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Magic Carpet unravels

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A razor-thin line separates eccentric from eyesore. What one may view as quirky and unique, another may see as a heap of concrete and chicken wire.

Such are the views of Magic Carpet Golf, 6125 E. Speedway, and the giant and goofy structures that adorn the landscape of the two 18-hole miniature golf courses, which are closed.

The amusement center has been on East Speedway for more than 30 years — when North Wilmot Road was on the eastern edge of town.

The Star's Jack Gillum reported last week that Magic Carpet was sold on Jan. 4 for $1.8 million to Tempe-based JCMC LLC, which is listed as a corporate member of Chapman Automotive Group LLC. The former owner, Carol Koplin, sold the business after her uncle, course manager Mel Williams, died before Christmas.

David Bower, Chapman Automotive's chief financial officer, told Gillum that Magic Carpet could become an overflow lot for the auto dealership, but there is still no final plan for the site or its statues.

Magic Carpet and all its quirkiness offered a reprieve to the homogenous strip malls and architecture that sometimes make Tucson streets seem like they could be in Anytown, U.S.A.

While Magic Carpet has fallen into disrepair, there is a sense that our community is losing — again — another piece of what sets it apart from other cities. The notion of bulldozing a piece of Tucson's past for a parking lot is disheartening.

State Rep. Steve Farley, D-Tucson, is trying to preserve a few of Magic Carpet's signature pieces. Gillum reported Friday that Farley is talking with the property's new owners and encouraging them to designate the statues as part of the Arizona Centennial Project, a historic-preservation efforts linked to a celebration of the state's 100th birthday in 2012.

Farley's idea, which is worth pursuing, is to make Valley of the Moon, another Tucson oddity falling into disrepair, the permanent or temporary home of the Magic Carpet structures. Valley of the Moon, at 2544 E. Allen Road, is a fantasy theme park built in the 1920s. It recently held a fund-raiser aimed at raising $500,000 to keep it from closing.

Farley said in Friday's Star he'd send the combined project to the Centennial Project for approval. There's no money yet — state officials said they don't know how funding would apply to designated projects.

This is, however, a creative way to help Tucson retain some of its unique structures and its sense of place and history.

Farley, an artist by trade, created the jawdropping tile murals depicting scenes of Tucson's past at the Broadway underpass Downtown.

Magic Carpet evokes memories of days when miniature golf courses peppered Tucson. In the 1970s, East Speedway was a hot spot for golf competition because Kenny's Green Acres Miniature Golf Course was right across the street from Magic Carpet. If Kenny's were too busy, one could slip across the street to Magic Carpet. In the early 1980s, you could play Pong — a forerunner to today's high-tech, highly polished video games — in the arcade between Magic Carpet's two courses.

Magic Carpet as an entertainment attraction is finished. However, the treasures that are the quirky structures and memories of days when avoiding a swinging monkey's tail was first-date entertainment can survive. Farley's effort to preserve the structures is a worthy endeavor.

For more information on the state's centennial plan go to www.azcentennial.gov