Kalihiwai resident John Wehrheim’s documentary film short, “Taylor Camp 1976-1977,” has its Kaua‘i premiere this Sunday, Aug. 29, at the Kilauea Theater & Community Event Center. Wehrheim documented the alternative-lifestyle community that existed at a remote beach at Ha‘ena from
Kalihiwai resident John Wehrheim’s documentary film short, “Taylor Camp 1976-1977,” has its Kaua‘i premiere this Sunday, Aug. 29, at the Kilauea Theater & Community Event Center.
Wehrheim documented the alternative-lifestyle community that existed at a remote beach at Ha‘ena from 1969 to 1977 during the last year of the camp. Wehrheim is an accomplished documentary photographer, and provided images of historic buildings for the Kaua‘i Historical Society’s classic pre-Hurricane ‘Iwa book “Kauai Album.” His Taylor Camp images captured the people and buildings they created. Some of the images show the nudity that was commonly practiced at Taylor Camp.
The film is set to show at 5 p.m., and the showing is a benefit for the KKCR radio station. Please call KKCR, 826-7774, for more information. Following is a brief history of Taylor Camp, written by Wehrheim.
In 1969, a group of men, women and children calling themselves a “family” (described in those days as “Jesus freaks”) came to Kaua‘i and camped at one of the beach parks. After living at the park for several months and setting up what to the local people looked like a semi-permanent gypsy village, they were arrested for vagrancy and fined $1 each.
They refused to pay the fines, and were taken to jail. While in jail, state Child Protective Services put the children in foster care, and the story hit the papers.
Howard Taylor, a Kaua‘i resident and brother of Elizabeth Taylor, was at the time in a legal dispute with the state. The Department of Parks had begun condemnation proceedings on a piece of land Howard Taylor owned at the end of the North Shore road in Ha‘ena. Howard Taylor had already designed his home for the property, and was fighting the condemnation while living in the house he had built across the bay.
After Howard Taylor heard about the campers held in the county jail, he paid their fines and moved them onto the land being condemned by the state. This was the beginning of the eight-year life of Taylor Camp. The original inhabitants were gone within the year, but the camp took on a life of its own. Tree houses replaced tents. Surfers and naked hippies replaced Jesus freaks. For the first few years, Howard Taylor had a close relationship with the campers, lending them tools and equipment and giving them surplus building materials. But by 1973 Howard Taylor had lost control of the camp, and had no more contact with the campers. At that time, the camp housed about 75 people, and inhabitants had begun to hold community meetings to discuss public issues such as health, sanitation and growth. Areas of the stream were designated for drinking water, bathing and washing. There was a community garden, compost pit and trash dump. After Howard Taylor settled on the condemnation price and deeded the land to the state, he was told to “get those hippies off your land.” Howard Taylor replied, “that’s not my land, and they’re your hippies.” Most moved out in a one-week period in the winter of 1977, and Taylor Camp became a ghost town. The spirit of the camp was gone, and the holdouts followed within days. State crews immediately moved in and burned it to the ground.
