Paradise Lost: The Hippie Refugee Camp
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Let me tell you about a place called Taylor Camp, a tropical ocean-front utopia without rules, politics or bills to pay. Anti-establishment all the way, clothing was optional and decisions were made according to the “vibes”. It was the ultimate hippie fantasy.
Taylor Camp began in the Spring of 1969, with thirteen hippies seeking refuge from the ongoing campus riots in America and police brutality. Having fled their homes, they headed for Kauai in Hawaii, then a very remote and unspoilt land with just a single traffic light on the island.
“We were involved in the anti-war movement and Berkeley was ready to explode. It was either pick up a gun or leave,” remembers Sandra Schaub, one of the founding members of Taylor Camp along with her husband Victor. “So we decided to leave for Europe and went, ‘Oh what the heck, we’ve never been to Hawaii; we’ll just go to Hawaii and on to Asia and Europe.’ We had no idea what we were doing.”
Poor, homeless and uninterested in living any kind of standard lifestyle, it wasn’t long before the tribe of hippies landed themselves and their children in jail for vagrancy. But an unlikely Hollywood name came to the rescue. Howard Taylor, Eizabeth Taylor’s brother who was a resident on the island, bailed them out and invited them to live rent-free on his land, one of the most beautiful spots on the island where the unspoilt jungle gave way to a crystalline blue bay.
These photographs were taken by Taylor Camp resident, John Wehrheim. The accounts of the Taylor Camp residents you will read here are excerpts from his photo book, Taylor Camp.
There was no electricity or amenities of any kind and Howard pretty much left them to it. The society dropouts started building their beach-front tree houses with bamboo, scrap lumber and salvaged materials. The “flower power campers” were living out their utopian dream without any restrictions or supervision.
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