Preserving Our American Right To Walk Through A Tree

March 2, 2013

Before there were even automobiles, there were holes hacked through the center of California‘s giant sequoias. One of the first was the California Tunnel Tree, now part of the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park. It’s been a magnet for tree-bisecting tourists since 1895.

Yosemite and the surrounding sequoias profited early from the Tunnel Tree, which raised their status to the point where they became a National Park. But the relationship has since become awkward, and it was with this in mind that we read, with concern, the new Draft Environmental Impact Statement put out by Yosemite. It describes plans to reroute the trail to the Tunnel Tree into an “overlook,” and to eliminate the nearby parking lot (The tree has been walk-thru-only for many years).

The vague language of the plan, which refers to trees with holes hacked through them as “culturally modified,” made it sound as if the trail would stop short. You could see the walk-thru tree, but not actually walk through it. How cruel that would be!

We called Yosemite, and spoke with Sue Beatty, a restoration ecologist. She assured us that the Park did not want to end foot access to the tree, and that the overlook was designed for people who simply couldn’t walk. In fact, she said, the problem isn’t people walking through the Tunnel Tree at all — it’s people walking (and driving) everywhere else, especially over the roots of the giant sequoias, which are surprisingly shallow and delicate. It’s to restrict them that the new plan for the Mariposa Grove is being created.

If we could only route everyone through our giant trees rather than around them, maybe they’d be a lot healthier (Okay, we’re guessing at that). The plan is still in development — actual work is scheduled to start in Summer 2014 — and Yosemite is encouraging people to offer their suggestions. If you want the full big tree drive-thru experience, that’s still available elsewhere in California.

And, in case you’re concerned, Sue said that the California Tunnel Tree appears to be doing just fine.

Sections: Attraction News
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When A Monster Is Not A Monster

February 28, 2013

Lincoln City, Oregon, wanted a sculpture for its park on Devil’s Lake, something fun for a place popular with children. Heidi Erickson won the commission and began to work — and work and work. By the time she was finished in August 2012 her two-ton sculpture stood 13 feet tall and 18 feet long — four or five times bigger than Lincoln City had envisioned, according to Sandy Pfaff, director of the town’s Convention and Visitor Bureau. And it was a dragon.

The unexpectedly big dragon at Devil’s Lake gave Lincoln City an unexpected problem. Devil’s Lake had been given its name for a reason. According to legend, the lake was (and perhaps still is) the home of a terrifying monster, known for dragging native fishermen to their doom.

The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, who carry some clout in Lincoln City, do not like the legend, according to Sandy. They feel that the tale could be misinterpreted as history, a metaphor for local savages performing human sacrifice, which the Confederated Tribes did not do.

And then Heidi Erickson unveiled her in-your-face dragon at Devil’s Lake.

The dragon is clearly more Puff than monster, with a lovable pot belly and comically big feet. It has a big, red, cartoon heart, visible within its chest, sealed with offerings presented by well-wishers at the statue’s dedication. It’s even made from recycled steel and rubber — a perfectly PR-friendly work of art. And yet the connection naturally was made that this was Lincoln City’s tribute to the Devil’s Lake Monster, which, of course, was an association that Lincoln City and Heidi Erickson did not want at all.

What the dragon needed was its own identity, and it was finally supplied in February 2013. A contest among local schoolchildren produced 256 possible names, from which Sparky the Wish Guardian was chosen. Heidi Erickson called it a “cheerful” name. Sandy Pfaff moved on to her next problem: how to keep people from climbing all over Lincoln City’s expensive new work of art (The problem was solved, said Sandy, by surrounding the sculpture with “bushes that wouldn’t be comfortable to climb through”).

We asked Sandy, now that Sparky is officially not a monster, and given that monsters have become acceptable statue subjects for other towns (including at least one in Oregon), if Lincoln City would ever, possibly, consider erecting another, official statue of the Devil’s Lake Monster. She said no.

Sections: Attraction News, Statues
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Be It Ever So Humble, There’s No Place Like A Bottle House

February 19, 2013

“I just woke up one day and told my wife, ‘I want to build a bottle house.’”

The man speaking was Leon Wiesner, a former art professor who in 2000 had moved to the sleepy town of Carrabelle, Florida. Bottle houses have historically been built from necessity, not choice, usually in places with a surplus of people and a lack of wood. Leon was familiar with several other bottle houses around North America, but said that his interest had been purely academic until that fateful morning.

“It’s a quaint little town, very picturesque, but that’s it,” he said of Carrabelle. “I figured it needed a little visual something-or-other.”

That something-or-other turned out to be Leon’s house, built in the shape of a pentagon, with nearly 500 square feet of bottle walls incorporating over 6,000 bottles. He finished it in December 2012, after 11 months of work. Not satisfied, Leon then built a 15-foot-tall bottle lighthouse in a mere month, a speed partly attributable to Leon’s new-found bottle skills, and partly to the lighthouse’s need for fewer bottles. Leon told us that he wants to install a rotating beacon in the lighthouse, but it will have to wait until he has the cash to purchase a wind turbine to power it. “I’ve spent all my money on mortar.”

With the lighthouse now complete, Leon next plans to build a St. Louis-style bottle arch (“maybe 16 feet tall”) and an oversize Penrose bottle triangle (“It’s an impossible structure. I love a challenge”).

Leon said that he and his wife like to spend afternoons in the little bottle house, enjoying the light that pours through its colorful walls (Their full-time house is elsewhere on the property). The bottle house is usually occupied by Leon’s dog, Zach, but Leon says that visitors are always welcome. He lights it from within at night, so that travelers can see its rainbow glow.

