The Tarzan Man

Did you know that Tarzan slept in Coldwater… so to speak? If your answer is no, then you are among the majority, which is why author Michael Hatt set out to spread the news. His book, Tarzan Slept Here, details the time that Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan and world-renowned author, spent in and around Coldwater, a period that spanned 20 years in the early 1900s. Although Burroughs’ life has been detailed in other books, his time spent in Coldwater has been obscure.

Most of us have childhood heroes, but as we grow older those heroes fade into cherished memories. Not for Hatt, who was smitten with Tarzan, the jungle man, at an early age. His fascination, not only with Tarzan but also with author Burroughs himself, continued to pique as the years went by.

Just a young lad in the early 1960s, Hatt thought his hero could only be found in movies and comic strips and on a popular TV show that aired from 1966 to ’68. Imagine his delight one day when he saw someone reading a Tarzan book! After complaining to his mother that he couldn’t find a Tarzan book anywhere, even though he now knew that they were out there, the search was on and so was the quest for anything else that Burroughs wrote.

Finally, they located one and had it sent from New York. Success wasn’t so sweet, though, as he still couldn’t read it. It was a collector’s edition and it is an unsung fact that you NEVER read a collector’s edition, for fear of bending pages, smudging the cover or damaging the book in other ways.

Ace Books solved his dilemma when, in 1963, it was determined that Burroughs’ Tarzan books were in the public domain and they started publishing the works. Burroughs had originally left all rights to his books to his three children. “I could finally read Tarzan books!” Hatt exclaims.

Through the years, Hatt would acquire all 56 Tarzan titles, written by Burroughs, in triplicate; hardback, paperback and first editions. His extensive Burroughs collection is now somewhere between 300 and 500 books, exemplifying just how much he loves all things Tarzan and Burroughs.

Childhood Hero Comes to Life

Working for the postal service, Hatt’s enthusiasm was piqued again when a co-worker from Coldwater, Richard Taylor, told him that Burroughs and his family frequented Coldwater during the early 1900s. “I was ecstatic,” Hatt says. “My hero had actually been here in my backyard on several occasions.”

The spark was ignited and he started to research his beloved author at the library, primarily in the biography Edgar Rice Burroughs, the Man Who Created Tarzan, written by Irwin Porges, another Tarzan fan. However, very little was mentioned about Burroughs’ connection to the Coldwater area. “I wanted to find the farm, the cottages on Morrison Lake and the exact spot where Burroughs had stood,” Hatt says. “I wanted to stand in that spot.”

He made some notes from his research and, though he was excited to start on his quest, life got in the way. During the 1990s, besides working at the Coldwater Post Office, Hatt and his wife, Gloria, and her two sons bought the building at 15 N. Monroe St. and opened a newsstand on the first floor and ran a silk-screening business on the second floor.

“Ironically, The Ink and Paper Place, as it was aptly named, closed in 1996 due to too much business rather than lack of business. My wife’s health had declined and we couldn’t keep up,” Hatt explains. “The other casualty were the notes that I had taken on Burroughs’ life. They got pushed back in a drawer and forgotten.”

Fast forward to 2012. Hatt had retired from the postal service in 2004, had built their new house in the country and the notes resurfaced. Now he not only had the time to pursue the search but the spark was re-lit and, with his wife’s blessing, he decided to “go for it.”

Standing Where His Hero Had Stood

The motivating factor was that he wanted to stand where his hero had stood on Morrison Lake. He also had a burning desire for the public to know the missing piece of the puzzle in Burroughs’ life, his time spent in Coldwater. To accomplish this, Hatt knew he would also have to write a book.

This really wasn’t a big deal because, after all of the ferocious reading he had done, Hatt knew he could write. He just needed to research the particulars. “Finding the spot where Burroughs had stood and writing this book became my new job,” Hatt says.

He would spend 18 months researching, compiling and writing. The Coldwater connection starts in Chicago when Alvin Hulbert, Burroughs’ father-in-law, became friends with Barton S. Tibbits, who would build Tibbits Opera House in Coldwater in 1882. Tibbits urged Hulbert to buy a farm in Coldwater as both an investment and a summer retreat. This farm, which is located just west of Coldwater, became known as Sunnyside Farm.

