The Blue Top property was patented by Joe Hall and eventually sold to Elmer and Italy Mahan (as was Kitzmiller's and Moody's Resorts property). The Mahans sold it to Frank Fortman on December 14, 1956. The Mahans owned most of "Downtown" Pontiac at one time. I remember the Fortmans. They owned the resort for nearly 20 years, during the same time my family owned our resort and through the early years that my family owned the boat dock. The Fortmans sold the resort to Benedict Dowjotas on October 11, 1974.
I don't remember much about the Dowjotas family, probably because they only owned the resort for a year. They sold it to Tom Tice on August 27, 1975. I didn't know Tom Tice, but his daughter and son-in-law ran the resort. Steve and Jenny Purcell were very active in the community. We became good friends with the Purcells. Steve, along with Guy Resch, owner of the local restaurant, and I worked a lot together in the off-season. We built a few houses in Pontiac and did a lot of roofing projects, including the funeral home in Gainesville. (Not much has changed - if you want to be in the resort business in Pontiac, you need to have another job for the off-season.) In the late 1970s, when Guy Johnson became ill and then died, his longtime store closed. Steve and his family built a new store. They worked very hard to keep what you needed in their store and provided a much needed service for the Pontiac residents.
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| The grocery store at Blue Top as it looks today: now the Pontiac Post Office. |
Tom Tice sold the resort to Marvin and Joan Iseminger on November 20, 1979. The cabins have been sold off individually, and the grocery store was bought by Howard Hagist and converted to the Pontiac Post Office. Marvin passed away, but Joan still owns and operates the mobile home park.
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| Marvin Iseminger. |
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| Joan Iseminger, center. |
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