The Rise of Calaverdes

By Ron Evans

Photo by Krista Estes

Over the past 20 years, there have been many incarnations of The Michael Carlos Band. So many, in fact, that I’m not sure how I was never a member at some point. “You are one of very few Wenatchee musicians who haven’t!” Carlos joked as we sat down for drinks at Hellbent to chat about an evolution of sorts.

The most recent lineup of the MCB has been Carlos on piano, guitar, and lead vocals, Domingo Gonzales on bass, and Aaron Parrott on the drums. “Having played with so many people over the years, I can say that this group really worked well from the get-go. And because of that, we started realizing that we were more of an actual band, a group that all had things to contribute. And it seemed like it was time to retire The Michael Carlos Band and relaunch as this new thing,” Carlos said.

Parrott and Gonzales were also present for the roundtable chat – here’s how it went.

EVANS: Would you say that this is a bit of a rebirth, or is it more about growing into a thing born of the last thing?

ALL THREE AT ONCE: Both.

EVANS: So you still have at least one foot in the MCB?

CARLOS: Very little, honestly. It’s funny because the MCB literally existed right up until forming this new group, so it’s kind of a strange thing.

PARROTT: (Joined MCB around 14 years ago) We have looked at a lot of the music from the older band – you know, there are three LPs under The Michael Carlos Band. And we have talked about, well, maybe this song makes sense to continue, and if we re-work this one. And Carlos was getting tired of being the namesake, tired of writing all the songs. And with Mingo and I in the band, he no longer had to do all of it.

CARLOS: When we really started thinking about that was last year at Holiday Spice. We performed for that, but Mingo was singing. We were billed as The Michael Carlos Band, but I wasn’t the singer. So it was like…what do we call ourselves when I’m not the one fronting the band? So we started trying to come up with names.

PARROTT: We had a spreadsheet and notes and a lot of back and forth. We really went deep before settling on the name, and Mingo was the one to really pull it together.

EVANS: And that name is Calaverdes. What does it mean?

GONZALES: (Joined the band just before pandemic shut-downs) Well, it’s sort of a combination of the word “calavera,” which is the Spanish word for skull, and “verde,” the Spanish word for green. We were talking about taking the music more toward a punk sound, and I was trying to think of the most punk color ever.

PARROTT: It doesn’t get more punk than bright green.

CARLOS: We wanna go more punk and more Latin.

EVANS: So with a few exceptions, you are looking to write mostly new music?

CARLOS: Yeah, and now we have a situation where Mingo is gonna be writing, and Aaron is gonna be writing, and we will all sort of figure out how to make it mesh.

PARROTT: Michael and I do a lot of the initial meshing, and then Mingo comes in and spices it up. It’s all working great like that.

GONZALES: It’s always about what can I say in my own voice, how do I bring that to the table?

CARLOS: There was one day where we were literally just sitting around with a notebook, and it was like…ok, what’s the next line? What’s the next line after that? All of us writing together literally all at once.

EVANS: That’s gotta be a big change for you, Michael. After so many years of solo writing.

CARLOS: It’s a huge change. It’s a completely different process. And it’s a refreshing change. Like Aaron said – I was ready to make changes in how all of this would go. There are still times where I’ll be the principal writer on some songs, but maybe I’ll just bring 70% of it to the group and we finish it off together. Whereas before, I would feel like I had to basically bring a fully finished song and say, “OK, here’s how it goes.”

EVANS: So what’s the plan for the immediate future? Are you focusing more on live shows – planning to record?

CARLOS: We need to work on having more songs.

PARROTT: We already had some MCB stuff in the can that we hadn’t yet released. So we decided…this is stuff that’s worthy of Calaverdes. With a bit of a re-working.

CARLOS: Then we will be looking at doing some recording, but we gotta figure out where we are gonna do that.

PARROTT: Yeah, because Chad Yenney (Earth To Emma Studios) up and moved on us, so we need to figure that out.

EVANS: It sounds like it’s pretty equal in terms of contributing to all the aspects of the band.

PARROTT: Yeah, and I’ll likely never write a whole song, but I come up with all sorts of what I’d call bare-bones stuff that we can all build on. I’ll be in the shower, and a melody or some lyrics will come into my head, and I gotta towel off and run to my office to get it down so I can send it to these guys.

CARLOS: I wanted this band to be equal not just in ideas but in stewardship. We all own the band equally.

EVANS: Have you played as Calaverdes live yet?

(They all laugh.)

CARLOS: Yeah, we played Wally’s the very week after we played our last show as The Michael Carlos Band.

