Neverland a mecca for media, fans

RICK BOWMER / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Enlarge Image 

Alexander Greve, 29, of Berlin, Germany, takes photographs at the gates of Neverland Ranch Friday.

LOS OLIVOS, Calif. -- Ever since Michael Jackson died, Al Williams had been begged by his family to take them to Neverland Ranch. And each day, Williams, 42, a roofer from San Bernardino, said no, that there were too many people crowded outside Neverland's gates.

On Thursday night, he gave in.

Williams, his wife Josie and their two children woke up at 4 a.m. Friday and piled into their car for the three-hour drive to Jackson's fabled Santa Barbara County hideaway.

When they arrived at the two-lane, winding Figueroa Mountain Road in the hills of Los Olivos, they passed news trucks with huge satellite dishes parked on both sides of the street, vendors selling commemorative T-shirts and bottled water, and joined throngs of fans who wanted to pay tribute to the late pop star.

The Williams family took a picture in front of Neverland's black gates, and Josie Williams, 40, a child care worker, said: "Just knowing that there's where he was living, it was exciting to be there."

Since Jackson's death on June 25 in Los Angeles, dozens of journalists and hundreds of fans have travelled to his 2,600-acre estate.

At Corner House Coffee in Los Olivos, clerks kept a list of countries journalists had come from -- including Venezuela, Poland, Germany and Belgium -- to poach their wireless Internet and eat their sandwiches.

While CNN's Larry King interviewed Jackson's older brother Jermaine inside the ranch on Thursday and NBC's Matt Lauer took viewers on a tour of the estate, fans left flowers and wrote messages like "Michael, You gave us Magic, Love, Dreams!!! I'll love you eternally" on large whiteboards.

Some pitched tents and sat on fold-out chairs watching the action, others posted signs that said "Your Mexican fans will never forget you," "Gone too soon" and "Spain loves you."

"We brush our teeth right here," said Belen Morales of Los Angeles, who was standing on a slope of grass near the ranch on Friday.

Morales, 14, her older brother and a friend drove to the ranch in a 1988 pickup truck and arrived at 2 a.m. Wednesday.

They said they did not believe media reports that there would be no public viewing or burial at the ranch.

"We're still thinking that they're going to bring him here," she said.

A spokesman for the ranch said Neverland would close its gates to media Friday and conduct no events until after Tuesday's memorial.

Nearby, 22-year-old Jason Osborne of Santa Maria, sold white T-shirts for $15 that said "I paid my respects at Neverland." Osborne said he was there to "make a buck of course, but I want to be part of it somehow. Give people something to remember."

Mike Ortiz, 34, a cook between jobs from Lompoc, who was wearing a black Michael Jackson T-shirt, said he and his wife planned to stay outside the ranch "until it's all over."

"Being here is priceless," Ortiz said.

-- Los Angeles Times

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 4, 2009 C2