Waitoma Grotto - Holly, MI

OUTSTANDING !!!!!!!!!!! Tell Jan she is doing an amazing job Bongo. Great to have an agent in the field. Good to hear the local paper is doing the story. Maybe some folks will come forward with some stories. Damn I sure love this stuff.

On 2009-03-18 12:45, uncle trav wrote:
Bigbro is that a drawing of the Hawaiian Gardens complex on the back of the menu? If so could you post a blown up image we could take a look at? Thanks.

Trav, I was talking about this matchbook cover:

....which is owned by ukutiki.

Yes, Bongo, tell Jan thanks, and we will see what those newsboys come up with. Hopefully they will use some of my Book(s) to approach the subject with the basic knowledge of its pervasiveness.

Yes, Sven, I have referred Jan to your work. And I will see her next weekend and wow her with copies of Tiki Modern, Beachbum Berry's books and Jay's Tiki Mug book.

Wow! That's a concentrated Tiki package! --She will become one of OURS, har har! And then influence the City Council! And they will all become Tikiphiles and resurrect HAWAIIAN GARDENS!

Thought I'd blow up ukutiki's matchbook rendering a little. The canoe above the entrance can be seen in the rendering. Bongo ask Jan if the newspaper boys will have extra photos. Normally they find a few but only add one or two to the article. She maybe able to get some copies you can post on the thread. And watch out she may get the Tiki bug. I gave a friend of mine a mug a couple of years ago and told him I was not responsible for what may happen. He now has a boat load of mugs and a home bar. :D

"Anyone who has ever seen them is thereafter haunted as if by a feverish dream" Karl Woermann

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2009-03-21 07:30 ]

Trav,

Hope your sister comes up with some good stuff. Here is a blow-up of the rendering on the brochure.

DC

Great image Dusty. Jan is Bongo's sister. But then again everyone is family here on TC.

Any news from the front?

Having moved to Holly about 9 years ago, I've been following this thread for a while.

Here's the newspaper article: http://www.mlive.com/fenton/index.ssf/2009/03/hawaiin_gardens_resort_put_hol.html

The print version had a couple pictures, looked like postcards possibly.

Pretty nice article by the author.

[ Edited by: jpalarchio 2009-03-29 05:44 ]

Great article. Always strange how fast things fall from memory. That's what makes TC special. A storehouse for all the almost forgotten Tiki history. Being from Michigan it's great to have another piece of the puzzle to fit into place. Thanks to everyone who has posted to the thread and the local newspaper for the article. It would be great to see the images they used in the article.
http://www.mlive.com/fenton/index.ssf/2009/03/hawaiin_gardens_resort_put_hol.html

"Anyone who has ever seen them is thereafter haunted as if by a feverish dream" Karl Woermann

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2009-03-29 07:31 ]

Very nice! It is amazing how the timeline of Fred Barton's inspiration and involvement mirrors the heyday of Tiki: 1960 - 1965, the period of intense Tiki fever all over the States. The naive joy about Hawaiian statehood at the beginning, and then America's fall from grace and growing self-consciousness beginning with the Kennedy assassination, and the Vietnam war at the end. And then in 1972, a disco called "Electric Crater"! Classic! How the Bartons must have felt about that. Fred Barton was sort of a local Don The Beachcomber, as his daughter said an idea man, a doer who grew tired of a thing once it was finished and needed new challenges, it seems. Also, he burned himself out, if he died in 1975 -or he was already an old timer by then. Probably a heavy drinker/smoker/eater and....

Good to get the confirmation when the place was changed into its gingerbread/alpine lodge style. Too bad the article did not delve into the original reason for the name of of the lake.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-03-29 10:18 ]

I've got the information from the paper, that didn't make the article, on my office at work. I'll post it tomorrow.

