The traditions go back to the earliest days of the private gentleman's club, which sprang up in 1872 in San Francisco. The Bohemian Club began renting the campground for an annual retreat, before purchasing it outright in 1899.
"You come upon it suddenly," poet and club member Will Irwin wrote of the Grove in 1908. "One step and its glory is over you."
Originally a cluster of newspaper writers who'd adopted a "bohemian lifestyle," the club expanded overtime to include artists, businessmen, military leaders, and politicians.
While the club has diversified in terms of its members' professions, women have been barred from joining since its inception. A 1978 lawsuit did result in the Bohemian Club being required to hire female employees, however.
So how do you land a coveted spot in the approximately 2,500-member club? Vanity Fair reported that you either need to snag invitations from several members, or languish for decades on the club's waiting list. You've also got to be prepared to drop $25,000 on your initiation fee.
G. William Domhoff, a University of California, Santa Cruz professor emeritus of psychology and sociology, has studied the Bohemian Club extensively. In a post on the site Who Rules America? he described the Grove as "... a place where the powerful relax, enjoy each other's company, and get to know some of the artists, entertainers, and professors who are included to give the occasion a thin veneer of cultural and intellectual pretension."
The motto of the Bohemian Club is "weaving spiders, come not here." It's a line from William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," reflecting the idea is that members are not supposed to worry about work or business deals while at the club.