PARROTT: Did you miss us??

EVANS: That’s hilarious. You could get meta with this and have MCB open for Calaverdes.

PARROTT: Hey, I bet we could actually pull that off. We kind of did if you think about it. We changed the drum logo over from MCB to Calaverdes at the end of that show.

CARLOS: We will be playing Wally’s again in January (Jan. 11) around my birthday. We used to play these birthday shows there, for years.

PARROTT: Don’t you share a birthday with David Bowie?

CARLOS: No, that’s the day before. But I do share a birthday with Dave Matthews, Jimmy Page, Joan Baez, and Crystal Gale.

PARROTT: All notable punk musicians.

EVANS: And all one-time members of The Michael Carlos Band. So how many songs do you have ready to roll right now?

CARLOS: Nine.

GONZALES: And that was including a couple of MCB leftovers.

EVANS: That’s a set.

PARROTT: Yeah, we have a set, but we will have something new soon. Likely for the Wally’s show coming up.

EVANS: Anything online yet for Calaverdes?

PARROTT: Not yet, but there will be soon. Until then, you can follow us on Facebook and IG – you will see any pertinent updates.

Calaverdes w/ The Timely Tragedy and

Deep Green Sea

LIVE at Wally’s

Jan. 11

Motel Styx: Michelle von Eschen & Jonathan Butcher

By Ron Evans

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Uhh...pretty much all of them, actually.

In 2012 I was vending at Emerald City Comicon where I met horror fiction writer Michelle von Eschen. It became clear that we shared a similar sense of humor and a taste for the gruesome as we discussed some of her works. I picked up a copy of her first novel, When The Dead (a claustrophobic doomsday zombie nightmare) and loved it. I was impressed with the quality of the writing and how good she was at getting you hooked on a story so quickly. Von Eschen has remained incredibly prolific over the years publishing several novels and being featured in numerous anthologies.

A few years ago von Eschen left her Seattle area home for Texas (briefly) and then made the voyage to England where she now lives with her husband Jonathan Butcher. Butcher is also an established writer with an appetite for the dark and twisted. The duo wasted no time in plotting a book together — the result; Motel Styx. And let me tell you…this book is deranged, demented, devilish and damn hard to put down! If the synopsis on the back of the book doesn’t already repel you…

Fueled by online trends, a shift in the American zeitgeist has led to the instatement of the Lazarus Act, legalizing the ‘recreational use’ of human corpses.

Ellis Mercer, recently bereaved, embarks on a secret mission to America’s first ‘necrotel’ to recover his wife’s remains, before her corpse and his memory of her are desecrated by the motel’s twisted membership.

As he uncovers the murky inner workings of Motel Styx, evading its suspicious staff and encountering a wild array of death-obsessed guests, he will be forced to face an unsettling truth: there is more than one way to define love.

Still with me? Then I should also make it clear, the authors leave little to the imagination when describing the ‘inner’ workings of a place where you pay to fuck the dead. And as messed up as the scenes and situations are, they are worded with such care and gravitas that it reads almost medical at times. Other times…Jesus. These writers should probably be in jail!

And while it may seem easy to dismiss such a premise as shock fiction – irreverent for the sake of being irreverent – there’s a unique kind of heart to the story. A fucked up kind of heart but heart all the same. Not sentimentality, but a real thoughtfulness. The kind that makes you stop and truly contemplate the kind of society we are living in. Where we may be headed. And, whether the authors intended it or not, there are a lot of places where you will find yourself doing a little check-in with your own set of morals.

I chatted with these two lovely maniacs about how they found their way to Motel Styx.

Michelle von Eschen

Jonathan Butcher

First off, give the readers a little background on both of you.

M: I’m from Washington State. I grew up in Kenmore at the top of Lake Washington. I’ve always been interested in writing, but usually shorter form poetry and the occasional song. I self-published my first novel When the Dead in 2012 after spending six years casually writing it and I continue to write, publishing something (usually short stories) once a year on average. My writing is on the quieter, more literary side of the Horror genre, with Motel Styx being an exception.

J: I’m from southwest England but I’ve lived all over the UK, as well as briefly in Australia and South Korea. I recently completed a Master’s degree in Crime and Thriller Writing at the University of Cambridge. I’ve been writing horror since my age was a single figure, and my best-known work is the extreme horror/thriller What Good Girls Do.

Talk about what sparked the idea for this new book.