Burroughs’ family lived near the Hulberts in Chicago and he eventually married Emma, the youngest Hulbert daughter. Although Alvin died suddenly, his widow (who was also named Emma) would retain ownership of the farm for the next 30 years, thus providing the reason for Burroughs and his family to visit Coldwater often.

Emma’s sister Julia provided another twist to the Coldwater connection. Married to Leroy Branch, of the J.B. Branch & Company of Coldwater, she also resided in Coldwater and had a cottage on Morrison Lake. On one excursion to this area, Burroughs decided to pitch a tent in the side yard of this cottage and named it Camp Branch. Thus, the Coldwater connection was born and, in Hatt’s words, “There be Coldwater.”

Hatt saw a picture of Camp Branch in a book on Morrison Lake. Peeking out from the trees in the photo, he saw a glimpse of a dormer window. That would become the key to finding the spot where Burroughs had stood.

Over the course of the next four months, he would try to find the cottage location by tracking down some of the Branch descendants. Each time he talked to one, his hopes were dashed but not squelched; he was repeatedly told that there was no one living today who would know.

Then, he caught a break and discovered that J.B. Branch was one of the leading members of the Knights Templar, which leased five acres on Morrison Lake. Hatt knew that Camp Branch had to be one of the cottages on Templar Beach. Bill Carlson, who had a large postcard collection, added more clues by sharing postcards of Morrison Lake with Hatt.

With pictures in hand, he parked and walked around the lake looking for a cottage with a dormer window. Finally, there it was: He saw a dormer window through a break in the trees. He had found the Branch cottage and Camp Branch was on an adjacent vacant lot. This was where Burroughs had stood. Hatt had a picture of himself taken in the same spot where the famous author had stood so many years before, success at last.

With this mission complete, he talked to Randall Hazelmaker, a Coldwater historian, for any added details. Hatt recalls, “He told me that he couldn’t help me because I already knew everything about Burroughs! It was time to start writing.”

A Book is Born

Thus, Tarzan Slept Here was born. The only thing about the book that isn’t from Hatt’s soul is the title. Brian Bohnett, principle of Mad Kings Publishing (publisher of the book), published author, himself an expert and fan of Burroughs and also a close friend of Hatt, suggested the catchy title.

The jacket cover is a different story and was carefully chosen by Hatt. “Burroughs and his family had planned to camp all the way from Chicago to Maine at one point. The photo on the cover is of campsite #4 which was in Rolling Prairie, IN. I chose this photo because it captures the Burroughs’ lives on their way to Coldwater, where they made a life-changing decision.”

So much a fan of Tarzan and his author, Hatt hosted the annual Edgar Rice Burroughs gathering in 2017. The annual event, held at different locations each year, is appropriately called “Dum Dum,” which means “a gathering of great apes at night.”

Hatt’s three-day event, known as Coldwater Dum Dum 2017, was held at The Quality Inn in Coldwater and saw 105 Burroughs enthusiasts show up, including two from England and the staff of Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. from Tarzana, Burroughs’ home in California. Like a swap meet, they all brought photos and memorabilia to browse, swap and sell.

“It was great,” Hatt beams. “The highlight was the bus tour. I rented two Coldwater school buses and drivers. We saw the Sunnyside farm, North Woods Coffee Company, which is now where the former J.B. Branch store was, and then we went to Camp Branch. Everyone got to have their picture taken on the spot where Burroughs once stood, just like I did. That was definitely the highlight of the event!”

Hatt poured his own money and sweat into making the event a reality. Asked if he would venture to host the gathering another year, he grinned with a little uncertainty. “I loved every minute of it but it takes passion and drive to do a project like this.”

Incidentally, the Tarzan poster that Hatt used for his Coldwater Dum Dum event featured an aero submarine that Burroughs named “The Coldwater.” It is from his book Beyond 30, which he wrote in Coldwater. “All the pieces of the puzzle just fall together when you do a little research,” Hatt said.

Thanks to Hatt’s passion, drive and perseverance in all things Burroughs, the famed author’s connection to Coldwater has finally been documented and folks now know that Tarzan really did sleep here. How does Hatt feel about his accomplishment? In his words, “It was exciting and a good, warm feeling. There was a whole part of his life that was ignored and I brought it to light.”

It turns out that Hatt does enjoy writing and is planning an addition to the book. So, what is the rest of the story? Hatt smiles, “That part is to be continued… !”