Lava lamp dreams come true

SOAP LAKE, Wash. – The Soap Lake City Council has reached agreement with Target Stores to move the company’s giant lava lamp from New York City’s Times Square to this central Washington town.

Target will dismantle the 50-foot lamp Nov. 29 for shipment, said Brent Blake, president and CEO of the Soap Lake Giant Lava Lamp Project. He figures the trip west will take about a week.

The group has been hoping for a couple of years to revive Soap Lake’s fading tourist fortunes with the world’s largest functional lava lamp – a giant version of the 1960s fad fixture featuring gently undulating globs of glowing goo.

People used to travel to this town of about 1,275 people – about 110 miles west of Spokane – to take mineral waters and coat themselves with healing mud, but the waters aren’t the draw they once were.

Mayor Wayne Hovde said the lamp will be placed at a location selected by the community and approved by the council.

Townspeople must raise the money to erect it, Hovde said.

“I’m excited about it. I think it’s going to be a very good boost, something that will draw a lot of attention and a lot of visitors,” he said.

The Target version – with the company’s trademark bulls-eye inside – is a bit smaller than the 60-footer Blake had hoped for, but he says it will do “until we can, if ever, figure out how to raise money to build the real thing.”

“Soap Lake in effect gets a giant lava lamp, and that was the original goal and it’s now going to happen,” he said. “The dream’s been realized.”