Dear Friends, Family, & Readers:
Here is another post of random things I enjoy doing on Saipan. This particular post is about a place on Saipan known to locals as “Cowtown.” It is a place in the jungle off of the Banzai cliff walking and bike trail that was supposedly owned by the late millionaire Larry Hillblom. Many rumors exist about Hillblom some true and some not so true. After doing some research here is what you need to know about Larry Hillblom. He was the founder of DHL which is the world’s largest courier service. They are the guys that drive the yellow vans that say DHL on them. The company portrait on their website, DHL.com, does not tell a person much about the company other than the fact that it has branched out over the years to include 4 unique service divisions ranging from IT services to shipping solutions.
The biggest thing to know about Hillblom is that he would stay on Saipan frequently and was a kind of a wild man who enjoyed the local women of Saipan. Over his time here he is purported to have fathered numerous children by local girls and women. Many of the women he had children by were very young because he was known to be fearful of disease. Sources say various things about Hillblom, but from what I can piece together is that regardless of how many children he truly had by various women the total currently is eight women have claimed to have had children by him and their children are entitled to a portion of his $650 million estate. From what I have read online he was a resident of California and because he did not write his children out of his will many have come forward claiming to be his progeny.
Larry Hillblom died in a plane crash on May 21, 1995 off the Anatahan coast. Anatahan is one of the most active volcanoes in the Mariana Islands chain and is located 75 miles north of Saipan.
These pictures are:
1. A building he supposedly owned, which is now falling apart and is full of spiders and wasps. Local rumors are that he would bring girls to this house.
2. The huge boat that is sitting on a rusted out boat trailer, which he probably owned.
3. A picture of what are known locally as “cooking bananas.” This picture was taken on the path that leads to an opening in the jungle below the dilapidated house. I don’t know if he planted them or if they grew naturally. Although cooking bananas are not very sweet many Filipinos on the island make various dishes with them, sometimes they are even eaten as a snack. I have had them in snack form, but I think I have been spoiled by the large Dole bananas we buy in the U.S.A.
4. Two of the pictures are of rusted out truck flatbeds that lie in the jungle being eaten by the salty rain water and creeping jungle vines.
Note: I’m not sure exactly why they call it cow town besides the fact that there is a shed behind the house that has some oil drums and gas containers etc. Some have told me that they used to have mini-rodeos at the location and it is possible as there is cow fencing at the location, but not sure who placed it there (As of yet I’m not convinced without further photo proof and articles online).
p.s. Future posts by me will be on the End of Eco Camp in two weeks and WWII stuff.
Time in Saipan:
Cowtown actually was a resort of sorts in 1990. I worked there as a bartender and ran the golfing drive range that they had. They had a rodeo with cowboys they brought in from Idaho and small Hotel and restaurant that I lived in. Japaneese tourists came in droves and on weekends the rodeo became a theatre with a drive in screen and showed good movies. There were lots of horses and cows and the cowboys roped and rode and did a show. I believe the 3rd picture was the place the contruction workers lived in at the time. It was a beautiful place I strange that no one bought it. I was only there for a couple months but boy do I have memories...We even had Monday night Football with the current game flown in from somewhere every monday night, only place on the island! It was a crazy bar when I was there. All the big wigs on the island were there. The bar was beautiful with lots of mirrors and wood, the prime ribb was some of the best I ever had and I had it every night just about. The people running were probably not the best choice....
ReplyDeleteI got to Saipan in 1991. The restaurant was still open at the time and it was clear from the design that Cowtown was originally going to be a brothel. Larry designed it as a main dining area and bar with a second floor balcony that went all the way around and was visible from the first level (a catwalk of sorts). On the second floor, there were rooms where a young gentleman could take a young lady if the price was right. The prostitution part of Cow Town ended long before I got there. It was still open for business as a restaurant. They had good food. More importantly (and the best thing about Cow Town at the time), was Monday Night movie night. In the corral where they did the rodeos, they had bleachers. On Mondays, they did outdoor movies for a fee. You sat in the corral bleachers and they played movies on a screen. It was fun, but it was summer and really hot. Also, the reason the brothel part was closed was because Larry was a Special Judge for the CNMI courts. Local officials took Larry aside and told him he could not be both a judge and a purveyor of illegal prostitution.
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