Here's some additional info from Fenton Press reporter Amy Mayhew:

"We weren’t able to dig up any vintage photos at the Flint Journal photo library. But in the stuff Barb gave me, there are a few pictures that I felt I could scan fairly well. The first one is taken in the summer of 1961. It’s a picture of Jane and Fred Barton flanking Mayor Eddie Tam of Wailuku, Hawaii and Mayor Charles A. Mobley – Mayor of Flint. The caption reads as follows:

“EVERYTHING’S HAWAIIAN – Hawaiian Gardens, near Holly, had a real Hawaiian in the house Tuesday night. Mayor Eddie Tam of Wailuku was a guest for dinner and entertainment. He had taken part in a world conference of local governments in Washington, DC. From the left are Mrs. Fred Barton, wife of the owner of the restaurant; Mayor Tam; Flint’s Mayore Charles A. Mobley, and Barton. Mobley is giving Tam a lei made of spark plugs, lights, nuts and bolts.”

The second picture I scanned is the honeymoon cottage at Hawaiian Gardens, and came from a 1981 copy of the Northwest Oakland County Herald Advertiser. It was taken shortly after the Lakeview Inn went under and the buildings were up for sale again. When I was down talking to Don Winglemire, he said that his daughter Penny had stayed at the honeymoon cottage for her wedding night. Well, Penny happened to be working, so I sat down and talked to her. She said she got married on Dec. 31, 1976 and it was a blizzard that night. It was quite a treat to stay in the honeymoon cottage. She said they had a couple drinks at the Grotto bar before going back to the cottage. She said they had a huge inlaid tile bathtub that was enormous – way ahead of it’s time. She said the whole place was really cool – very exclusive. The caption reads as follows:

“HONEYMOON COTTAGE – “Honeymoon Cottage” patterned after one in the Hawaiian Islands once added atmosphere to the Hawaiian Gardens complex. Now locked and empty, it needs renovating to bring it up to the splendor it once had.”

ON HOW WINGLEMIRE MET BARTON

Mr. Winglemire told me that he originally met Fred Barton when he returned to Holly in the early 1950s. Prior to that, Fred Barton lived in San Franciso, CA where he had invented Bar’s Leaks. Because the automotive industry was in Michigan and his product was in huge demand, he moved back here. He chose Holly because his grandparents lived here when he was growing up, and he spent a lot of time here as a kid.

Mr. Winglemire said that Fred verified a story about his family for him. Evidently, when Fred was preparing to furnish his resort, he came down to Winglemires and asked if they would be interested in handling all of that. Mr. Winglemire said Fred was asking for way more than they typically did, but agreed to do it. He said he asked Fred why he wanted to used Winglemire’s Furniture, and Fred said that he remembered coming down there with his grandma in the early 1900s – I’m guessing around the 1920s or so – to pick out a casket for Fred’s grandpa who had died. Before it became a furniture store, Winglemires used to be a woodworking shop, specializing in caskets. Anyway, Fred told Don that when he and his grandma came in to pick out a casket, Don’s crazy great aunt Clara waited on them and got in the casket so that Grandma could see what a body looks like lying in it. I guess it had been rumored on down through the Winglemire ages that Aunt Clara was famous for offering that service, but everybody thought it was so absurd that it must be a joke. Well, Fred’s true life account put that little piece of family mystery to rest…so to speak."

There's one other detail than Jan provided to understand the history of Hawaiian Gardens and that's that Fred was perhaps a bit of a womanizer. So, it was with his second wife that he built the resort. (His daughter, who contributed to the article, was a product of his first marriage.) Then, it was with his third wife (reportedly a cashier in the gift shop)that Fred retired. Well... this kinda stuff happens...

Great stuff. A spark plug Lei, what a classic! And finally a photo of Fred! He looks like in his 50s-60s, so he was not the youngest when he opened the place. Wonder if he was a Trader Vic's customer when he lived in San Francisco. Do you have the image with the caption intact? Would love to use it eventually.