J: Michelle and I met online during the first summer of the Covid pandemic. We watched a lot of movies and talked on Skype. I was going to watch Nekromantik, a German film about necrophilia, for an upcoming podcast I was invited on and I asked Michelle if she wanted to watch it with me.

M: It was the first movie to make me gag. I came very close to barfing, but the film stuck with me and soon after I saw a Reddit post about ethical necrophilia through consent prior to death. My mind went a bit crazy after this with the possibilities. I thought of combining the Bunny Ranch, a legal brothel in Texas, with the Body Farm in Tennessee, which is a study facility for forensic anthropology that I’d read about in Death’s Acre by Dr. Bill Bass. Basically a bunch of dead bodies rotting in the elements. So yeah, consensual necrophilia in the privacy of a little motel out in the desert. Motel Styx was born.

It would be easy to simply rely on the shock and gross out factor of this story, but you somehow managed to give the tale a bit of heart – talk about how you came up with the idea for the ‘protagonist’ to deal with elements of suicide and loss.

M: I’m naturally drawn to writing about death in all its forms and I’ve written about suicide and loss before. I’ve lost family to natural causes, accidents, and suicide. I think having unanswered questions and anger without an outlet can both be compelling forces to draw someone forward and to make them do things they might not actually otherwise do. Our main character doesn’t feel like he has a choice against these forces. It’s a huge risk he takes and we needed to make sure it made sense why he’d even try.

J: Yes, writing about Ellis as a compelling protagonist with a number of secrets was perhaps the biggest challenge of the story, for me. Michelle had come up with his “going undercover” storyline, but it needed fleshing out, greater consistency, and more meticulous structuring, so I came in with my magnifying glass and tried to ensure that his decisions felt convincing throughout.

There are many instances that read as satire (to me) but also as allegory for things like puritanical politics, body autonomy and other moral issues. Were you setting out to make any kind of statement with this story?

M: Honestly, no. We treated it as though the motel and the Lazarus Act (our fictional law allowing for “recreational use” of corpses) were real things and we simply explored how different people or groups might respond to such a controversial business. What might feel like satire or allegory for our real world are merely reflections of it.

J: As Michelle said, we didn’t set out to write a satire, but in considering how people might react if a radical law like this came to be, it was impossible to avoid considering the likely reactions there would be across social media and the media in general. We wanted the book to be fun as well as grotesque, so I just made some of my input a little tongue-in-cheek, though not so playful as to be ridiculous.

There were so many times in the book where I had to stop and think – god, that must have been fun to write. Things like slogans on the t-shirts in the necrotel gift shop, chants from the religious protesters and thoughtful musings from patrons and staff of Motel Styx. Talk a bit about creating all of those elements, and the experience of trying to get into the mindset of the people who fuck the dead.

M: All the extras–the products in the gift shop, the slogans, the entire culture and setup of the business–were one of my favorite parts of writing the book. I love running with a concept/theme. I used to own and operate a graphic and web design company so the brand building comes from that experience. There’s a lot that was cut because it was just this extra, fun stuff that didn’t add to or move the story along. Jonathan was good at trimming the fat I kept trying to add. As for writing about people who fuck the dead, I did as much reading as I could about case studies.

J: I don’t think I trimmed much of the fat that Michelle wanted to add—I mainly just tried to ensure that it was spread throughout the story instead of info-dumped.

Was this always a fun project? Were there times when it got a bit much to imagine these scenarios?

J: The most fun part for me was writing the pre-chapter quotes, which I wanted to use to hint at the wider societal implications and opinions regarding our Lazarus Act, and to be a little cheeky with some of the folks I quoted. The addendum to the quote from the pastor is one of the parts I’m most proud about, haha. And no, it never got too much. It almost became too normal for us to be discussing corpse sex, and we had to remember to lower our voices while we were in public!

M: I can’t think of one time when it ever felt like too much to imagine. I found it fascinating and I still do. Also, the beauty of a collaboration is the ability to share the load and pass some of it on to the other contributor if needed.

Were there times where you thought – is this too much? Should we hold back, for the sake of the audience?

J: I usually write the most extreme of the most extreme stories, but I saw the potential for a wider reading audience for Motel Styx. I wanted us to write a book that might appeal to readers wanting a more hardcore horror than they might usually read, but not an all-out shock-fest. So I actually pulled a scene Michelle wrote back, just a little, which was strange considering she usually writes quiet horror! The subject matter ensured that some explicit content was necessary though; as Michelle often says to me, how can you write a book about necrophiles without writing about necrophilia?

