Nothing to Hide : Nudists Say They’ve Found Their Place in the Sun at Secluded Forest Haven

McConville is a secluded club, nestled among oak and sycamore trees off a dusty road high in the Cleveland National Forest. Behind a padlocked wooden gate, club members play tennis, hike on trails and lounge around the pool.

In the nude.

“People think you’re weird for being here. They think you’re having open sex,” said Flo Nilson, owner and manager of McConville, which calls itself the oldest permanent nudist camp in operation in the West. “That’s not what it is.

“It’s such a feeling of freedom you can’t find anywhere else. It’s a country-club atmosphere, but you don’t wear clothes.”

McConville is a haven for about 100 families, couples and singles looking to slip away from the pressures of urban life. At a time when people scour Orange County for peace and quiet during the dog days of summer, club members bare all to relax with nature.

The privacy that members cherish came to an abrupt halt June 27 when a fire charred more than 8,000 acres in the Cleveland National Forest, coming with 100 feet of McConville. News accounts brought the largely unknown camp to light.

“It was the closest to hell I wanted to come,” said Helen, a camp member from Arizona who, like many nudists, did not want her last name used.

That fire wasn’t the first time the surrounding area was left as bare as camp members. Legend has it that during the Jamison Fire of 1954, women had to duck for cover when fire trucks rumbled through the property with leering crews.

McConville, one of nine operating nudist camps in California, including the Glen Eden Sun Club five miles away in Riverside County, is located on 320 rugged acres tucked off the Ortega Highway, just inside the Orange County-Riverside County line.

It is the oldest of three camps owning property in Southern California, according to Ed Lange, one of the movement’s elder statesmen and owner of Elysium Fields in Topanga, a nudist camp that offers courses on such subjects as self-esteem and massage. Other nudist clubs, including the Golden Bares of Anaheim, must travel to find a place in the sun.

McConville attracts a variety of people, from construction workers to attorneys, Nilson said. A family of five even lives there year-round. Members of the nonprofit camp are charged $300 a year or $11 per visit; cabins are available for $15 a day and camping runs $2 a night.

‘No Oddball Swingers’

New members are screened, Nilson said. “We want to make sure there are no oddball swingers coming here for a cheap peek. We’ve always been thought of as the snobs of nudism because we don’t let just everyone in.”

Many nudists keep their membership a secret, knowing that their way of life makes many people squirm.

“Nudism isn’t for everyone--thank goodness,” Helen said. “I’ve told very few people about this. My sister said, ‘Oooohhh, don’t talk about it.’ ”

Nudists say critics associate nudism with perversity or immorality. But, they say, their hobby gives them a sense of well-being that few people can understand.

“It’s not a sexual thing,” said another McConville member, Kathi, 35. “We don’t scam on each other. We hardly pay attention at all. It gives us a chance to be ourselves.”

Family Life Stressed

Nilson said McConville stresses family life. Fewer than 15% of members are single, she said.

McConville offers a host of activities, including potluck dinners, dances and a nude over-the-line tournament--a game played with a softball and bat but no base running.

The camp boasts a swimming pool, tennis court, volleyball court, a children’s playground and facilities for shuffleboard, badminton and horseshoes. There’s even a hiking trail where members can sunbathe on rocks.

True to the natural setting, cabins have no electricity; stoves, refrigerators and lights are powered by propane. But the dance hall has such party essentials as a stereo and VCR.

Visitors to McConville, who push an air horn at the gate to summon Nilson, must agree to follow camp rules, which require nude-only swimming in the pool.

Camp Founded in 1933

The park, founded in 1933 as nudist camps were making their debut in the United States, was owned by Peter J. McConville. It was known as Elysian Fields and was located a few miles from the current site. In 1934, the camp was relocated and renamed Olympic Fields.

The park went through a scare in 1945 when the Dills Bill, which would have outlawed nudism in the state, was introduced in Sacramento. But thanks to testimony from members of Olympic Fields, the bill was defeated.

Nilson and her husband, Wally, bought the camp in 1954 for $7 an acre, and renamed it in honor of McConville. The couple, nudists since 1952, have run it since.

Their interest in nudism developed quickly.

“My husband came home with a nudist magazine one day, plopped it down and said, ‘How would you like to try something different?’ ” said Nilson, whose three children grew up going to the camp.

Not Ashamed to Be Naked

Nilson said people who aren’t ashamed of being naked in front of others have nothing else to be ashamed of. As a neon-orange bumper sticker on the wall behind her cluttered desk points out: “If we were meant to go nude, we’d have been born that way.”

The first nudist camp in the United States was founded in New Jersey in 1929, Nilson said--after nudism flourished in Europe.

Noted Nilson: “America was settled by Puritans, you know.”

Since then, Americans still haven’t warmed to nudism, said Arne Eriksen, executive director of the American Sunbathing Assn., based in Kissimmee, Fla. Although the association claims 33,000 members in about 200 affiliated camps, he said right-wing religious groups, particularly in the Bible Belt, have given nudism a bum rap.

“It’s the most natural thing in the world,” Eriksen said. “But it’s like everything else that’s new. It will be accepted.”

Perceptions Differ in U.S.

In Europe, topless beaches are de rigueur. In France, resorts on the Riviera cater to those who like to be au naturel. But in this country, perceptions are different.

Kathi, a permanent resident at the camp since July, said she eventually got used to being nude in front of others.

“It’s thinking about it, not doing it, that’s so hard,” she said. “Once you do it, nobody cares--you get a great tan.”

McConville members get into nudism in different ways. Some first attended as children. Others visited with friends and liked it so much that they returned on their own.

Nilson said the camp teaches children that nudity is wholesome. “If nudism will help anyone, it’ll help the kids. It teaches respect for your body and respect for others.”

Children Avoid Curiosity

Mothers say the atmosphere allows children to see members of the opposite sex--and avoid curiosity that can lead pre-adolescents to pornographic magazines. “If children grow up thinking (nudity) is not taboo, they’ll have a lot more respect for it,” Nilson said.

Kathi said her 11-year-old daughter was able to be upfront about the other sex when she visited McConville. “It’s totally uninhibited. It’s right there in the open,” Kathi said. “For a child, it takes a lot off the mind about what’s going to happen to the body.”

Beth, 29, lives at the camp with her husband and three children, who go to school in Lake Elsinore.

“Other kids giggle, they don’t understand about the opposite sex. Mine have learned,” Beth said. “It’s been a real positive influence on them.”

Peter Schuez, a retired purser for Lufthansa German Airlines from Darmstadt, West Germany, said flying around the world introduced him to nudist camps. He and his wife, Heidi, and son Martin are visiting Orange County for the third time to enjoy hiking at McConville.

‘You Can Relax’

“We visit Disneyland and Sea World,” Schuez said, wearing nothing but a blue-and-white sun cap, “but this is a place (where) you can relax.”

Nearby residents in the sparsely populated mountains say many visitors and even residents don’t know about the camp.

“If that’s what people want to do, fine,” said Sharon Foster, a clerk in the Candy Store, on Ortega Highway a few miles from McConville. “It’s not my thing.”

But that’s OK, Nilson said, because playing tennis in the nude, for instance, isn’t everyone’s idea of fun.

Said Nilson: “Once you become a nudist, you get a different sense of humor.”