Amazing taxidermy filled Safari Club in Portland area up for sale - Beyond Tiki

S seamus Member Portland Joined: May 07, 2003 Posts: 462	S seamus Posted posted on Sun, Aug 3, 2003 6:21 PM A friend of mine just told me the Safari Club is up for sale.I grew up in Estacada and spent many many hours in The Safari Club after football games & dances, special family outings, banquets, and waiting for my best friends mom - a cocktail waitress- to get off work and drive us home. What memories! That place put Estacada over the top as one of the Lynchiest Twin Peaks kinda towns I have ever experienced. The place was built and owned by Glen Parks who basically owned the town. HIs son was the mayor. Parks was a wealthy big game hunter and had the bucks to fly around the world shooting world record trophy animals in many, many categories. Giant glass displays lined the wals and corridors showing these animals in an elaborately staged natural setting. One of my favorites had a cougar lunging from a tree sinking his claws into the side of a shocked and writhing deer, complete with blood and gore ,while other creatures like racoons and squirrels looked on passively. This place went way beyond mere taxidermy. the Alaskan scene had wolves feeding on a caribou carcass. Many animals were fighting with or fleeing from each other. All of this in the dining areas of the most expensive restraunt in town! There is a jungle/ African theme throughout the place. Fake thatch around the roof outside w/stone walls, and big beam timbers inside. I have never seen anything like it anywhere. Unfortunately Estacada remains a backwards sort of dead end town that relied heavily on the timber industry. Like most logging towns in Oregon it has become a skeleton of what it once was. New money has come into the town in the last few years, but when folks want to go out to dinner, they're usually gonna go to the City. Only the local bars and low brow diners seem to be able to stay in business there. For nostalgias sake I hope it stays open. I honestly hope someone can breath new life into that place- into that town, but I won't be holding my breath. Thanks for enduring my little trip down memory lane. Seamus

A friend of mine just told me the Safari Club is up for sale.I grew up in Estacada and spent many many hours in The Safari Club after football games & dances, special family outings, banquets, and waiting for my best friends mom - a cocktail waitress- to get off work and drive us home. What memories! That place put Estacada over the top as one of the Lynchiest Twin Peaks kinda towns I have ever experienced. The place was built and owned by Glen Parks who basically owned the town. HIs son was the mayor. Parks was a wealthy big game hunter and had the bucks to fly around the world shooting world record trophy animals in many, many categories. Giant glass displays lined the wals and corridors showing these animals in an elaborately staged natural setting. One of my favorites had a cougar lunging from a tree sinking his claws into the side of a shocked and writhing deer, complete with blood and gore ,while other creatures like racoons and squirrels looked on passively. This place went way beyond mere taxidermy. the Alaskan scene had wolves feeding on a caribou carcass. Many animals were fighting with or fleeing from each other. All of this in the dining areas of the most expensive restraunt in town! There is a jungle/ African theme throughout the place. Fake thatch around the roof outside w/stone walls, and big beam timbers inside. I have never seen anything like it anywhere. Unfortunately Estacada remains a backwards sort of dead end town that relied heavily on the timber industry. Like most logging towns in Oregon it has become a skeleton of what it once was. New money has come into the town in the last few years, but when folks want to go out to dinner, they're usually gonna go to the City. Only the local bars and low brow diners seem to be able to stay in business there. For nostalgias sake I hope it stays open. I honestly hope someone can breath new life into that place- into that town, but I won't be holding my breath. Thanks for enduring my little trip down memory lane.
Seamus

Post #45884 by seamus on Sun, Aug 3, 2003 6:21 PM