M: Jonathan and I talked about this a lot during the writing of the book. Should we go all-in? Should we clean it up a bit, be less gross? It was a heavy and important decision to make, books are made or broken by audience reception. The Extreme and Splatterpunk subgenres have very active and voracious readers so it was tempting to write something for them alone, but those who generally read my writing opt for less violent, less gory stories and I didn’t want us to exclude those from it who might be brave enough to push a few personal boundaries in reading Motel Styx. You can see this ‘bridging of the gap’ in some of our 3-star and lower reviews. Some readers really wanted more sex with dead people, some of them had to pull out their garbage bins and DNF it because they found it too much sex with dead people. But the pull of the concept brings a diverse and larger group to the motel. That’s what we wanted in the end. No vacancy. And what I wanted above all else is a book that makes people think and feel a lot. It’s definitely a conversation starter!

Co-writing a book is not super common, walk us through the process a little bit. Did you each take turns, or take specific scenes? Or was most of the collaboration in the overall arches and concepts? Were there any disagreements about which way to go with it?

J: The book and the outline for the plot and characters were 100% Michelle’s ideas. Her ideas are always better and smarter than mine! She essentially let those ideas germinate for a while and then wrote a basic first draft/outline. Two of my strengths in writing are structuring and characters, so I took the work Michelle had done and expanded on it, developed what I saw as its main strengths, told Michelle about the parts I wasn’t so keen on, and then wrote a more detailed full draft containing all the beats of the completed piece. Then we passed it back and forth until it was ready for other folks’ eyes.

M: Basically he gave the body I’d haphazardly built an actual skeleton, some good bones to hold it all up. There were things I really wanted in the book that didn’t make it, but it’s an important part of writing, letting go of what doesn’t serve the story. At a point I stopped comparing his drafts to the draft I’d handed him previously. I stopped scanning to see what else had been removed and started reading the draft for what it was, looking at the whole from afar instead of the small details. We ended up with a book we’re both hugely proud of. Even if the process was difficult, I trust it. I trust him.

I always say that writers likely have some of the most confounding (or incriminating!) internet search histories. Talk about any research that went into Motel Styx.

J: Reddit is an amazing resource, so I put a post out onto r/morticians and asked if there was anyone willing to help with our research. Thankfully I’m semi-active there, so I was able to demonstrate that I wasn’t just some demented pervert wanting to discuss necro-sex for kicks, and that I’m a legitimate author seeking research help. Their input was invaluable. People can be so wonderful, and are often willing to share their expertise just because someone wants to hear it.

M: The thing about necrophilia is that there is surprisingly little written about it when compared to other topics. A handful of scientific papers, a small collection of fiction books, random newspaper articles of rogue morticians or teens behaving badly, a mention here or there in history of someone famous keeping a dead wife longer than they should have. Necrophilia is so taboo and illegal in most places, many who feel lust for the dead do not admit it. They practice in private or not at all and we usually only hear about them when they get caught breaking laws. I found some incredible case studies detailing perpetrators of the different types of necrophilia, but I wish there were more interviews with actual necs, like the one with Karen Greenlee, the embalmer who stole a hearse with a man’s body in it to have sex with him and who later admitted to other relations with the dead. I want to hear from people who choose this lifestyle.

How long were you working on the book and how did you publish/distribute it?

J: Two years! They were very tumultuous years, and saw us battling against both life and death at times, as well as moving home twice, but yes, it was a long-term project to be sure.

M: The idea began to percolate from the moment we watched Nekromantik, which was back in August of 2022 when I was living in Texas briefly before relocating to England. It’s crazy to check the date on the first file. It feels so long ago now. We self-published the book back in June of this year and it is now available in all formats via Amazon and Audible.

I’m a sucker for a good book cover and Motel Styx has a fabulous design. Talk about the designer and the process of coming up with cover art for this and your other books.

J: Basically, I scribbled an idea for the cover that resembled a 3-year-old’s half-assed doodle, and Michelle turned it into the Mona Lisa of corpse-diddling.

M: Thanks for liking my work! I have done all of my book covers and interiors, though the beautiful images of the farmhouse on Old Farmhouses of the North and the fire on This is How We Burn were photographed by my twin sister Rebecca Marson and the zombie on The Spread was painted by a talented Vancouver, Canada-based artist named Lyle Schultz. Jonathan has worked with artists for some of his other covers and I have been teaching him a few programs to format and design his books himself. We also put together the full cover of his What Good Men Do. As fun as it is to have the ability to do it, I think it’s important for writers to recognise when they need outside assistance and to be willing to pay for quality art if it serves the story. I can’t draw to save my life so I would love to hire an artist when I need one.

