Party Cove is the popular name given for Anderson Hollow Cove, a cove

Cove

A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet. They usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often inside a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are often considered coves...

 in Lake of the Ozarks

Lake of the Ozarks

The Lake of the Ozarks is a large reservoir created by impounding the Osage River in the northern part of the Ozarks in central Missouri. Extents of three smaller tributaries to the Osage, the Niangua River, Grandglaize Creek, and Gravois Creek, are included in the impoundment...

 in Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

 that according to The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

is the “oldest established permanent floating bacchanal

Bacchanalia

The bacchanalia were wild and mystic festivals of the Greco-Roman god Bacchus , the wine god. The term has since come to describe any form of drunken revelry.-History:...

 in the country."

Various places in the lake have received the name since the 1960s but the informal event has been pushed out by private owners until since 1996 when it moved to Anderson Hollow Cove within the confines of Lake of the Ozarks State Park

Lake of the Ozarks State Park

Lake of the Ozarks State Park is a park on the Grand Glaize Arm of the Lake of the Ozarks and is the largest state park in Missouri.Originally owned by the United States National Park Service as part of the Recreational Demonstration Areas when the lake was built in the 1930s it was donated to the...

 at the 4 mile marker of the Grand Glaize Arm of the lake a mile south of the Grand Glaize Bridge

Grand Glaize Bridge

The Grand Glaize Bridge are two girder bridges on U.S. Route 54 over the Grand Glaize Arm of the Lake of the Ozarks between Osage Beach, Missouri and Laguna Beach, Missouri in Camden County, Missouri....

.

The cove itself is about a mile long and 200 yards wide. On summer weekends as many 3,000 pleasure boats with around 8,000 aboard gather in the cove lining up in two rows with newcomers running a gauntlet of water cannon and taunts to take their clothes off (although the Kansas City Star reports that the overwhelming number of visitors in the fraternity house environment are male).

Missouri has 18 officers assigned to the entire Lake of the Ozarks. They had historically limited the policing of the cove to violations of wake

Wake

A wake is the region of recirculating flow immediately behind a moving or stationary solid body, caused by the flow of surrounding fluid around the body.-Fluid dynamics:...

 restrictions, and boat driving violations and Boating While Intoxicated summons. Attempts to stop the practice of lashing the boats together failed to pass the Missouri General Assembly

Missouri General Assembly

The Missouri General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Missouri. The bicameral General Assembly is composed of a 34-member Senate, and a 163-member House of Representatives. Members of both houses of the General Assembly are subject to term limits...

.

Missouri says that the area around the cove is the most dangerous in the entire lake. After two people died in 2007, Missouri announced plans to have officers from other districts crack down on nudity (women can be topless but not bottomless), public sex acts, and drug use.

In 2007, Major General Bill McCoy, commander of the Fort Leonard Wood

Fort Leonard Wood (military base)

Fort Leonard Wood is a United States Army installation located in the Missouri Ozarks. The main gate is located on the southern boundary of St. Robert. The post was created in December 1940 and named in honor of General Leonard Wood, former Chief of Staff, in January 1941...

 Army base, declared Party Cove "off-limits" to Army personnel from the base for safety and health issues after a Fort Wood soldier suffered a broken neck and a soldier and a civilian employee drowned in separate incidents in the cove area that summer. The April 30, 2010 list of "off-limits" establishments, however, no longer lists Party Cove as being off-limits to military personnel.

The cove has been featured on Playboy TV

Playboy TV

Playboy TV is a premium monthly subscription television channel. Since its launch in 1982 in partnership with Cablevision which eventually sold their share back to Playboy, Playboy TV has become a leading entertainment channel for adult entertainment...

, A Current Affair and Sexcetera

Sexcetera

Sexcetera is an American Playboy TV newsmagazine focused on human sexuality.-History:Having run over 80 episodes, since its launch in 1998, it is one of Playboy's longest-running series...

.