Long before the Epstein files, there has been a tacit, begrudging understanding among the underclass that the world is run by powerful elites who meet up to party and partake in weird rituals. From Yale’s Skull and Bones (where initiates reportedly jack off in a coffin) to the pop culture-dominating Freemasons, we can’t seem to help but find ourselves endlessly fascinated by the shenanigans of the world’s most rich and powerful.
One such consistently captivating cohort is the Bohemian Club, a San Francisco-based gentlemen’s club first organized in 1872 by San Francisco Chronicle staffers as an arts appreciation club. Over its century-and-a-half existence, the fraternal order has expanded its membership beyond Bay Area journalists and extended invitations to industry titans, heads of state, and prominent entertainers. The group is best known for its annual two-week retreats to Bohemian Grove, a 2,700-acre private campground in Monte Rio, California, where the powers that be gather among the redwoods to burn an effigy in front of a 40-foot owl statue in a ceremony called “the Cremation of Care.”
The secret society and what it does at these retreats is understandably (and ironically) alluring catnip for journalists from across the political spectrum, who have made countless efforts to breach the camp perimeter over the years. Thanks to the recently published findings of independent journalist Daniel Boguslaw, a new beam of light may have been shed on the shroud with what appears to be the full list of Grove attendees from 2023. And some of the inclusions on the roster are just as surprising as who’s not on there.
Despite being so close to the seat of America’s tech industry, titans from that world were notably absent from the 2023 list. The biggest names we found were former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Brook H. Byers, a senior partner at the Silicon Valley investment firm, Kleiner Perkins. Perhaps the old-money elites prefer to stay away from these nouveau riche nerds. Or perhaps it’s the STEM guys avoiding the Grove. As we all know by now, the richest men on the planet have another burning effigy party they like to go to each summer. And Burning Man seems a bit more chill about bringing a lady friend.
Among the guest list’s expected and already known muckety-mucks who allegedly attended—Clarence Thomas, Mike Bloomberg, and Charles Koch, to name a few—are figures like Paul Pelosi, who somehow apparently also got wife Nancy in, a rare exception to the camp’s “no girls allowed” traditions. The list’s standout visitors from the world of entertainment include Conan O’Brien, documentarian Ken Burns, and a not-long-for-this-Earth Jimmy Buffett. The biggest head-scratcher of all was the appearance of Jim Belushi, who has been referred to as the Jim Belushi of the Belushi brothers.
Boguslaw’s methodology for obtaining the document was simple, effective, and fittingly analog. He claims he drove to the bay, got a hotel room, and began bothering a known member until they handed it over.
“I went to this person’s office for a week straight,” Boguslaw told the San Francisco Standard. Weeks of effort finally paid off while Boguslaw was out drinking one night when a courier approached him with a list of the 2,200 people who attended the camp that summer. Though Boguslaw’s story was spiked by The Intercept, the outlet that initially agreed to publish his findings, he ultimately published the list on his Substack. The Standard writes that when it reached a club member for comment, they “confirmed it is a real membership list from 2023.”
“I’m confident in my reporting,” he maintained. “I’d like to see [the Bohemian Grove] try to fuck with me.”
It bears mentioning that someone’s inclusion on the Bohemian Grove guest list is in no way an indication that they’ve done anything untoward or illegal, let alone as reputation-destroying as a feature in the Epstein files. If anything, the Grove is starting to look like the secret society of yesteryear, a quaint, toothless relic—especially in the light of the horrors our current ruling class has forced us to bear witness and endure. But you still can’t help but feel a pang of sympathy for a cloak and dagger operation that’s hanging out with the lead of According to Jim, while their big tech contemporaries are on the playa in the orgy dome with A-listers.
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