The audio book just popped up on Audible a week before writing this so I gave it a listen, the narrator (Christian Shay) is great. How was that process? Casting, recording, directing?

J: We were immediately taken with Christian’s narration, and while we had a number of others audition, I don’t think there was any doubt between us that he was the reader for us.

M: We lucked out with him, he brought it all to life and with flavor. He was also super receptive to our feedback for any edits we had. We found him through ACX and the entire process felt quite quick and painless.

What has the overall response been like? Favorite feedback – good or bad? Has any of your family disowned you?

J: I’d say it’s generally been good, and our families know what we’re like by now, haha. A lot of fellow horror writers gave us amazing comments to use in our marketing, and our talented friend Judith Sonnet even seems to think it might be in the running for a Splatterpunk Award next year. We’ve also had some fantastic Booktokers kindly post about our book too, which we have been endlessly grateful for (shout-out to the amazing @ghostlyreads, @eve.reads, and @redrum.reads!)

M: The overall response has blown us away. We’ve had a lot of eyes on it already, in such a short period of time. It’s exciting! My favorite feedback is when readers have said they want Jonathan and I to do another collaboration. I think we’re a good team, but it’s awesome to hear others confirm that feeling. I also love the reviews from people who have been made sick by it or who usually read erotica of the living and how uncomfortable they’ve been made over all the nec-rotica! It’s going to have sex with dead people, that is a promise! Every review matters, good and bad, because they all give potential readers more information to make the decision to book a room or not.

Any plans for a Motel Styx sequel?

J: I don’t think we’re entirely done with the motel just yet, but whether or not there will be a full sequel remains to be seen. We’ve another collaborative project to write that we’re both pretty damn excited about.

M: There is no way this is the end of Motel Styx. It’s simply too fun to play in that world and I’ll be very happy to extend others’ stay in it too.

What’s coming up next for you?

M: I have a literary novella, a quiet horror short story collection, and the aforementioned second collaboration with Jonathan in the works. I think the collaboration is the priority now after seeing the success of Motel Styx.

J: I’m currently writing my first non-extreme novel, which is about a cosmic haunting. It will either be my best work to date or a dreadful mistake.

Website/links/where to buy your books.

J: jonathanbutcherhorror@bigcartel.com for signed books and swag, or Amazon for all my work.

M: whenthedead.com/ or linktr.ee/yourquiethorror for various book and social links. My books are available on Amazon.


IMAGINE THAT! The TRUE history of Bavarian Leavenworth

John Sutherland under his creation. Photo by Jaime Donegan

By Jaime Donegan

Much has been written about the small, fairytale Bavarian town of Leavenworth, WA. Newspaper articles, tourist brochures and even a book entitled “Miracle Town” tell the story of a boom town that went bust several times during the first half of the 1900’s. Nestled in the Cascade mountains on Highway 2 leading east to Wenatchee and west to Steven’s Pass, Leavenworth has also been featured in a documentary and most recently a segment on CBS Sunday Morning. It is the home of all-season festivals, beer gardens, restaurants, shops of every imaginable Christmas decoration, wineries, ice cream parlors, coffee houses and of course, the infamous Woody Goomsba, a raucous Nutcracker that went viral about fourteen years ago with his bawdy rap song promoting Leavenworth tourism.

I have enjoyed day tripping to Leavenworth for a hike with friends usually concluding with a few beers and a Bratwurst, but I also enjoy evening shows at Leavenworth Summer Theater. Every summer the locals and tourists watch a young lady playing the role of Maria Von Trapp come spinning and singing down the ski hill to audience applause as they kick off their annual production of “The Sound of Music.” I believe that you would be hard pressed to find a more idyllic backdrop for this particular show and I personally get goosebumps when the Mother Superior and her chorus of nuns begin to sing “Climb Every Mountain” which seems to echo off the cliffs and peaks of the Sleeping Lady.

No matter the season, every time I visit this “Miracle Town” I feel that I have been transported a world away as I bask in a time and space that is like living in a postcard.

The hills are definitely ALIVE with so many wonderful things that touch and tease the senses that I have often said to myself in my best impish voice, “there be magic here.”

