Post #446355 by uncle trav on Sat, Apr 11, 2009 10:57 AM

I just received some information in the mail from the kind folks at the Holly Public Library. The name of Lake Mauna Loa has been driving up the wall for a while now. The hunt for when the lake was named has been my focus on this one. An earlier post on this thread talked about an eBay auction for a 1920 topo map with Lake Mauna loa on it. Stick with me on this one as I time trip a bit. This first map is from 1872. Yes 1872 is a little pre-Tiki but shows the lake as Mud Lake.

Fast forward to a 1922 topo map of Holly Township and we have Mud Lake. I put a red circle where Lake Oahu would later be built by Fred Barton. This map is two years newer than the ebay map, which I do not have a copy of. Up until 1961 there were 262 lake with the Mud name in Michigan alone. After 1961 only 261. I have read in three different sources that the lake was renamed Mauna Loa by Mr. Barton to further the appeal of the Hawaiian Gardens Resort and the Hawaiian Gardens Village which had Hawaiian themed street names and Lake Oahu.

1922 topo map.

The next map is a more current one that shows the street name of the mobile home park and some streets to the west influenced by the space program of the sixties. The resort is marked in red.

If Fred went swimming in this lake as a kid it was named Mud. So I am not sure where is inspiration to travel to Polynesia came from other than the cold Michigan winters. The only reason for the mention for the lake Mauna Loa on a topo map from 1920 maybe that in the early 60's mapping satellites were not yet developed and older topo maps were reisseude with updated place names as the topogrphy would not change that much. I have topo maps dated 1989 which were reissues of early 1970's maps. A big part of the fun of Tiki archeolgy is digging deep. Thanks for looking.