In the spring of 1969, America was on edge. Campus riots were erupting across the country, and police violence was making headlines. Thirteen hippies fleeing the chaos found an unlikely ally in Howard Taylor — brother of Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor. He bailed them out and offered them land on the north shore of Kauai, Hawaii. What started as a small act of refuge grew into one of the most unusual communities in American history.
The community took the name of the man who made it possible. Taylor Camp, as it came to be known, was built on a simple idea: live free. There were no rents, no rigid rules, and no political debates. Residents constructed treehouses along the shoreline, creating a village that blended into the lush Hawaiian landscape.
Life at Taylor Camp ran on its own terms. Clothing was optional, marijuana was openly smoked, and no one paid rent. The community had no formal rulebook, but an informal culture shaped daily life — one built around personal freedom and shared space.
Residents worked to feed themselves through fishing and farming, embracing a back-to-the-land approach. But the community also relied heavily on welfare programs and food stamps to stay afloat. It was a mix of idealism and practical survival.
Word spread fast. At its peak, Taylor Camp swelled to around 150 residents. People arrived from California, Florida, New York, Canada, and even parts of Europe. The camp drew Vietnam veterans, surfers, outlaws, and families with young children. It was, by any measure, a cross-section of people who had turned their backs on mainstream American life.
Despite the clothing-optional culture, the camp was not defined by casual relationships. Most residents coupled up and formed committed partnerships. Babies were conceived and born right there in the treehouses, and a resident doctor — himself a Vietnam vet — along with several midwives helped deliver them.
Spirituality had a home at Taylor Camp too. Residents built a church they called the Church of the Brotherhood of the Paradise Children. It served as the camp’s central gathering place for those seeking something beyond the physical freedoms the village offered.
Daily life had its own rhythm. Residents sewed and repaired their own clothes. Nude volleyball was a regular event, played every evening at sunset. Yoga and other sports were common ways to pass the time. “It was a great experimental living situation,” said Cherry Hamilton, a former resident quoted in photographer John Wehrheim’s book, simply titled Taylor Camp.
Drug use was woven into camp culture. LSD and marijuana were common from the beginning. As the years went on, cocaine also became prevalent, often passed around at parties on an abalone shell. The marijuana grown in the camp’s garden even became a point of connection with some locals, particularly those who had lost jobs after Kauai’s pineapple plantations shut down and were looking for new income streams.
Not all locals welcomed the camp. Some used the term “haoles” — a slur for white foreigners — and openly rejected the lifestyle playing out on their island’s shore. This tension between the camp and parts of the local community never fully disappeared.
Wehrheim documented the faces and moments that made up this world. His photographs show the intimacy of treehouse living — people at rest, at meals, at play — frozen in time on Kauai’s north shore.
By 1977, the state had decided to build a park on the land. Most residents were eventually persuaded to leave on their own, relocating to other parts of the island or back to the mainland. The evictions dragged on over several years. Those who refused to go faced a brutal end to their time at Taylor Camp — local mobs robbed and beat the remaining residents until authorities removed them by force. The treehouses were then burned to the ground. Only a handful of people survived the final clearance, among them a mother and her infant.
