It is easy to wax nostalgic about the Googie styling of the motels and signage of the Disneyland

area, but by the 1980s many of these places had become fleabag crackhouse residence for

sketchy characters who paid for weekly and long term rental.

The Golden Forest along with the Pitcairn and Caravan were among of the worst of these places.

I often saw police cars responding to calls at many of the motels I lived near back then.

This section contrasts the promise of early 70s tourism brochures for the Golden Forest to

photographs taken in 2000 by my brother Ray Stapf, who always had an eye for the surreal.

He took the photographs when the place was closed for renovations and fortunately many of the

features that were unique to this place had not been demolished yet.

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