Detour - The Mystery of The Lone Toilet
A water-logged marsh along highway 37, just west of Vallejo, California contains an object that perplexes, repulses and
fascinates passing travelers.
This is the story of The Lone Toilet.
The rhythm of passing cars is constant.
A single porcelain toilet, encased in a battered wooden outhouse, stands stoically amidst the deep mud and wild shrubs off the
highway.
It has no front door. No path to reach it. No obvious reason for existing.
This lonely, highway-facing, thought provoking latrine, puzzles passing cars fortunate enough to briefly glimpse at the
greatest toiletry mystery Highway 37 has to offer.
Then stirs the feeling infinite, so felt In solitude, where we are least alone.
-Lord Byron
Duck noises
San Pablo wildlife refuge is home to millions of ducks, migrating birds and exactly one… reclusive… toilet…
Theories come to mind, from a couple of ambitious pranksters to remnants of an old hiking trail lodge, but the truth is much … much,
more bizarre.
You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous
land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop, A Toilet!
The answer behind the mystery of the lone toilet can be found in Wally Lourdeaux, the grandson…of the man… who built the
toilet in the 1920’s…
Lourdeaux insists that the toilet isn’t just a single eclectic artifact… it instead is last standing remains of an entire community.
A town, now known as Tubbs island…
With the Lone Toilet as its sole survivor.
Music
I can't see myself ever spending hundreds of thousands on anything that doesn't come with a toilet.
- Dr. Dre
Tubbs Island.
The town that paved the way for the now infamous toilet, was started by two brothers.
San Francisco businessmen, Hiram and Alfred Tubbs.
Upon moving west together they started a business, one sorely needed along the west coast at the time, a rope company.
Scarcity leads to success in business, so, being one of the few rope producers in the area, Tubbs Cordage Company quickly became the largest rope producer around.
So here’s a question; what happens with success, stress and expendable income?
Vacation homes! Or in the brothers case, a large series of buildings in a reclaimed San Pablo bay salt marsh that would later grow into the town later known as Tubbs Island.
There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven’t yet met.
- William Butler Yeats
Perhaps more interesting than the toilet itself is… it’s modified purpose.
While most toilets are built to encourage privacy, the Lone toilet, was built. To. socialize.
Wally Lourdeaux’s grandfather carved two holes on either side of the toilet. The purpose of these holes were to make it easier to talk with neighbors while reliving yourself.
Noises
Toilet flush …. Saw noises…
Scared person….
Well hello there!
Come back, I just want to talk!
Noises
A true latrinian socialite, haha!
If you’re thinking to yourself, “who would want to converse while blowing up a toilet”
” We’ll you are far from the only one…. BUT shockingly, many neighbors would use the toilet.
One neighbor, a bohemian artist named “Richard ‘Fresh Air Dick’ Janson" would frequent the toilet.
And his story is actually worth a quick dive into, Dick was an orphan who found himself traveling the world on a sailboat, he was known for sleeping out
on the deck of the boat - which is where he got the name “Fresh Air Dick”…. Upon docking in San Fransisco Bay at the age of 26, Dick became known for his eclectic lifestyle.
To make money, Dick put his artistic skills to work by making wooden decoy ducks for hunters in the are.
His skillset was so unique and revealed that people would flock to watch him carve his detailed ducks at Tubbs Islands - although the workshop along
with the town itself are now under several feet of mud and water.
The ducks are now collector’s items and one can imagine “Fresh Air Dick” getting his best duck carving ideas while shitting, excuse me sitting, on the
town toilet conversing with his favorite neighbors.
You're now leaving this latrinian dimension, a dimension not only of ducks and toilets but of conversations. A journey from a lost town whose lone relic encourages imagination.
You’re now back on the highway, leaving behind the now solved, mystery of the lone toilet!
While Wally Lourdeaux’s grandfather, “Fresh Air Dick”, the Tubbs brothers and the town they inspired fade into relative obscurity, but The lone Toilet remains- standing stoically alongside highway 37 - remains a testament to a peculiar way of life flushed down the latrine of history.
Thank you for joining us on this detour at Backroad Odyssey,