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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend February 26, 2006 Oregon Cavemen, from left, Carl Rhodes, John Clark and Hank Geiske, pose in front of the caveman statue Saturday in Grants Pass. Incorporated in 1922 and famous for its �initiations� of visiting dignitaries, the club has filed for dissolution. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven EXTINCTION? Kidnappers of politicians, cagers of women, the Oregon Cavemen are victims of evolution By JOHN DARLING for the Mail Tribune After an 83-year run, the riotous and sometimes scandalous Oregon Cavemen appear to have hung up their clubs and coyote skins and put away the raw meat and saber-toothed tiger blood they forced on countless parade watchers and visiting celebrities. Or have they? This tough breed of neo-Neanderthals, incorporated in 1922 as a booster club for Oregon Caves National Monument, the Redwood Empire and Rogue River recreation, has filed for dissolution with the Oregon Corporation Division. But, having dwindled down to only 13 active members, they will "still keep going as a service club," said the "Chief Bighorn" (president) Hank Geiske, 71, of Grants Pass. "They just all got old and they never got new blood in the club," said Sue Brown of the Grants Pass Chamber of Commerce. "They don’t do parades anymore." Joan Momsen of Grants Pass, the group’s "Cave Queen" in 1962, said she hasn’t seen a Caveman in public in eight or nine years. "It’s a sad state of affairs," she said. "They really put us on the tourist map when we were off the beaten path, but now it’s a joke to a lot of people who don’t know who the Cavemen are." Advertisement For decades, decked out in coyote skins and horsehair wigs, the Cavemen were in demand at parades, dedications and rodeos around the Northwest — and the high school’s teams, bridge, park and a dozen businesses are named after them. The Cavemen would cause uproars by throwing innocent bystanders in their stick-and-rawhide cage, and they mercilessly badgered and humbled the great, including Presidents Kennedy, Reagan, Nixon and Hoover. No more. In an era of zero tolerance over child abuse, animal abuse and sexual harassment — and rigid security by the Secret Service — the Cavemen have had to tone things down and step into the background. "It’s a shame, but the times changed," said Caveman Carl Rhodes of Grants Pass. "You can’t grab teen girls and put them in a cage anymore, not with all the threats about sexual harassment. At every parade someone would have things to say about the coyote and bobcat skins we wore. They were shot legally by ranchers over in Klamath, who wanted to protect their calves." Politicians universally loved the photogenic Cavemen because of the publicity they generated, but, after President Reagan was wounded by gunshot in 1981, the Secret Service wouldn’t tolerate hooting men in costume armed with clubs and jawbones. And when George H.W. Bush ran for president in 1988, they were barred from "initiating" him. The final blow for the Cavemen came from the Oregon Corporation Division when, to cover a big state revenue shortfall, the Legislature in 2003 raised annual corporation fees from $20 to $50 — with the increase going to schools, prisons and social-health services. "All the Corporation Division wants is your money and you don’t get anything in return," said Geiske. "You only hear from them when they want money. We’re nonprofit and they tried to say we’re for profit. We got tired of it and said forget it." The club gave up its charter in November, said Rhodes, adding, "They claimed we had all kinds of assets and threatened to put the president in jail if we didn’t pay up." Geiske added, "We have a little in the checking account. That’s all." Corporation Division director Peter Threlkel, in a telephone interview, said his agency accepts the judgment of the IRS about whether a corporation is nonprofit or not and "wouldn’t get into discussions with a corporation about it." The Cavemen’s request for dissolution was approved Feb. 2 by the Charitable Activities Section of the Attorney General’s Office after the club was found to have $6,000 in debts, no assets and no complaints on file, said Victoria Cox of that office. The debt is owed to the restorer of the 17-foot Caveman statue, standing at the north entrance to Grants Pass. It was burned by a vandal in 2004, with the debt to be paid by the convicted arsonist. In early decades, the Cavemen had more than 300 members and earned global notoriety, crashing the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge, bursting in on a Broadway play, prancing about Congress — and even getting blasted by the Communist propaganda machine, which displayed their outlandish photos, saying the Cavemen were "downtrodden masses" rebelling against the church and Wall Street. With increasing sensitivity about touching of women and children, Cavemen developed a sixth sense, said Momsen, and knew which people to grab from a parade and toss in their cage — and who to let be. "Young girls generally went along with it," she said. "When they grabbed a mom from her kids, the kids would panic and they would calm them, then release the mom down the block. Some women would yell ‘take me!’ They never took those ones, because they were over-anxious. If a woman looked frightened when they took her arm, they would walk away. You don’t want them to die of a heart attack or have the husband come after you." One of the more prominent Cavemen for many decades was longtime Oregon Senate President Eugene "Debbs" Potts, who observed in 1992, "We used to butt into the room and take someone and give them the blood of the saber-toothed tiger (Snappy Tom). You can’t do that now." In addition to presidents, the Cavemen jailed and initiated candidates Bobby Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, Nelson Rockefeller, Thomas Dewey and Wendell Willkie, as well as celebrities Shirley Temple, James Stewart, Babe Ruth, Henry Ford, Jack Dempsey and Mel Blanc. There always have been townsfolk who object to a Neanderthal as the icon of Grants Pass, noted Geiske, but "a lot of these are new people to the county and they don’t know why we started, to boost tourism and business here. We’re going to continue as a service club. We’re still going. We hope to pick up a few more members and continue it." John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at [email protected]. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker Custom Build Computers Computer Security Discount Hotel Reservations Debt Consolidation Generic Viagra Windermere Van Vleet Deep Muscle Stimulator Sports Equipment Online Casino Reviews Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Online Casino Fundraisers Sudoku Online Casinos Canada Advertisement s Advertisement