'Taylor Camp' A Photography Book By John Wehrheim

Taylor Camp

By John Wehrheim

 In 1969, thirteen Hippies-refugees from campus riots, war protests and police brutality-fled to the remote Hawaiian island of Kauai.  Before long this little tribe of men, women and children were arrested and sentenced to ninety days hard labor for having no money and no home. Island resident Howard Taylor, brother of actress Elizabeth, bailed out the group and invited them to camp on his vacant ocean front land-then left them on their own, without any restrictions, regulations or supervision. Soon waves of hippies, surfers and troubled Vietnam vets found their way to this clothing-optional, pot-friendly tree house village at the end of the road on the Island's North Shore.
     In 1977, the government condemned the village to make way for a State park. Within a few years the jungle reclaimed Taylor Camp, leaving little but ashes and memories of "the best days of our lives."
     John Wehrheim's 1970s photographs reveal a community that created order without rules and rejected materialism for the healing power of nature. The story of Taylor Camp's eight-year existence is told through interviews made 30 years later after tracking down the campers, their neighbors and the government officials who finally got rid of them.