Salton Tiki

Contrary to popular belief that the storied Salton Tiki vanished or burned to the ground, the Salton Tiki building is alive and unused. The former owner, Bea Jewell (say it fast for delightful effect), is 90ish and I will be interviewing her in early December. Salton Tiki did not have a "hard" liquor license and therefore could not have served a mai tai. I will find out what the menu was when I see her. I will keep you informed as to what I learn.

Very cool Mzoltarp, looking forward to your next post.

The Oral Tradition lives. But write it all down.

"Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea" - Trailer

My great uncle owned and operated Mike's Tackle Box over in Desert Shores area. Mike Leonte held multiple Corvina fishing Records on the Salton Sea as well. He used to clean and filet fish free to lure (no pun intended) customers in out of the blistering sun for an ICE Cold beer. He also sold bait and fishing accessories.

Unga, that link is too geeky to open for Safari?

The Salton Sea! My favorite Paradise Lost! Bosko has a nice series of photos of this doom town on his website.

What once was:

...and what became of it:

The forgotten prisoner of the Salton Tiki:

A fanciful memory from the glory days:

Try this, Sven
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhB2ZvHVFls

and I'm thowing in another documentary link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVQv_VZA2Mw

and another website

http://www.saltonseadoc.com/

[ Edited by: Tom Slick 2008-11-17 09:25 ]

On 2008-11-17 06:41, bigbrotiki wrote:
Unga, that link is too geeky to open for Safari?

My fault, bad link.
Thank Tom.

My Uncle used to drag us there in the '60s to explore & help him bring home (Tucson) these great, what he called 'concretions'...big, bone colored deposits of limestone-like material in weird shapes, and now that he's gone, they have become sculptures in our back yard with lots of great memories.
Ciao

On 2008-11-17 12:04, drgoat456 wrote:
My Uncle used to drag us there in the '60s to explore & help him bring home (Tucson) these great, what he called 'concretions'...big, bone colored deposits of limestone-like material in weird shapes, and now that he's gone, they have become sculptures in our back yard with lots of great memories.
Ciao

Your post caught my interest, your uncle sounds like my Dad, he loved stuff like that and I remember hating it as a kid but now look back fondly.
I'd like to see those, any pictures? How did you transport them? You say "drag us" was it unpleasant or just weird?

I just watched the YouTube videos and Goggled up more on the Salton Sea, very strange yet so compelling. Talk about the glory of yesteryear, how something so fraught with possibilities could become something so desolate.

That film, "Plagues and Pleasures" is really really good too. They don't mention the Salton tiki in the film, but the story of the Salton Sea and way they present it is really compelling.

I went to the Salton Sea, maybe three years ago for a photoshoot for my work. It's worth seeing if you have a day to kill... Just really a strange place.

Plagues & Pleasures is playing this Friday at the museum of Photgraphic Art in Balboa Park.

It is a very good doc. Sad too. John Waters narrates. I knew the voice but, couldn't get it until the credits rolled.

I do not recall the Salton Tiki being mentioned but, maybe the building is shown.

Another cool building that remains intact is the Ace Of Spades yacht club.

On 2008-11-17 06:41, bigbrotiki wrote:

The forgotten prisoner of the Salton Tiki:

That looks like the Hawaiian Eye Tiki.
It's still there?

Unga, Anne Rider's portrait of the Salton Tiki on the previous page is actually a pretty accurate depiction. I took the above photo of the "prisoner" about 3 or 4 years ago, supposedly since then a lot of Salton City's and the Salton Marina's wreckage has been cleaned up (unfortunately).

This is the last great building on the Salton Sea's North shore standing (IF it is still standing!?). It was designed by Swiss architect Albert Frey in 1958 as the North Shore Yacht Club:

The top housed the swank Compass Room Lounge, which once played host to Palm Springs swingers like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

The building is now completely gutted, and its empty shell was turned into the local senior citizen recreation center.

Albert Frey also used these space age, porthole-shaped windows in his own Palm Springs home:

Frey is hailed as the quintessential Palm Springs Modern architect.