Speaking of imps (a huge complement in my book), a year and a half ago I met a man named John Sutherland at a Hot August Nights production of “Pippin” in Wenatchee. John introduced himself after the show and during our short conversation I made note of the fact that this gentleman was a veritable font of passion for every topic he spoke about. While he spoke of his passion for theater production and his experience as a theater producer in Seattle, his eyes danced. While he spoke of his passion for managing Ski Resorts and being a ski instructor, his cheeks glowed. And then as he spoke with an even greater passion about a little project that he was currently working on, the Leavenworth Adventure Park, his chest swelled with a well deserved sense of pride and satisfaction. The Park features “Tumwater Twister,” Washington’s first Alpine Coaster. This man, I thought, has a bit of what I like to call the “IT” factor, and I instantly liked him and hoped we would connect again.

After we exchanged contact information, John invited me to come have a look at the Alpine Coaster while it was still being built and I told him that I looked forward to a visit in the near future. A few weeks later I made my way to Leavenworth with my friend Dave Sutherland (no relation) to see what this grand undertaking was all about. John gave us a personal tour of the unfinished Adventure Park and as we walked through the interior of the new building, he described every nook and cranny with the excitement of a kid on Christmas morning. He then took us outside to see where a rock climbing wall would be, along with some other outdoor fun and games for visitors of all ages. We finally turned our heads and looked up at the big hill. The feel of autumn was in the air as we hiked up through the construction to the top of the coaster where we were instantly treated to spectacular views of the town of Leavenworth. Below us, the mountain forests, their leaves just beginning to change, stood in sharp contrast to the shiny silver streams of steel that came swirling down the hillside. I took it all in for a moment and then I imagined the breathtaking thrill of riding the curvy rails with the wind in my hair and a big smile on my face. I imagined the joy of the ride and it gave me a great feeling.

We left the park and went to a local beer garden and that’s where the conversation became even more interesting as John told us the history of his idea to build the Alpine Coaster. “I make no qualms about it, Walt Disney was my idol. He had a grand vision that most people thought was ridiculous. They asked ‘You want to do what? Why would anybody want to go to THAT?’

Well….

He proved them wrong and I am proud to say that I am a full fledged “Disney Adult.” Though I am definitely not in his league, I had a strong imagination and a sense that this project was the perfect fit for the town. I have spent time in Bavaria skiing and riding the Alpine Coasters that are a part of the landscape… thirteen of them in all, I believe. Leavenworth was missing this key component and I was eager to bring this joyful project to town. I’m very proud of this because I’m a gay man and a complete outsider but somehow, I was able to persuade enough people to be able to follow through and make it happen.”

He laughed and added, “In a way, I am a lot like the two men who conceived of and proposed the idea of turning Leavenworth from a dying town into a Bavarian-themed town back in 1960. Their names were Ted Price and Bob Rodgers and they were not only outsiders and business partners, they were a gay couple! That’s right. The gay couple who then persuaded enough people to follow through on their idea and make it happen.”

Imagine that!

I had never heard anything about these two men before, but now, as a proud, openly gay man myself, I was quite anxious to hear more.

May 13, 2024. I am sitting on the third floor of the Adventure Park with John Sutherland, almost a year after the park opened. Coco Hopkins, local tour guide at Bavarian E Bikes and Walking Tours has also joined us for a conversation.

I will tell you now that I have read “Miracle Town” and watched the documentary so here are the bios of Ted and Bob to quickly help get you up to speed so that we can spill the tea and get down to the good stuff. If you want to know more about the men and their ideas, I highly recommend that you read the book because it truly is a miracle story. Also, there a few great photos of Ted and Bob but we were unable to get the clearance to use them in time. Check them out on the UW’s archival site HERE.

Ted Price - Born in Portland, Oregon 1923

Joined the Marines in 1940

Attended Oregon State University

Graduated Pharmacy School and graduated in 1949.

Worked for Pfizer as a Pharmaceutical Rep.


Bob Rodgers - Born in Seattle, WA 1923

Drafted into the Army in 1942 and served in General Patton’s Third Army in France

Spent a lot of time in Bavaria. Attended University of Washington and dropped out.

Worked for the State of Washington Department of Food and Drugs

The two gentlemen met on the shores of Lake Washington in the mid-1950’s and after many camping trips in the Leavenworth area, they bought the Coles Corner Cafe late 1959. They didn’t know a thing about running a restaurant but that didn’t stop them. They re-opened in April of 1960 and slowly turned it into a Bavarian-themed restaurant called The Squirrel Tree. Soon they added a motel with the same theme. The two men had dreams of creating an entirely Bavarian town in Coles Corner but that seemed daunting at the time. Starting from scratch would be a big undertaking. However, nearby there was a town that already had an infrastructure in place and that is where Leavenworth comes into their story.

A Conversation

Jaime- So...let’s talk about “the Boys” (as they were known about town). What else can you tell me about them?

