Workers at Bohemian Grove, one of the oldest and most secretive men’s retreats in the country, complain that they are underpaid and overworked, especially during two weeks in July when some of the most powerful men in the country descend on its woodland camps in northern California, according to a recent lawsuit.
The campers, who have included Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, and a host of past presidents and billionaires, descend on the camps, which spread over 2,700 acres in Monte Rio, California. Most of the activities focus on drinking and eating, said one of the workers, who are known as “valets” at the camps.
“These guys, they don’t want that college experience to go away,” said Anthony Gregg in an interview with AirMail published Saturday.
“Now they [just] have more money and better alcohol.”
Gregg is one of three named plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit filed in June in U.S. District Court in Northern California against the Bohemian Club, the San Francisco-based non-profit that runs the more than 100 exclusive camps.
In addition to low wages, “defendants continually worked together to come up with methods to avoid paying payroll taxes and overtime,” according to legal filings.
Some of the workers said they were regularly paid “under the table” so that the Bohemian Club could avoid paying payroll taxes and workers’ compensation insurance, filings say.
The Bohemian Club, which was founded in 1872 by a group of journalists, writers and actors, took in more than $4.5 million in 2020, according to its latest federal tax filings, which also showed total assets of more than $38 milion.
“We have reviewed the allegations and it is clear the claims appearing in the lawsuit are brought by individuals who were never employed by the Bohemian Club and therefore the Club should not be a party to this action,” said the Bohemian Club in a statement in June.
Since 1878, the Grove has played host to the country’s most powerful men, including former presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, IBM founder Thomas Watson Jr. and media mogul John Kluge, once the nation’s richest man.
AirMail, a newsletter founded by former Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter, described days at the Grove filled with drinking “and the sort of partying that’s learned in a frat house and evolved by men whose careers depend on sociability.”
The online outlet noted that a supposed specialty cocktail at the camps is the Nembutal, which is made with hot chocolate spiked with horse tranquilizer, which “can make you lose control of your bowels and your bladder.”
“Getting blackout drunk is not unusual at Bohemian Grove,” the report continued.
