Tamawaca Folks: A Summer Comedy

"Tamawaca Folks" was published privately by L. Frank Baum under the pen name John Estes Cooke. It is a semi-fictional, semi-factual, account of the summer community located at Macatawa Park, Michigan, where Baum purchased a summer home in 1900, with the proceeds from his first hit, Father Goose. He nicknamed the house "the Sign of the Goose" in honor of the book. The book concerns Jarrod, a lawyer, who comes to town for the summer. He purchases a house there, but soon learns that Tamawaca's current owners are corrupt. Wilder is an outgoing businessman, while his partner, Easton, is elderly and religious. Jarrod soon learns that the partners have double-sold some lots, built cottages in the middle of public streets, and have failed to clean up public lands or fix public streets. They charge the residents for all services, including water, electricity, grocery, and ferry transport. Jarrod organizes Tamawaca's cottage owners and they purchase the resort from Wilder and Easton. L. FRANK BAUM is the creator of "The Wizard of Oz" series of children's books as well as other fantasies. His young adult books and adult novels were written under a variety of pen names. "Tamawaca Folks" used the by-line of John Estes Cooke.