Coco- Ah yes, the “Bavarian Boys.”

John- The Bavarian Boys…ha ha…that’s perfect. Well, from everything that I’ve heard and read, they were total outdoorsmen. They loved to ski, hike, fish and they dreamed of a ski resort on Wedge Mountain. The Bavarian theme idea they had was more than just reviving businesses and bringing in tourists. The idea was really a way to create the kind of community that supported and promoted an “outdoorsy lifestyle” in a town that was pretty beaten up but had so much to offer. I have kept the Bavarian Boys and their vision in the back of my mind as I was working hard to make the Alpine Coaster happen. Interestingly, sixty some years later, my vision is very much in line with their vision.

Jaime- This is the part that intrigues me the most. Ted and Bob - as well as you, John, had a vision that was really big. You made a business plan, you were able to procure some backers and you presented the idea. Initially you were met with skepticism and other challenges. At this point, some people who have great ideas just pack it up and abandon their projects because it’s too hard, but they didn’t and you didn’t. Why?

John- Because we’re stupid (much laughter). No really. You continue because you have a passion for it. You have to keep plugging away and see it through as far as it will go. I can’t really speak for Ted and Bob but that’s just how I am. It’s a part of my nature and I have a feeling that we had that in common.

Jaime- That is part of what I call the “IT” factor. All three of you were gay men, outsiders with big ideas for change and yet somehow you were able to persuade enough people in the community to say “YES, let’s do it.” There had to be a certain level of trust given and that probably was not easy to establish. You are an out and proud gay man arriving in a town that had already been transformed. Ted and Bob likely had a tougher go of it as they maneuvered their private life amongst the townspeople who had been through the booms and the crashes and were more skeptical.

Coco- Absolutely, you have to remember that this was the early 1960’s, when being a homosexual was illegal in the U.S.

Jaime- Exactly, if someone wanted to make trouble for two 37 year old male outsiders who lived together they could have done so. They could have had them run out of town or even arrested them. If they were arrested there was nothing that could be done because the law wasn’t on the side of gay people. You paid the fines, did the jail time and were ostracized by those who felt you were perverted and sick. In fact, homosexuality was classified as a mental disease at that time so often times convicted homosexuals were sent off to institutions by their families to be “corrected” which we now know to be completely bogus.

John- So no, they weren’t technically OUT. But then, they weren’t really IN either, they were private. They lived together, they created together, they persuaded together and were likely, just being themselves most of the time. People either figured it out and accepted it, didn’t care, or looked the other way because there are no accounts or reports of discrimination or trouble for them with regards to being gay. They became a part of the community and I think for the most part people liked them.

Jaime-That is part of the “IT” factor. I mean, to come into town as strangers, sharing their vision of a Bavarian makeover, there must have been something special about them. Call it charisma, call it charm, or trustworthiness, whatever it was, their persuasive powers were strong because it worked.

John- And that is why it’s so important to know and tell their story, our story and not just the parts that make you feel comfortable...all of it. My reasoning is because it’s historical and quite a fucking miracle that it actually did work.

For me and my idea of building an Alpine Coaster, it was more about persistence. I am an out gay man in a new generation of acceptance so I didn’t have to concern myself with hiding, I could just be myself and so the project became everything to me. I made it my life and I threw myself into it. I wanted to be in the mountains and Leavenworth is really kind of perfect for me. Two great ski areas close by, it’s stunningly beautiful and you have Seattle just over the mountains two hours away. There is so much mind blowing opportunity here. It has all the things.

Jaime- Agreed. I’m curious though, gay culture, gay pride and gay history have come a long way since the 1960’s, do you think we have reached a place of equality in our society where it’s unnecessary to label this couple as “gay” visionaries but simply as “visionaries?”

John- NO! We must have the visibility and the validation otherwise we will be erased. We need to know that gay people are making valuable contributions to society. We need to know as much information as possible.

Jaime- True. We generally make a distinction if a woman has done something of note and we make distinction when a person of color does something of note so why shouldn’t we speak up when someone from the LGBTQ+ community does something? Barack Obama is known as the first African American US President, Kamala Harris is known as the first female VP who is also a woman of color, Pete Buttigieg is known as the first openly gay man to run for President.

John- Exactly. Harvey Milk (first openly gay elected member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors) said it best. He said “the only thing that’s really going to move us forward is that we have to come out so that people know we exist.” Visibility is key. If people don’t know that we exist and they don’t know our history, we will never make progress. We have to come Out, and this is a big part of me now, we have to be out grabbing our gay history, acknowledging our gay history and making it known. Period. I firmly believe this 120%.