Since most people who’ve built bottle houses are now dead, we asked Leon what special tips he could share on construction. “If you have a county landfill,” he said, “it’s good to make friends with the prisoners, so they’ll save you certain bottle colors” (blues are particularly hard to find). Leon said that it’s important to have a plan and to stick to it (“with bottles you can’t switch in mid-stream”) and that it’s always smart to budget for more time and more bottles than you’d think (Leon needed an extra 3,500 bottles to finish his house).

“And in a small town,” he said, “never get the government involved. Do it, then ask forgiveness if needed.” For Leon this proved unnecessary, as the town now features his house in its list of attractions.

Sections: Places
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Bad Dog

February 15, 2013

We don’t devote much energy to temporary attractions, preferring those that will actually be there when you drive by. But we would be negligent in our hey-look-at-THAT duties if we didn’t call attention to Bad Dog, a piece of public art that will only hang around until May 5, 2013.

Bad Dog is a 28-foot-tall puppy lifting his leg and “establishing his territory” on an outside wall of the Orange County Museum of Art. When its installation was complete on February 13, the statue did just what it looks like it’s doing: it sprayed the wall (with yellow paint). Sadly for those who missed it, this was a one-time-only art event.

Bad Dog was created by artist Richard Jackson as a kind of billboard for his Ain’t Painting a Pain retrospective, which currently fills the Newport Beach, California, museum (until it all comes down in early May).

According to Orange County Museum of Art spokeswoman Kirsten Schmidt, Bad Dog is a hit with traditionally conservative Orange County. She was empathetic to our suggestions that it would be great to keep the puppy around, but she pointed out that it also wouldn’t be fair to all of the other artists who will follow Jackson’s retrospective.

In other words, if you want to see the big Bad Dog, do it now.

Sections: Attraction News, Statues
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Monster Head Finds New Home, Stays In Tennessee

February 13, 2013

On January 5, 1989, a blueish, apelike creature was killed by a pickup truck on Sugar Flat Road outside of Lebanon, Tennessee. For some reason the body wasn’t preserved, but the head was. The driver gave it to Frank “Cuz” Buster, who sat it on a towel, stuck it in a glass box, and put it in the window of his Lebanon antiques store.

Fast forward 24 years. Buster’s son, Sterling Buster, decided to go out of business, and put up a sign in the store window inviting dealers to call and put bids on its stock. As it happened, Amy Petulla was in town, as a tourist, just to see the head, having read about it on RoadsideAmerica.com. She saw the sign. “I thought, I’m gonna go ahead and call before anybody else gets a chance to,” she told us.

Amy was about to open Ghost Tours and Curiosities, a storefront mini-museum in downtown Chattanooga, about two hours away. “I talked about it with Sterling,” she said, “and he agreed that rather than sitting on his mantel, which is where the head would’ve ended up, that it was something that needed to be displayed.”

Leery of its cost, which was substantial, Amy agreed to a novel arrangement: she would lease the monster head for several months, and if it brought in enough extra business, then she would buy it.

Ghost Tours and Curiosities is scheduled to open March 1. The storefront museum is meant to encourage people to sign up for Amy’s Chattanooga ghost tours. Its location, across from the city aquarium and history museum, guarantees that the head will be seen by many more people than it was in Lebanon. Amy plans to hang a big banner outside, “Home of the Sugar Flat Road Creature Head” — those who just want to see the head will be charged a dollar, while those who take a tour can see it for free. She also hopes to interest people from the history museum in the head, if only for suggestions on how to build a more preservation-minded display case.

Amy figures that she’ll know whether or not to buy the head by the end of July, so everyone should visit Ghost Tours and Curiosities before then, validating the value of her monstrous acquisition. Amy hopes that non-human visitors will be interested as well. “Chattanooga Battlefield is supposed to be inhabited by a Bigfoot,” she said. “So maybe the head will get it attracted or stirred up some.”

Sections: Attraction News
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Reb Landmarks Respected by Proposed Georgia Law

February 7, 2013

A bill introduced into the Georgia state legislature by Rep. Tommy Benton (R-Jefferson) would make it illegal to “abuse contemptuously” any statue, plaque, monument, or historical marker honoring Confederate symbols, soldiers, or celebrities. It would also outlaw anyone from banishing such tributes to an obscure playground or hiding them behind a bush or a tree.

“We’re not saying they can’t move them,” Benton told the Atlanta Daily World. “We’re just saying they can’t just put them in a field somewhere.”

The news article doesn’t say who Rep. Benton has in mind as possible perpetrators of such heinous deeds, although it certainly suggests a sinister outside force. It’s difficult to imagine Southerners inflicting groundskeeping hanky-panky on icons such as Alabama‘s Sunbonnet Heroine or Arkansas‘ Boy Martyr of the Confederacy, but maybe things are different in Georgia?

Could the UN or ACLU be laying in the weeds, ready to topple the Peach State’s Confederate Nuclear Missile, or yarnbomb its Double-Barrel Cannon?

Our experience with monumenticide (a word we just invented) is that it’s far more likely from within than without. It was neighbors, not carpetbaggers, who destroyed the toilet seat tributes in Boron, California, and attempted (and failed) to banish the Big Pink Pig of Hatch, New Mexico.

Still, Rep. Benton may be privy to information withheld from the general public. His bill, for example, specifically cites “obstruction of Stone Mountain” as a possible calamitous future event — and the carvings of Confederate heroes on Stone Mountain are 400 feet high!

Sections: Tourism News
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