And that honeymoon cottage! I bet it originally looked much more Polynesian than in that 1981 photo... Arrgh! Now I wanna see original pics of it...and of the interior! They must have advertised it? Nobody kept anything from back then! Well, ol' Fred sure liked to honeymoon.

I need help with something else: The most imposing structure of the compound is that 50 foot high rectangular tower, which is referred to as "Manu- a chief's house" in the brochure:

Now Polynesian pop is often marked by mixing up ethnic info and using the Polynesian idiom purely for mumbo-jumbo effect, and that might be the case here, because anywhere I looked, MANU refers to "birds" in the Polynesian language. But what is that tower based on in the first place? It's structure reminds me most of what is called "oracle tower", as seen in re-built Hawaiian heiaus, like King Kamehameha's temple in Kona:

It was later built out to resemble this old print (BOT page 58):

Does anybody on TC have any more info on the design, purpose and use of these towers? Or any other suggestions WHERE in Polynesia a structure like this might have been used in ancient times?

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-03-30 12:11 ]

Fantastic. Thanks for going the extra mile Bongo to post the other info and photos. Classic. Great story. A true Michigan treasure now lost but by no means forgotten. Thanks again.

Does any one else think this whole thread needs to be moved to the Locating Tiki section of Tiki Central? Is there any way to even do that?

I have no idea, but basically agree. Just move it carefully, don't break it, it is precious! :)

On 2009-03-30 06:22, Bongo Bungalow wrote:
“HONEYMOON COTTAGE – “Honeymoon Cottage” patterned after one in the Hawaiian Islands once added atmosphere to the Hawaiian Gardens complex.

Well, at least I know where my next honeymoon will be.

You're gonna go camping? :D :

On 2009-03-30 12:04, bigbrotiki wrote:

Does anybody on TC have any more info on the design, purpose and use of these towers? Or any other suggestions WHERE in Polynesia a structure like this might have been used in ancient times?

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-03-30 12:11 ]

The towers in the Laukini Heiau are called Anu'u and are draped with bleached Tapa. I read it was a place were seers would enter and receive oracles. In front of the oracle tower is an alter where human sacrifices were made. Gnar Kill!!!

On 2009-03-31 02:23, AlienTiki wrote:
The towers in the Laukini Heiau are called Anu'u and are draped with bleached Tapa. I read it was a place were seers would enter and receive oracles. In front of the oracle tower is an altar where human sacrifices were made. Gnar Kill!!!

Thank You! So these towers were like spiritual energy funnels pointing to the heavens!

Well, it kinda makes sense...anu'u became manu (waitaminnit: "monu"), the kahuna became the chief,
and here, at the bottom of the tower...

...two natives are partaking in the offerings after the waiter recited the oracle ("You will have pork, and much of Sweet and Sour!")

Apparently I can't let go of this fascinating example of Polynesia Americana. Driven by my regrets over the fact that the Hawaiian Village brochure was reproduced so small in "Tiki Modern" that one cannot read and appreciate the Polynesian Pop poetry of the captions, I started to zoom in on some of them, to share them with like-minded "leisure literature" lovers :D :

"An artistic triumph framed in volcanic rock.." Can that get any better? I couldn't make that shit up, -and I tried!
"...you gaze unbelieving.." is pretty good too, I wanna shoot a Tiki lounge commercial like that!

More glimpses from the back of the brochure:

I can hear the male voice over now, with Ren & Stimpy "up" muzak in the back ground!

Was this maybe Mrs Fred Barton No 3 ?

And then there is this cool little map:

...and it struck me: In my book publications, this place had always been a stepchild of sorts because, although it had all the right elements conceptually, it just didn't make the cut visually. To the experienced Tikiphile, all the above details were highly entertaining, but for the average reader, there was just not enough eye candy. Blowing up the renderings on the brochure DOES provide eye candy, but also:
Now fellow urban archeologists, WHAT do we notice is visually lacking when viewing the front and back renderings, and the especially the exterior postcard?:

One thing that is nice is that we can see the little vacation bungalows also visible in the overhead view on the map, and below, the motel on the right...

