Even though Elmer’s teeming forest of bottle trees stands alongside one of those desolate stretches of old Route 66 between Barstow and San Bernadino, he says it doesn’t have much to do with the famous roadway.
The genius of this place is in its adaptation to the terrain. The story began back in 1905, when Forestiere Baldasare, a Sicilian immigrant, had come westward in the early 1900s with dreams of farming success.
In 1920, when Bert Vaughn started work on his Desert View Tower, people motoring across the mountains that jut up out here near the Mexican border inevitably needed a place to stop and cool down.
Despite being a California State Landmark, this folk art environment was dismantled. Luckily, some of the pieces were saved and can be seen in the California Route 66 Museum: “Hula Ville – Twentieth Century Folk Art”.
Oh, my heart is broken at the news of Leonard’s passing. Bottom line is this, Leonard wants everybody to know that “God is love.” I say Leonard was love. Some people would say it in church or a book, write it in letters or a song, maybe even paint it in a picture. Leonard built a mountain in the desert.
The Old Trapper’s Lodge – John Ehn 6201 Winnetka Avenue Woodland Hills, CA 818-347-0551 Sculpture environment John Ehn opened a motel in California in 1941, moving there from Michigan, where he had worked as a trapper. He hired a sculptor to make a huge statue…
Tim Anderson’s Little Mansion 308 Seventh Street Roundup, MT Folk art environment, Private – visible from the street Wheels and pitchforks and sheepherders’ monuments are designed into a most unique environment. Someday Tim hopes to build an entire “Log Town.” Turns out there’s more than…
Library of Congress – Lynn Brostoff of the Library of Congress Research and Testing Division analyzes artwork by Martin Ramirez. About halfway down the geological layers of paper inside a box of archival materials, Tracey Barton came across a rolled-up, slightly crushed tube of paper…
Canos Castle – Donald “Cano” Espinoza Dates unknown Antonito, CO Found material environment 1980 – current Entirely made of recycled materials, with more than 100,000 beer and soda cans, hubcaps, screen doors, wooden windows, bicycle reflectors and more, this amazing folk art environment was built…
Gregory L. Blackstock 1946 — Seattle (Green Lake), WA Drawings (pencil, pen, marker, etc.) “Oh yeah, relieved, I’m famous.” – Seattle Times, 6 October 2006. Seattle artist Gregory Blackstock catalogues a wide range of subjects on varying sizes of paper. Using ink, pencil, marker, and…