For some reason, moai statues have a way of cropping up in the most unlikely and random places. One of these is the Moai that overlooks Courtyard Hollow, a small part of the Great Lake o’ the Cherokees, in Grove, Oklahoma. SilverLine posted the above postcard, which probably dates from the late ’60s, on Tiki Central, which is labeled “The Suttles’ Tiki Point, Located on Lake Road #6, Grove Oklahoma,” and tikijackelope and ZuluMagoo dug in to find what could be learned about it. Sure enough, the fellow’s still there. The moai may have been constructed in 1967 by Earl Suttle, who once owned the land it sits on. The moai may not be accessible by road, but it isn’t hard to get to by water, and ZuluMagoo has seen it in person and shared recent photos on Tiki Central.
- The Suttles’ Tiki Point, Grove, OK (other) [Tiki Central]
- The Suttles’ Tiki Point? [Tiki Central]
- The Suttles’ Tiki Point [Critiki]
Eli Hedley was from Oklahoma, right? Could this be one of his moai?
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He was, but he moved away in the ’30s, and I don’t know how often, if ever, he went back. Now that I look at it a bit closer, the design is almost exactly the same as a moai tiki mug by OMC that was pretty common back then:
http://www.ooga-mooga.com/cgi-bin/all/mug.cgi?mode=view&mug_id=963
It seems likely that Suttle, or whoever did this for him, based it on one of these souvenir mugs. That doesn’t seem like Eli’s style — his stuff is pretty uniquely his stuff, from what I’ve seen. But, I wouldn’t rule it out entirely!
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