The Kaiser Aluninum Dome clone ( the Kahili Room) must have been added a little later...
So, this being Michigan, there is no tropical foliage to be seen, which makes the place look sorta industrial. But look at that big parking lot...and the Lounge on the right of that canoe topped A-frame..... ???.... ????.....

The total absence of that beacon of roadside Americana, the utter lack of the lighthouses of Polynesian pop, NEON SIGNAGE, is most conspicuous!
Did Fred feel that neon signs would take away from the "authenticity" of his native village? Or does the town of Holly have some kind of sign ordinance? Bongo?

I don''t believe the little map icon is indicative of the sign, it's too much a graphic, but the Tiki mask closely resembles Tiki signs made in that period, and that's what got me thinking "WHERE is the signage!?" Perhaps the roadside sign was even farther out than the parking lot shot, it sure would be nice to find confirmation in visual form.

Other unanswered questions are (already raised by Sabu) Since WHEN, and WHY, was there a Mauna Loa and Oahu Lake in Holly? Next time you talk to your Sister, Bongo, maybe you could mention those... :)

A little info on the lakes. I found this in a website about lake name origins of Oakland county.

"Another Mud Lake in Oakland
County’s Holly Township was renamed Lake
Mauna Loa, because a motel operator wanted a Hawaiian
theme for his establishment."

And this mention.
"Another switch in 1961 prompted a Holly Township motel operator to officially change a different Mud Lake to Lake Mauna Loa to give the business a Hawaiian theme."
Here is another image of the old site of the Hawaiian Gardens and Lake Oaho (red circle) this time showing both lakes.

"Anyone who has ever seen them is thereafter haunted as if by a feverish dream" Karl Woermann

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2009-04-01 17:04 ]

That's odd! What about Sabu's post from several pages before::

On 2004-12-08 18:37, Sabu The Coconut Boy wrote:
Just found this auction for a 1920s topo map of Holly, Michigan on Ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=37962&item=3767608236&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

It seems Mauna Loa lake existed back in 1920! So they probably chose the theme of the restaurant based on the topography and not the other way round. Very interesting!

Sabu

A forgery!? :)

I expected some earlier Hawaiian connection, such as the story of the naming of Owyhee County, Idaho:

Owyhee County originally included present-day Twin Falls, Cassia and Power Counties. It assumed its present boundaries in 1879.
The name Owyhee: "Owyhee" and "Hawaii" are two different spellings for the same word. When Captain James Cook discovered what he named the Sandwich Islands (known more recently as the Hawaiian Islands) in 1778, he found them inhabited by people called Owyhees. The spelling "Owyhee" is simplified a little from its original form: "Owyhee" is the spelling that British and American traders used during the early nineteenth century in referring to natives of the Sandwich Islands, and a number of Owyhees sailed on to the Columbia, where they joined trapping expeditions or worked at some of the fur trade posts.
Three of the Owyhees joined Donald MacKenzie's Snake expedition, which went out annually into the Snake country for the North West Company--a Montreal organization of Canadian fur traders. Unluckily, those three Owyhees left the main party during the winter of 1819-20; they set out to explore the then unknown terrain of what since has been called the Owyhee River and mountains, and have not been heard from since. Because of their disappearance, the British fur trappers started to call the region "Owyhee," and the name stuck."[3]

On 2009-03-29 08:04, bigbrotiki wrote:
"Fred Barton was sort of a local Don The Beachcomber, as his daughter said an idea man, a doer who grew tired of a thing once it was finished and needed new challenges, it seems. Also, he burned himself out, if he died in 1975 -or he was already an old timer by then."

Fred Barton. 1907-1975. Puts him at only 68 when he passed away and 53 in 1960 when the resort was built. I'm still trying to track down a copy of the 20's topo map myself. Strange how the owner chose to build his Hawaiian resort so near Lake Mauna Loa and then built Lake Oahu. Maybe the exotic name of lake Mauna loa inspired his travels to Polynesia and the South pacific if it did indeed exist much earlier than 1961.

