Hawaii-themed trailer park
becomes gated community
BENTON, Mo. >> "Trailer park."
"Gated community."
Polar opposites? Not at the Ferrell Mobile Home Park.
"You can call it Ferrell Trailer Park if you like," manager Dave Selvig said. "Whatever you call it, it's different."
The park opened 25 years ago, looking like the typical perception of a mobile home community. An aerial photo in the main office shows tiny lawns and single-wide trailers with narrow gravel drives.
But in 1999, park owner Glyn Ferrell -- son of the original owners -- went upscale.
Today, the park's approximately 200 residents enjoy many of the things found in an exclusive housing development.
Large black iron gates guard the entrances to the park, allowing only residents and staff to enter.
"Putting in the gates wasn't really in response to a problem," Selvig said. "It was just taking care of a problem before it ever got out of hand. Now you know who's driving down the street."
Inspired by his trips to Hawaii, Ferrell decided to adopt a Hawaiian motif for the park. He decorated the manager's office with a stone fountain beneath a mural of a tropical beach sunset. His office upstairs features replicas of the 350-pound blue marlins he has caught on deep-sea fishing trips.
Signs point the way to Maui Drive, Mauna Kea Drive and Keolani (Hawaiian for "tranquility") Court.
Tranquility was high on Jim Taylor's wish list when he moved to the park.
"Nobody driving through, blasting their music," said Taylor, a retired railroad worker. "When it's bedtime, it's bedtime."
Driving down one of the park's main streets, one can see a wooden playground modeled on a park in Kona. Streetlights sprout out of beds of red and black lava rocks. A three-tier lagoon system separates the developed part of the property, which has about 70 homes over 40 acres.
"Our lagoon and sewer system are bigger than Benton's," Selvig said.
The remaining 40 acres of the park are undeveloped, but Selvig said the high cost of housing might lead more people to move there.
Many double- and triple-wide versions of luxury manufactured and mobile homes can offer as much space as a regular three-bedroom house.
"With mobile homes, they can get all the same stuff for a third of the price," Selvig said.