The psychedelic 60s were a pivotal time in the culture of music and the awakening of a generation. Ken Kesey and the “Merry Pranksters” were an influential group of forward thinking hippies in Northern California/Oregon who, along with their bus FURTHUR, attempted to create not just ripples but a full on tsunami of cultural change. The bus was featured in Tom Wolfe’s book “Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test”.
Kesey, author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, passed away in 2001 and left behind a legacy that his son Zane has picked up and ran with. The bus restoration, a project started by Stephanie Kesey (wife of Ken’s son Zane), needs your help to restore FURTHUR to it’s former 1960s glory.
Infamous hippie clown Wavy Gravy had this to say about the bus restoration project: “THANK YOU TO EVERYONE HELPING— Keep in mind that the Kesey’s are donating the bus to YOU, the people. The Furthur Down The Road Foundation will OWN the bus…no money is going to the Kesey’s! It is up to the PEOPLE to raise the money and take care of this “Icon of History“!
Here’s the text from the funding page:
Founded by Stephanie Kesey, the Furthur Down the Road Foundation is an Oregon 501c3 nonprofit corporation established to “restore the original Furthur Bus to it’s 1960s condition, and to promote and preserve the legacy of author Ken Kesey.” The bus is currently rusting away and we’re in danger of losing this important artifact forever.
The Foundation was founded in 2012 and is in need of seed funding to help with start-up costs so we can raise the money to tackle this huge project. We estimate that it will take several million dollars to restore the bus, pictured above, to it’s original splendor by a team of artists, automotive restorers and other experts. We aim to involve the original Pranksters in the effort and have the support and involvement of the Kesey family, including Zane and Stephanie (Ken’s son and daughter-in-law), Caleb (his grandson), and Faye (Ken’s widow), who all have roles on the board of Furthur Down the Road.