"He chose Holly because his grandparents lived here when he was growing up, and he spent a lot of time here as a kid."
"...Fred said that he remembered coming down there with his grandma in the early 1900s – I’m guessing around the 1920s or so..."

So little Fred probably spent some summer afternoons splashing in Lake Mauna Loa, and curious about the funny name, heard his first stories of Hawaii, which fueled his imagination...

More pictures with captions by reporter Amy Mayhew. She will be doing a follow up article in a couple of weeks based on an interview with HG employee, Joyce Semmens Merriweather who worked during the Fred Barton years and well after.

Hawaiian gardens luau table Jan. 1969
This is a picture of a table that Joyce set up, complete with the pig with a lei around his neck. She said this was a typical luau night in the geo dome room shown on the postcard.

Bay and Vachon Hawaiian Gardens Jan. 1969
This is a picture of Raymond Bay (left) and Maurice Vachon and his wife dining at the Hawaiian Gardens. The picture was dated Jan. 1969 so who knows when the actual picture was taken - maybe New Year's Eve of '69, I don't know. Bay was the Manager of the Hawaiian Gardens, and Vachon was the Vice President.

Hawaiian Garden kitchen 1966
This is a picture taken in 1966 of the Hawaiian Garden kitchen. All the guys were bus boys - no male waiters at the Hawaiian Gardens. The lady wearing the sarong with her back to the camera is Joyce Semmens Merriweather - the lady I interviewed.

Thank you, to all who have posted this wonderful information and nostalgia.

I did a Google search on my in-laws last name and found that you had been posting about them on this forum. Seeing the information inspired me to join, so I could post you all and thank you.

I married the oldest daughter of afore mentioned Barb, daughter of Fred Barton.

I am thrilled to learn more about the family that my children will want to know about as they grow. It is unfortunate that the family is so private about it's past that they even feel uncomfortable speaking about it with their own son-in-law. I am afraid that I don't have anything of value to add and if I did, it would not be my place to do so.

I did notice a couple of questions or comments that I might add some insight. I will take notes and comment once I have read through all the posts. For example, there was a picture of a woman shopping and holding a dress (I believe on pg 2 or 3 of the string). The poster questioned if it was Mrs. Fred Barton the third wife. My answer is probably not. I don't know for sure, but I believe at that time his wife was an Asian mail bride named Aching (sp?). Once again, I may be wrong on the timing and which wife, but this is because it just is not talked about in the family.

Good luck in your continued searches and postings. I am enjoying the good reading materials I have found here.

As unfortunate as it is, it makes sense that a mother (and with her her child) that have been left by a man for another woman (if that's how it happened) have unresolved, ill feelings about that period in their lives. One would wish that with the passing of time folks could achieve a more pragmatic and adult view of matters, but that is not always the case, and so matters remain a shut book. That is too bad for people like me, when they try to write one.

I really would like to know if Fred ever talked about his inspiration for the Hawaiian Village in Holly: Did it happen early when visiting his grandparents, and did he ever play in lake Mauna Loa? Did he frequent or see other Polynesian restaurants while living in San Francisco? Or did he take a cruise vacation in Hawaii and New Zealand and that was his sole inspiration..?

We may never know...

Thanks Bongo!
First, it's great to see they had a mural, that has not been pictured in any postcard or brochure we saw so far:

On 2009-04-03 04:55, Bongo Bungalow wrote:

Title "Wahine on a beach stroll happens upon a Luau pig"
Bay and Vachon Hawaiian Gardens Jan. 1969
This is a picture of Raymond Bay (left) and Maurice Vachon and his wife dining at the Hawaiian Gardens. The picture was dated Jan. 1969 so who knows when the actual picture was taken - maybe New Year's Eve of '69, I don't know. Bay was the Manager of the Hawaiian Gardens, and Vachon was the Vice President.

