From then to Now

Excerpt from Where the Road Ends, Havasu Palms...Recipes & Remembrances

           For the first three years at Havasu Palms, my parents spent behind the scene time attempting to negotiate with the BLM for a long-term lease, in order to secure developing funding. While they waited for the elusive long term lease, and continued to pour thousands of dollars into a master plan, there were day to day tasks that needed to be done, and since there was very little extra cash, those tasks fell to family and often to friends
          Every service at Havasu Palms was supplied by the resort. The water system, sewer system, trash disposal, and road maintenance fell on Havasu Palms management. It seemed in those early years (and sometimes even now) that water pipes needed to be repaired on a daily basis, sewer lines needed continual unclogging, and the trash was picked up by barrel.
             My sister, Lynn, and I took control of the store. We scooped water dogs, counted minnows and night crawlers, cut 25 pound blocks of ice, and in the summer, took dips in the lake between customers. The first season we painted the store a dull tan and adorned its front with brightly colored hippie flowers. Lynn remove the disgusting fish heads from the tool shack and began hauling debris from the store via a small red wagon. She had just graduated midterm from high school and plan to attend college in the fall
            Walt and my cousin, Rod Wilkerson, began clearing away the trail of junk along the roadside. When Dad wasn’t repairing antiquated tractors and trucks he was clearing away brush for campsites and repairing boat docks. Caroline not only shared in the office work, she cooked for the crew and worked alongside Dad clearing campsites and doing whatever needed to be done.
            In those days we had camping, and registration took place in the store. If it was a holiday weekend, campers would often register from dusk till dawn. There was something exciting about sitting on the store's stone porch at 2 a.m. watching the people and making friends during the hectic Easter holidays of the late 60s and early 70s..
           It was a bit terrifying for my mother, who was shy, to be placed behind the store counter and forced to deal with customers. Yet, she had the help of family and old friends like Margaret and George Wilkerson, Elmer and Aggie County, Gene and Margaret Mushinskie, and new Havasu friends like Oma and Aubrey Head, Joy and Leon Weatherhead, Charlie and Ordelia Lloyd, and Pearl O’Malley.
           The long term lease never materialized, major funding was never a possibility, and so the original master-planned was abandoned and Walt moved forward, drawing his own plans, digging his own ditches and building his dream with his own two hands. Crucial to the developments that were made was the assistance Walt received from one Havasu Palms owner, Walt's partner and cousin in law, Luanne Paul King, who helped obtain private development financing from her family.

            By 1973 Havasu Palms added a hundred mobile home sites. Two years later another 27 sites were developed. The new store was completed by Easter of 1978. I recall hanging wallpaper just hours before the beginning of the holiday week.
            In 1981 Walt completed Road’s End Restaurant. Not only did he designed and build the building, he bartended and cooked. Together, with Caroline, Walt designed the menu and developed the business into one of the most popular restaurants in the Havasu area.
             Walt died of congestive heart failure on December 10, 1992. Even now, as I write this in 1995, I often hear Walt stories at the bar. Although the stories are a bit exaggerated, they tell of a generous man who could tackle any task; he was an inventor, problem solver, builder, master chef and bartender, and had one hell of a sense of humor.
             When the leasehold was turned over to the tribe in 1974 Havasu Palms was promised a long-term lease if they didn't contest the land transfer. Yet a new lease wasn't secured until 1984 and that was for a 10 year lease with a five-year option. Since being placed on the reservation, Havasu Palms and its tenets no longer have all of their constitutional rights and must abide by the dictates of the Chemehuevi Tribe without the benefit of any representation.
              As I write this the lease term is about to come to an end, there is a little less than four years remaining. My husband, Don and I, now manage Havasu Palms. The Corporation continues to negotiate with the tribe for a new lease, yet the outcome is uncertain.
              Without with or without a lease our family has no regrets. It has been one hell of a ride, one hell of an adventure. We've met wonderful people forge lasting relationships and the stories we could tell!

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Havasu Palms’ lease with the Chemehuevi Tribe expired in 1999. The Tribe, which refused to negotiate with Havasu Palms for a new lease, seized much of Havasu Palms’ personal property in 1999 – a direct violation of terms set forth in the lease between the two parties. Havasu Palms Inc. went to Federal Arbitration with the Tribe, and although the judgment was in favor of Havasu Palms, the federal government later set aside the judgment, stating it was not in the best interest of the Tribe.