For example, I was talking to Ann Peavey, a local historian and volunteer at the Leavenworth Museum one day and she told me that a gay couple had come into the museum and read the story of Bob and Ted. She said that they walked up to the desk to ask some questions because they never knew the story about “the boys” and they were surprised to find that they were a romantic couple. “Business partners and partners in life” is the quote used in the museum. She said the couple left the museum that day with a sense of validation and pride and that’s what it’s all about. I am also pretty militant about this. I come from Washington D.C. and from a political family so I have very strong feelings.

Jaime- Yeah, I’m getting a sense of that.

Speaking of Ann Peavey, thank you for introducing me to her. I met with her and we had a fascinating talk about the history of this town. Ann spent her early years growing up in Leavenworth, moved to the Seattle area for a while and has now moved back to the town she loves. She shared with me a conversation she had with her mother about her father, who was a bit of a pessimist. “My father thought that the idea to turn Leavenworth into a Bavarian town would be short lived. He thought that the facades would go up and everything would go bust again and they would all be torn down in six months to a year leaving them all right back where they started.” She believes that while a few thought it was a great idea, her father’s view was likely the mindset of most of the population.

Ann gave me a quick tour of the museum and particularly the area which features large cut out photos of Ted and Bob together with their story printed below. She told me that visitors are often surprised when they learn that Ted and Bob were partners and that the reaction is mostly positive.

Coco- Yes, I think that is true. You get the occasional eye rolls and the “ughs” when you tell tourists about them but for the most part people are simply surprised and intrigued. And why not? Just look around, this all began with Ted and Bob’s Big Idea and now we have John’s Big Idea. There are loads of great ideas floating around here now.

Jaime- That’s right and with three and a half million visitors each year, you realize just how much these ideas have paid off.

John- To me, that’s what business is. Taking our ideas and running with them. This is “our” dream place too. Ted and Bob helped save this town. They deserve to be celebrated for who they were (publicly and privately) and what they accomplished. We are doing good things here. Now there are several gay-owned businesses and strong support for the gay community. Business is good. Leavenworth Adventure Park opened June 1, 2023 and we have been packed. We were sold out all of last summer and have exceeded our expectations by 48%. I did get the personal satisfaction of a big “I told you so” out of it and the investors are very happy. Quite a few people who were opposed are now solid supporters. Much the same as what Ted and Bob experienced.

Jaime- Ted Price and Bob Rodgers left Leavenworth in 1986 and spent the rest of their lives between Vancouver, WA and Palm Springs, CA. In their later years they came out to their family and friends but it was a 2003 story in the LA Times that made their relationship public. I’ve heard that they got a big laugh from being “outed” at the age of 80!

Bob died in 2014 and Ted died almost exactly one year later. They were always proud of what they and the people of Leavenworth had achieved and have left behind a magical legacy.

John- Leavenworth is successful because everyone worked as a team. They stayed true to the vision and worked together, peaceably, to solve differences. We welcome and celebrate all walks of life and we are grateful for what we have created together.

Jaime- And the legacy continues. What’s next for you?

John- Coco and I are co-chairing the committee to submit an application to the state of Washington to designate Leavenworth as a “Creative District” which will amplify and support the arts here. I’m also hoping to work with local businesses to create some “pop up” theatrical productions around town. I want to get my hands back into theater again. Pride month is upon us so we are planning several events including Drag Bingo at the Adventure Park on June 15th. Admission is free but you need to go online or call to make a reservation.

Jaime- Thank you both for sharing the story of Ted and Bob with me today. I wish you continued success on all of your future big ideas. I think “the Bavarian Boys” would be over the moon to see and experience the joy and happiness of Leavenworth today.

Imagine That!

Jaime Donegan is a theater director who originally hails from Elkhart, Indiana. He has lived most of his life in New York City and Philadelphia but made his way to Wenatchee 25 years ago when he came to direct The Follies, a community show sponsored by the Follies Guild. Jaime has been directing Follies Productions all over the country since 1984 and also co-founded and directed the Hot August Nights Summer Theater at the Numerica Performing Arts Center which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. He is currently “home free” yet feels entirely at home in the Wenatchee Valley. When not directing a show, Jaime is traveling somewhere in the world or pouring wine at Fielding Hills Winery in Chelan.

This article is a product of him not being able to keep his big fucking mouth shut because he lives by the saying “Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.” It gets him in a lot of trouble but he has a lot of fun.