Hello everyone, the Salton Sea used to be one of our favorite places in America to visit. The sea is beautiful (to look at) but terribly polluted, hundreds of types of migrating birds stop there, billions of dead fish line the shores. Amazing mid century architecture but most of it bombed out like a war zone it was an amazingly surreal combination of elements.
Sven thanks for posting the forgotten prisoner, for years I had assumed that they tore the Tiki down when the place became a “sea food” restaurant. It went out of business the Tiki re-appeared and I was left wondering was I loosing my mind, had it been there all along and I kept missing it or did they put it back up? As of yesterday the Tiki is still there bullet holes and all, the banner on the place says open for business but I really doubt that. You are correct Sven most of the great buildings have been torn down they (slowly) started cleaning up the area about 8 years ago. The shacks in the water (shown on the previous page) were finally leveled since the last time we went by, it sounds ridiculous but I felt sad to see the filthy salt covered mosquito infested structures gone.
Ironically while they have been tearing down all the meaningful abandoned architecture, they have been building thousands of stupid typical tract homes, many of which are now empty due to the economy (there is nothing out there to support huge new neighborhoods of people) now those places are getting thrashed and they look more depressing than you can imagine.

My very best alohas

Bosko

Thanks to Mr. NoNaMe's post I caught the showing of the Salton Sea documentary in Balboa Park here in San Diego last Friday. It was great! Unfortunately they skipped over the Salton Tiki's relevance as a pillar to the community and didn't mention it in the movie. Sad.

However, one of the filmmakers was there giving general information about that area and answering questions. He said the North Shore Yacht club (shown earlier in this thread) is scheduled to be renovated because of it's historical architecture. Hopefully it gets completed.

On a side note, the theater in the museum it played in holds around 235 people. They estimated about 600 showed up to see it. The museum is attempting to show it again sometime in the next couple of months. This flick comes Sofa King recommended.

Sofa King,

We went out on our trip last year after palm springs,Its kind of surreal,Hot and full of flies, and while on the beach the crunching underfoot is remains of thouands of dead fish bones,The tiki was there last october,I would love to have seen this place in all its splendour!

The Ace and Spades is the North Shore Yacht Club that is being renovated virtually as we speak. The motel next to the yacht club was bulldozed a few weeks ago, but the yacht club will return to greatness.

Been to the area many times. Never seen the tiki. Darn! Even had my bachelor party out there moons ago. Plenty of pancake breakfast's at the senior citz pad. Used to go every 1st weekend of March for Tierra Del Sol Jeep run. And, when ever a weekend would be free. Good off roading up in the badlands. One of my Escapes from tiki. Here's a friends site that has some pics of that area. www.http://23b.org/gallery/v/desert_dogs_0/The-Adventures-of-Cave-Doug/album115/

Next March I'll look further into town.

Getting an interview with Bea Jewell has been hilariously difficult. One time I was down there on a Sunday and my visit conflicted with her Bingo game...this was after she knew I was coming, but she forgot she had Bingo. LOL! A few weeks ago my wife and I did a makeover to the lobby of the West Shores Chamber of Commerce building in Salton City (it's a delightful midcentury modern, boomerang shaped building that screams for preservation) and my wife, daughter (6), mother, and I all wore Salton Tiki t-shirts that I created through VistaPrint using ephemera. Any place we stopped from Salton City back to Indio, people stopped us to reminisce about Salton Tiki, how great the food was, how much they missed it, and wondered if the shirts meant the restaurant was back. From what I've been able to gather, the restaurant was tiki in the sense of its decoration. The food was fairly conventional and not full-on tiki food--probably wise in such a far-flung outpost. As I mentioned before, they never had a hard liquor license so there were no mai tais.

When I was down there in April, someone had stolen the Salton Tiki tiki that was about 6 feet tall and cemented into the ground!

The West Shores Chamber of Commerce is reinvigorating its Bingo operation and the place where the bingo board and electronic sign are located in the space is slated to become an homage to the Salton Tiki.

Do you have any shirts for sale? What do they look like? I've been wanting to recreate for years myself. I would love to get one. I've been going to the S.S. for almost 20 years (off roading & sight seeing)

The "Salton Tiki" is now open for business as Holly May's in Salton Sea Beach.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=145045675522396&ref=mf

The food is excellent.

