They arose out of the environment around the rock group the Grateful Dead and their followers the Deadheads, both of which were rooted in the drug-embracing counterculture of the 1960s.
The Wharf Rats originally came from a small group of Narcotics Anonymous members who went to a Grateful Dead concert in Philadelphia and located each other by their yellow balloons with the NA symbol drawn on in Magic Marker.
The Wharf Rats see themselves as "a group of friends sharing a common bond, providing support, information and some traction in an otherwise slippery environment."
Similar groups include The Phellowship for Phish, The Gateway for Widespread Panic, The Jellyfish for The String Cheese Incident, Much Obliged for Umphrey's McGee, Happy Hour Heroes for moe., the Digital Buddhas for The Disco Biscuits, Better Than Before for The Werks, the Hummingbirds for Bassnectar, and the Sunny Bunny Recovery for Ween, Dustie Baggies for Billy Strings and The Hot Tea Party for Goose—all based on the Wharf Rats, which remain the best-known.
[2] The name of this group comes from the 1971 Dead song "Wharf Rat" (written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter and appearing on Skull & Roses), which contains the self-told story of August West, a down-and-out dockside wino.