Takilma's Tree House Hotels Take a Bough (2 of 2) - Takilma, Oregon

Takilma's Tree House Hotels Take a Bough

Takilma, Oregon


Luckily for Robert and other similar guests, they can learn how to build their own arboreal mansions at Out 'n' About. At the tree house institute, each treemusketeer is invited to engage in a "specialtree course," such as Treeology 1, which explains basic engineering, design and construction methods, or Treehouse Construction, where they can learn how to construct their own Peacock Perch or Swiss Family.

Other specialtree classes include horseback riding, rafting on the Illinois River and the Ropes Course, a favorite among most treemusketeers. The Ropes Course allows guests to rope climb their way to the top of a 52-foot oak (the tree that inspired Garnier to buy the property in the first place) and then zip across a 160-foot cable to the landing area where they can shimmy their way back down to the ground.

Although the Ropes Course is a fun and relatively new addition to the specialtree courses, it was actually constructed several years ago for much more serious reasons. As reported in The Roanoke Times, July 1, 2001, the cable was originally rigged from the towering oak to Garnier's bedroom window, as an emergency escape route in case the local officials of Josephine County ever came to arrest him in the middle of the night. According to Garnier, his bed and breakfast in the branches stirred up quite a "contreeversy" between himself and the county.

"It is my belief that some people did not want an environmentally friendly, subculture business to succeed here," said Garnier. Because Takilma is so rich in natural resources and unscathed scenery, the main concern of Garnier's neighbors was that too many visitors could be harmful to their habitat.

On the other hand, Josephine County was more concerned with the tree houses themselves, as opposed to the guests that might be staying in them. Before even the first tree house was built in 1990, Building and Safety told Garnier that he couldn't even apply for a building permit because they didn't have any construction codes for building tree houses. But that didn't stop him from continuing to build. "I found something that I liked to do and I was going to be damned if I was going to quit," he said.

Garnier, whose inspiration for a tree house hotel came after building a tree house for his kids, fought a 10-year battle with the county in order to legalize his unique aerial abodes. During this time Garnier was ordered several times to tear down the tree houses, but because they were never condemned or judged unsafe, he refused.

Instead he went to Salem and picked up a State Building Board directive, telling the county that building permits could be acquired for unique and unusual buildings such as tree houses if structural integrity could be proved. Therefore, on July 4, 1994, Garnier hosted his first annual Takilma Tree Party for a "stress test." Sixty-six people, three dogs and a cat piled into the Peacock Perch for a total weight of 10,664 pounds. The building permit was still denied.

Nonetheless, Garnier remained undaunted. He stubbornly argued that if kids were allowed to have friends stay in their tree houses, he should be allowed to have friends stay in his tree houses as well.

After some extensive coercing, Former Building Department Director, Frank Hunnicutt, finally agreed to let Garnier have "friends" stay in his tree houses, and Garnier was quick to make as many "friends" as possible. But, because he was still lacking the proper building permits and bed and breakfast license, he was not able to charge them for his accommodations. Instead he charged them $70 to $125 for souvenir "tree shirts" as a way of circumventing the law.

Garnier, who enjoyed feeling a little bit like a bed and breakfast bandit during his 101-year stint with the county, actually feared that once the tree houses were legal they would lose some of their luster. Much to the contrary however, since Out 'N' About gained legal recognition in the summer of 2001 business has been booming, and Takilma has become a regular stop for tree house lovers and kids at heart.

"If you love the outdoors, you'll have a good time here," said Peggy Malone, Garnier's significant other and part-time manager of Out 'N' About. Treemusketeers love visiting with each other late at night over the open campfire and amidst the sea of suspended log cabins. Tree house stories and childhood secrets are recounted with such vigor that to the deaf ear it would almost seem as though war stories were being exchanged. And, as if they were still 10 years old, the Treemusketeers watch as the fire crackles and burns out, waiting in anticipation for the sun to rise, so that they can run through the grass and climb trees and feel like a kid again.

For more information on Out 'N' About, visit their website: www.treehouses.com.

Read Part One of Takilma's Tree House Hotels Take a Bough