No tiki, but I'm working on it. :)

Just a couple of added notes, The band "Throw Rag" has used the Salton Sea as a base for operations for years. Sean Wheeler, the singer, has lived out there for quite a spell. And there is a doc on "Fuel TV" that follows a group of skateboarders that head to the Salton Sea and skate all of the abandoned pools in the area.

bump

how close is this area, to where Amy's Mojave Oasis is going to be?

Jeff(btd)

lemme bump the other thread with the maps . I th8ink its close

Plagues and Pleasures on The Salton Sea

Here is the documentary in its entirety...I thought it was pretty well done. After seeing this I definitely want to take a trip out there at some point.

You have to download a small piece of software to play the movie.

On 2010-10-29 20:56, bigtikidude wrote:
how close is this area, to where Amy's Mojave Oasis is going to be?
Jeff(btd)

On 2010-10-29 20:58, Sophista-tiki wrote:
lemme bump the other thread with the maps . I th8ink its close

Close depends on your point of view: Salton City is 1300 miles from Seattle and Newberry Springs is 1150 - not that much difference. But Salton City is 30 miles from me and Newberry Springs is 200 - big difference!!! :lol:

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2010-10-30 12:17 ]

good mapping

Dawn, it's worth a detour to check out the Salton Sea area. It's fascinating, like another world.

If I'm driving down that far I might as well

Wow, just watched this. Fascinating...almost makes me want to buy a cheap plot there.

I was out there last weekend, and saw brand new bank owned houses for $35,000, on the outskirts of Salton City.

I picked up this ashtray locally this summer. Although it doesn't list the Salton Tiki specifically, I thought it still might belong in the thread. The points of interest listed around the edges are: Benson Landing, Salton City, Lido Palms, SaltonSea Beach, Desert Shores, North Shore, State Park, Bombay Beach and Niland Marina. The Back is marked "Project Salton Sea Committee". From what I have read, the ashtray is in much better shape than the place it came from.

Wow, found in Kansas City!? That is a very rare collectable among Palm Springs collectors! As a matter of fact so rare and desirable, that the Palm Springs Modernism committee has just recently asked Tiki Farm to reproduce it, and it will be available soon through their organization.

In further good news, the P.S. Modcom gave their 2010 Preservation Award to the woman who is responsible for the complete and wondefully accurate restauration of the Albert Frey North Shore Yacht Club that I showed photos of on page 2 of this thread:

North Shore Beach Yacht Club & Community Center – Grand Opening May 1, 2010
Supervisor John J. Benoit joined county officials and community leaders at the dedication and grand opening of the North Shore Beach & Yacht Club Community Center and Salton Sea History Museum held on Saturday, May 1 at 10:00 a.m. The center is located by the Salton Sea on 99-155 Sea View Drive in North Shore. Free to the public, the opening featured a barbeque and live entertainment.

“In its heyday, the ‘California Riviera’ was a major relaxation destination for boaters, fishers, water skiers, and wind surfers,” said Supervisor John J. Benoit. “This renovated landmark is one step in our efforts to revitalize the Salton Sea and bring back recreational events to these shores.”

The 6,500 square-foot, 50-year-old North Shore Yacht Club structure completed a $3.5 million renovation, adding a senior center, museum, visitors center, juice bar, and multipurpose rooms. Additionally, the facility also includes two offices, an archive room, kitchen, indoor and outdoor restroom facilities, a children’s playground, and multi-purpose outdoor patio space.

Designed by renowned architect Albert Frey, the building was host to many Hollywood celebrities who kept boats and entertained at the club. On September 1, 2009, the Board of Supervisors designated the site as a Riverside County Historic Landmark. The project went through a historic rehabilitation pursuant to environmental requirements, requiring the project to engage an architectural historian who verified compliance with the Secretary of the Interior’s standards for historic rehabilitation throughout the design and construction process.