It makes total sense that Fred was not running the place himself. Wonder if those guys worked for him and took it over when he opted out in '65.

Bongo, what about the sign question? Maybe he wanted to put up huge neon signs and that was the city's red tape mentioned in the article?

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-04-03 15:49 ]

Here's the dinner plate from the Hawaiian Gardens. It has the signature hei tiki logo and that airbrushed finish under the glaze typical of Jackson China pieces. It is a large plate - a full 12" in diameter.

I bought this from the same eBay seller who sold me the postcards in 2004. He told me that at the local Holly, MI swap meet, one dealer had been bringing in Hawaiian Gardens merchandise week after week to sell. He evidently bought the plates, postcards, teacups, etc from the restaurant when it closed. My eBay seller bought them from the swapmeet dealer, (after he had built his own complete set of china).

Great job guy's. I was wondering if anyone can make out the sign in the photo that Chub posted. I messed around with the image but could no make it out?


Also would anyone happen to have a copy of the Huki Lau menu from the HG as I believe there is an artist rendering of a bird's eye view of the whole complex on the back. This was posted earlier in the thread but to hard to make out.

Another item besides signage not shown on any of the renderings that we have seen is the honeymoon cottage. Looks as if the renderings shown so far are artist concept drawings as they do not match the layout of the actual photos in the thread
such as the period postcards. Would be good to see them all together including the menu and compare. Still trying to lock down when Lake Mauna Loa was named. No answer yet but found this USGS survey map which shows the complex. Thanks.

I believe the B&W view is past the TALL moai on the far right in the postcard, towards the motel, so it seems they built a SECOND canoe-topped A-frame entrance, with a light pole and a smaller sign pole.

Whatever that sign says, it is still kind of small, considering how far back from the road the place was. The sign for the lounge could have run across the whole wall, like this:

...and the tall sides of the oracle tower would have been a great place for a sign, too, a la Julian's:

Without swooping signature signs, the place looks sort of barren...industrial. But like I said, either Fred was anti big neon signage...or the city was!

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-04-07 07:33 ]

Just had a nice conversation with a lady from Holly. It turns out that she used to go to the Hawaiian Gardens in it's prime. She had many fond memories of her visits there "truly a wonderful place". She also remember that after the Bartons sold the HG that Fred Barton set up a store in a vacant store front downtown and sold off the contents of the resort! Everything was sold, dishes, furniture it all went. All of the money that was made from the sale went to a local church charity and then the store front was vacant once more. I would have loved to have been at that sale.

Jan's source says the sign over the door said "WELCOME". Also, a follow up article will come out about Fred Barton this weekend. With luck, we'll have more pictures.

Well there you go. Now looking at the crappy blow up I did I can read it clear now. Great to hear they are doing a follow up to the story Bongo. I am waiting on some info from the library, a little long distance archeology.

Oh goody! Can't wait to find out more!
Hopefully the next article will put Barton's Hawaiian Village more into the context of the WHOLE phenomenon of Polynesian pop and Tiki culture on the mainland --AND mention who was obviously a role model (with his model project) for Fred:

From TIKI MODERN, Chapter 8:
"...Another Polynesiac that shaped the face of 1950s Honolulu was aluminum magnate Henry J. Kaiser. Coming to Hawaii at age 72 to rest, he fell in love with the islands. He promptly bought up acres of beachfront property, built the HAWAIIAN VILLAGE HOTEL and used Buckminster Fuller’s GEODESIC design to construct the KAISER ALUMINUM DOME.....the Tahitian Lanai bar lay at the end of the Waikikian’s Tiki gardens, BY A LAGOON THAT HAD BEEN DREDGED OUT for Henry Kaiser’s Hawaiian Village Hotel."

