In 1969, Taylor Camp, a hippie colony, was established in Hawaii taking in anyone who wanted to escape the craziness of the period and reaching about to 120 resident. Residents lived in make-shift homes and clothing was optional
In 1969 Howard Taylor (Elizabeth Taylor’s brother) owned seven acres on Kauai’s North Shore and invited a group of young men, women, and children who had recently been arrested for vagrancy—the 13 original colonists, so to speak—to set up camp there.
Although none of the first 13 lasted the year, new settlers visited and established residency by building treehouses and forming a self-sufficient community of unwritten laws with a mayor, a sheriff, a food co-op, a public water system, and a number of churches. “But Taylor Camp wasn’t a commune,” Wehrheim writes in the introduction. “It had no guru, no clearly defined leadership, and never had a single voice. It had no written ordinances. It wasn’t a democracy. It was much more than that: a community guided by a spirit that created order without rules.”
Theodore Lee is the editor of Caveman Circus. He strives for self-improvement in all areas of his life, except his candy consumption, where he remains a champion gummy worm enthusiast. When not writing about mindfulness or living in integrity, you can find him hiding giant bags of sour patch kids under the bed.