Hulaville - Hesperia, California
Miles Mahan bought land in the desert along Route 66 as a retirement property in 1954. Picking up the trash strewn along the road, he hung the old bottles on nails from fence posts, and created a bottle forest. With a wooden cutout of a hula girl scavenged from a defunct tropical restaurant, the little junk garden became known as 'Hulaville'.
For many years Miles Mahan enjoyed entertaining visitors to his garden with tall tales and poetry. By the time I visited 1996, however, Mahan had just recently died, and most of his garden was soon moved for preservation to the Route 66 Museum in Victorville. The photos show just a little of what was once there.
Here's a radio interview with Miles Mahan.