After all, Fred Barton was not the only mainlander who after that adopted Henry Kaiser's concept of "if you don't have any beach front property, just make your own!" :) by getting a bulldozer and making a lake:

On 2008-02-03 22:36, 8FT Tiki wrote:
The building and grounds were all designed and built by Mr. William Parkhurst....he used a bulldozer to dig out this massive lake and create the island upon which the Tiki House is perched...:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=27235&forum=2

...and of course the very recent Lake Loreen/LAKE KALIKOA find:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=31832&forum=1&start=0&42

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-04-10 14:27 ]

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.

Great work, thank you. Trav. That pretty much rules out the earlier turn of the century "Owyhee" naming theory of mine. Wonder what Fred thought was wrong with the name "Mud Lake". :D

And now to the sign ordinance theory...? :)

Do we know who was responsible for the mobile home park development? There are several mobile home parks in L.A. and Palm Springs which have used that Hawaiian place name concept for their streets.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-04-12 10:07 ]

Thanks Sven. Still more to uncover on this one. Here is the follow-up story in the local news paper.
http://www.mlive.com/fenton/index.ssf/2009/04/holly_woman_recalls_happy_memo.html#more

A so-called "human interest" piece, I guess. Don't they know about "Tiki interest"? :D

On 2009-04-12 09:29, bigbrotiki wrote:
And now to the sign ordinance theory...? :)

Do we know who was responsible for the mobile home park development? There are several mobile home parks in L.A. and Palm Springs which have used that Hawaiian place name concept for their streets.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-04-12 10:07 ]

Seems Fred was the mastermind of the concept for the mobile home park but I am not sure if he saw the deal through or if another party picked up on the idea and ran with it. Here is a quote from the newspaper article.
("Like many Holly business owners today, Barton began running into local opposition against some of his other business ventures, including a multi-million dollar mobile home retirement park.")
And I'm still working on the sign question.

On 2009-03-18 12:38, uncle trav wrote:
Great cards Dusty. I was hoping you would have something out of your treasure stash. Thanks for posting those. I was looking back at all of the images in the post a noticed some thing curious ( to me anyway ).The first image is a photo that Chub came up with which shows a canoe on what looks to be the roof of one of the buildings.

Then in Sabu's post I noticed that the canoe is over the entry way attached to an outrigger feature. Looks to be either another canoe or it was moved at some point. Sabu's card of the exterior may not show the whole complex as I think this maybe a building out of frame from that card. Just got curious. Thanks.

Perhaps it's just me, but I think they are two DIFFERENT outriggers. The first looks "taller" (larger distance
from the bottom of the canoe to the gunwales (sp? I think that is the correct term... the top edge of the side
of the canoe). Also, on one canoe the front paddler has his paddle on the right and every other paddler behind
him. The other canoe's front paddler has the paddle to the left and again every other paddler behind him. The
other possibility would be that the b&w negative was reversed at printing (I can't read the signage on the color
one but it doesn't appear reversed to me).

A couple of images from a recent eBay auction for a grouping of items from the Hawaiian Gardens. An item of interest is the little plastic Maori carving. It was mentioned in the thread that these were put on the tables as a keepsake. I hope someone on TC got this grouping as it was a great buy.

Wow, this is one exhaustive thread and a great read! Time for a Tiki Revival bump.

I found some more images of the menus from the Hawaiian Gardens on my hard drive.

DC

The story of this place and the small town magnate who built it is such a wonderful, telling example of American Tiki Fever. All the concepts are there! It is a shame that the visuals surrounding are not of the same quality than the text material...

Well, after much searching I finally found the oversized postcard from the Hawaiian Gardens that Sabu posted many years ago at the start of this great thread. All of Sabu's photos are Red X, so here we go.

The Banyan Court overlooking the lake.

The Polynesian Longhouse.

The Kahili Room

Close ups of the great exterior.

The back of the card.

Home made Tiki style.

DC

Got a new menu item from the Hawaiian Gardens. A fold up take home version listing the Chinese food selection.

The cover.

The Tiki story.

Menu first page.

The back map.

One of my favorite places!

DC