Famous Arnold Park Candy Shop Relocating to Myrtle Beach
Source: Omaha.com
It's the end of a 90-year tradition at Iowa's West Lake Okoboji.
Fans of the Black Walnut Candy Shop won't have its locally made taffy to chew on anymore — at least not sticky stuff made on site as it has been by the same Arnolds Park family since 1919.
Next weekend, owner Kathy Jordan is packing up her 103-year-old kiss wrap machine and taffy puller. She's taking the business started by her Greek immigrant grandfather to Myrtle Beach, S.C., where she expects more sunny days and, presumably, more sweet tooth traffic.
The move from the lakeshore retail corridor of the Historic Arnolds Park amusement park — which draws hordes of tourists including Omahans — was spurred by a combination of factors.
Now 60, Jordan said she feels better than ever and wants to work a longer season. She said her expenses and rent have risen.
Moreover, the tourist destination where she was born has changed. And Jordan said she is ready for one, too.
“It was great growing up here, we loved it,” said Jordan. “Things change. Change is good sometimes.”
Indeed, the family-run operation has witnessed many shifts over the nine decades since Jordan's grandfather, Frank Lagios, opened a corner store a stone's throw from the lake.
The biggest boon came during the decades of the 1950s and 1960s. By then, Jordan's father, Emmett Jordan, had taken over and expanded offerings to include such treats as nut rolls, fudges and caramel apples.
“On a holiday weekend, he would sell 12 boxes of caramel apples — with 138 apples to a box,” said Kathy Jordan. “Now we sell two, maybe three.”
Tourism thinned during the 1980s. Jordan, who had been raised around the shop with her brother and sister, had been its boss for two years when, in 1988, an area philanthropist revamped the amusement park and moved her candy-making operation to a better spot.
Community members a decade later saved the amusement park from a South Dakota developer's plan to turn it into an upscale residential area. Their fundraising led to the formation of the Historic Arnolds Park Inc., which today oversees the festival rides, retail corridor, Queen II steamboat and 25-acre entertainment site on the southern shore of West Lake Okoboji.
Park officials have strived to retain the traditional nature of the Coney Island-style amusement center, said to be the oldest west of the Mississippi River, said Tom Kuhlman, director of the Iowa Great Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce.
The old wooden roller coaster still rattles over the Mirror Maze and Tipsy House attractions that have dizzied generations of park-goers. Ferris wheel riders get a bird's eye view of the choo-choo train as it chugs past old-school carnival games.
Specialty shops, including Jordan's and another that features popular ice cream nutty bars, line the adjoining retail strip.
Kuhlman said a million tourists are drawn each year to the county in which Arnolds Park is located. He said there aren't many amusement parks that overlook a lake and resort area.
“It still creates memories,” he said.
Jordan, however, said the area doesn't have the same nostalgic feeling she remembers.
High-priced properties have nudged out small shoreline cabins. Condominiums have multiplied.
Jordan has tried to draw in new generations of kids with contemporary confections such as chocolate-covered gummy worms, cotton candy and her latest concoction: the Okoboji candy bar.
For the health and environmentally conscious, Jordan offered dipped strawberries, taffy without preservatives. The store used recycled bags.
Customers of all ages marveled at original machinery that pulled and stretched a syrupy mixture into taffy before cutting and wrapping it into edible bites.
It's an experience Jonathan Reed will miss.
He recalled the ancient copper melting kettle, colorful rows of delicacies, his own daughter landing a summer job there.
“I'm sorry on a number of levels,” said Reed, who has a house by the park. “It's many years of history going away.”
Jordan recalls as her favorite times the years her grandchildren helped at the cash register.
The varied generations of workers behind the counter reflected the varied generations of families who came to buy store sweets. Jordan giggled at the memories.
Youngsters would come in expecting commercial stuff like Laffy Taffy. Their parent or grandparent would make them buy cheesecake-on-a-stick or taffy Jordan made on the spot.
They'd soon appreciate it. “The kids would go, ‘wow,' ” said Jordan.
A dozen or so parties have looked, but none offered to buy the business, which in recent years added “Okoboji Candy Company” to its sign.
Its signature black walnut taffy will still be available from Jordan by special order. The recipe handed down by Jordan's grandpa remains a family secret.
If they were alive today, Jordan believes, her grandfather and parents would be proud she will continue the tradition, even if it is in another state.
She said her greatest sense of nostalgia comes from working on equipment that outlived her grandfather and parents.
“There is no reason,” she said, “that I can't go on and be nostalgic standing behind it somewhere else.”
Contact the writer:
444-1224, cindy.gonzalez@owh.com
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