The Desert Alliance for Community Empowerment operates the renovated building, which is home to meetings of the North Shore Community.

http://www.saltonseamuseum.org/aboutus.html

And here is a little more info on the Salton Tiki:

“In nearby Salton Sea Beach was “The Salton Tiki,” a small mom-and-pop restaurant. My grandparents would take us there for a special treat sometimes. According to (a 1966 era) ad they served prime rib and lobster, but I only remember the great cheeseburgers that they served in those plastic baskets with chips on the side. The Tiki was decorated in the tropical theme that was popular then. It was funny how many things at Salton Sea had a tropical theme, when the desert was about as un-tropical as you could get! The Tiki had a sign by the front desk that said ‘THIS IS A FAMILY RESTAURANT, PLEASE REFRAIN FROM USING PROFANITY.’

On 2010-10-31 13:55, someone wrote:
"The Tiki was decorated in the tropical theme that was popular then. It was funny how many things at Salton Sea had a tropical theme, when the desert was about as un-tropical as you could get!’

Ha, we'll see about that, right, Amy and Ben !!? :D

Finally! My quest is complete.
And only $94.95!

Authentic DEAD TILAPIA fish from the Salton Sea

Unga, if I had known you wanted a dead tilapia, I could have sent you one for FREE! :lol:

That is actually a pretty damn cool item! And it's true what they're saying:

"...It is now harder and harder to find a good dead tilapia from the Salton Sea, so get them while they last.."

That combined with the material and labor to frame these, it's actually not a bad deal.
The sea is still lined by a several feet wide layer of fishbones, but complete specimens are rare. Talk about beachcombing... Too bad the frames and backings are white, that's kind of un-museum like.

I was out there about four years ago for a photoshoot that I was helping to art direct. It's an amazing wasteland... And that movie, Plagues and Pleasures is great too! I cant believe they restored the yacht club!! It was pretty scary when I saw it....with a pretty bad wasp infestation too. Looking forward to seeing it!

Wonder if they fixed the pool. We had our team riders skating it. you could tell that the sea flooded into the pool every once in a while....

The Tilapia are a relative newcomer to the Sea, imported from Africa and escaped from local fish farms that make use of the natural hot springs in the area (geothermal activity). In the 70s we used to catch 5 lb Croakers by the boatload and an occasional 20 lb Corvina.

Hello everyone, I keep meaning to post something here, we’re really fascinated by the subject.
Unfortunately the Tiki in front of the former Salton Tiki vanished right after our post in 08, the next time I drove by there was just a hole in the dirt.
Since the area was developed during the late 50’s early 60’s the Polynesian pop would obviously be a big influence the place was kind of frozen in time, there were a lot of cool Tiki elements left up until recently. There were customized trailers with A-frames, there used to be a lot of Tiki idols in peoples yards.
I can not overstate how amazing it is that the North Shore was saved, I would have bet money it would end up demolished like everything else out there. Again unfortunately around 08 we started noticing all kind of things disappearing; some stuff like recyclables I understand, whole doors and pieces of peoples (once) homes, all the block work from an old marina is a little much and ridiculous. From what we gather the Salton Sea was featured on two cable shows around then and I presume this attracted a certain new crowd to the area.
Aside from the man made there is an amazing amount of natural wonder down here, the amount of migrating birds at times is staggering and when you think this is just about the last place they can go in California makes you realize the importance of saving the Sea. There are places you can cross over the San Andreas Fault, on the South side there are mud pots, they bubble hot mud look like termite mounds it is an absolutely breathtaking place. You can see a movie I made of them here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7qJb4JmOEM
I’ve been shooting photographs there for a few years and last year Truus and I made a CD (if anyone on TC wants a copy it’s $10 including shipping) for the area, you can see the whole story at http://www.saltonsink.com

My Very Best Alohas

Bosko

On 2010-10-31 09:57, 8FT Tiki wrote:
I picked up this ashtray locally this summer. Although it doesn't list the Salton Tiki specifically, I thought it still might belong in the thread. The points of interest listed around the edges are: Benson Landing, Salton City, Lido Palms, SaltonSea Beach, Desert Shores, North Shore, State Park, Bombay Beach and Niland Marina. The Back is marked "Project Salton Sea Committee". From what I have read, the ashtray is in much better shape than the place it came from.

Since I have no attachment to this cool thing, I put it up for auction so someone who likes it could enjoy it. It's now returning to Calif.

I once was lost.....but now I'm found.....

[ Edited by: 8FT Tiki 2010-12-09 21:29 ]

1958 picture of a building in Salton Sea.