
The club began informally in 1872, when a group of San Francisco journalists and artists founded the Bohemian Club as a gathering place for creative minds. They quickly discovered that talent alone could not pay the bills, so wealthy businessmen were brought in as associate members in exchange for financial support and access to cultural figures. What began as a circle of writers including Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and Ambrose Bierce gradually shifted in character. By the early 20th century, the club had become as much a network for the city’s financial elite as a haven for artists.
Longtime members complained that the original Bohemian spirit was being diluted, a complaint that has echoed through every generation since. The summer retreat grew from a simple farewell picnic in 1878 into a permanent encampment. In 1899, the club purchased more than 2,000 acres of redwood forest from the Meeker family. Over the following decades, roads, cabins, and camps were built, transforming the property into a self-contained private town hidden among ancient trees.
The centerpiece of each summer gathering is the Cremation of Care, held on the opening night. Members in robes process to a large owl shrine, where a coffin representing everyday worry is set on fire. The ceremony includes chants, a dramatic amplified voice from the hillside, fireworks, and the singing of an old drinking song. The performance has been refined for more than a century.
At one point, the ceremonial voice of the owl was provided by broadcaster Walter Cronkite. The club stages the event as elaborate amateur theater, but its images have fueled decades of suspicion when viewed without context. The grounds are divided into about 120 private camps, many passed down through families for generations. Camps such as Manderlay, Caveman, Owl’s Nest, and Hillbillies have hosted figures including Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H.
W. Bush. The club’s motto, borrowed from Shakespeare, reads “Weaving spiders come not here,” reflecting an official rule against business talk and deal-making inside the retreat. In practice, the Grove has been the site of significant political activity.
Since 1932, the club has hosted Lakeside Talks, afternoon lectures by members and guests on topics ranging from science to foreign policy. In 1950, Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon first crossed paths at the table of Herbert Hoover, beginning a political partnership that led both men to the White House. Nixon also credited the club with reviving his political career. In 1967, he delivered a Lakeside Talk that he later described as a comeback speech, and within a year he was running for president again.
A year later, he and Ronald Reagan discussed the Republican primary while sitting together on a bench at the Grove. One of the most consequential meetings in the club’s history took place in September 1942, when physicists Ernest Lawrence and Robert Oppenheimer met at the Grove to discuss the early organization of the Manhattan Project. The property was largely empty during the off-season, and the two used its privacy to hold what they described as a quiet conversation. The club has also successfully defended its policy of excluding women.
California’s Fair Employment Practice Agency challenged the practice in the late 1970s, arguing that the professional connections formed inside the gates unlawfully excluded women. An administrative judge initially sided with the club, citing the casual masculine informality of the retreat. That ruling was overturned months later, but the club appealed. By 1987, when the California Supreme Court declined to review the case, the club had won its legal right to remain male-only.
Only four women were ever granted honorary membership, the last in 1928. The club remains male-only to this day. Attempts by outsiders to document the Grove have produced mixed results. Journalist Philip Weiss gained access as a guest in 1989 and published a detailed account for Spy Magazine, describing an elaborate summer camp for the powerful rather than anything criminal.
ABC News attempted to film the retreat in 1981 but was blocked by security. Jones’s 2000 footage had real consequences. In 2002, an armed man named Richard McCaslin broke into the property during the off-season, believing he was there to stop ritual killings. He found no ceremony and no victims.
McCaslin was arrested, convicted, and later said he deeply regretted acting on a claim he had never verified. The club has faced scrutiny over its treatment of the forest itself. In 1984, it began logging portions of its property, a practice that contradicted its long-standing image as a protector of ancient redwoods. In 2001, fourth-generation member John Hooper discovered old-growth trees he remembered from childhood had been tagged for harvest.
Hooper organized opposition from inside the club, joined by outside environmental groups. In 2006, the club’s own hired forester resigned after facing pressure to increase logging beyond what he considered responsible. In 2011, Judge Renee Chue ruled against the club, revoking the logging permit and delivering a rare public defeat. In recent years, the club’s local standing has eroded.
In 2019, Sonoma County reduced its dedicated law enforcement support for the encampment, and a county supervisor publicly criticized the club for its exclusion of women and its limited investment in the local community. In 2023, reporting revealed that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had made undisclosed trips to the Grove as the guest of a wealthy donor, adding the club to a broader controversy about undisclosed gifts and travel by sitting justices. In 2023 and 2024, the club faced wage theft lawsuits brought by valet and other workers employed during the encampment. The Bohemian Club continues to operate, continuing its annual summer gathering under the redwoods with armed security and locked gates.
What is documented is a secretive gathering of powerful men who have shaped American politics and history for more than a century. The rumors of sinister ritual activity remain unsubstantiated, but the walls of secrecy that have protected the club from scrutiny remain very real.