

Via
Water
Excerpt
from Where the Road Ends, Havasu Palms...Recipes & Remembrances
Road's End Restaurant employees affectionately referred to Havasu Palms
as Gilligan's Island. And it can certainly seem that way, when
travel by land is rugged and the most common access is via water.
Yet, in the early years commuting by boat was not a practical
alternative. Lake Havasu city was in its infancy, it had few
businesses and no high school. Because of Parker Dam, there was no
way to reach Parker by water.
Parker was where Havasu
Palms first shopped. It took a long dusty hour to travel the 28
miles from Havasu Palms to Parker, Arizona. During the first half
of 1968, Caroline and her daughter, Lynn, would often drive Bobbi to
school in Parker Dam, then head to Parker's General store, where they
would purchase candy, groceries and other dry goods for the Havasu Palms
store. When Bobbi would occasionally join one of the shopping
expeditions, she felt as if she been transported back in time.
Accustomed to the supermarkets of Southern California, she was amazed to
find denims and overalls, and other dry goods being sold the market.
What a new
grocery store was built near the current location of Lake Havasu city's
Holiday Inn, Havasu Palms and its tenant began occasionally shopping by
water. Yet it was not easy. Boating around the peninsula now
the island, shoppers tied up on the undeveloped shoreline and hiked up
to the grocery store.
By the
time Lake Havasu High School was built in 1969, Walt had grown very
weary of transporting his youngest daughter, Bobbi, over to Parker Dam,
where she would catch the bus to Parker. Lynn, who had originally
driven Bobbi to school, had gone off to college and Bobbi was now a high
school. Bobbi transferred to the then new Lake Havasu High School
for the beginning of her sophomore year in 1969. Walt assured
Caroline that he would boat their daughter to and from Lake Havasu City
each weekday. There was not yet a paved road from Lake Havasu City
to Bill Williams Bridge.
Many of the new students who attended Lake Havasu High School during
that first year in 1969 had attended school in Kingman. Others
were new in town, as a high school offered jobs for their parents and
Holly development was busy pushing the land rush in to Lake Havasu city.
It would not be until October of 1971 that the London Bridge would
officially opened
The first
crop of Lake Havasu High School students had the unique opportunity to
each began on equal footing. Even those new to town did not have
to feel like outsiders. A unique demographic factor was that
students were from just about every state in the union. This
helped to broaden and distinguish the student body.
After the first week of
school Walt and Bobbi were boating back to the Palms. Just as they
reached the 5 mile marker at the Havasu Palms shoreline, their boat
died. Within moments after the engine failed, the wind suddenly
kicked up and instantly churned the calm water into white caps. As
Walt unsuccessfully toyed with the engine the storm pushed their craft
away from their destination into a distant cove.
During that particular storm, her boat, the Red Baron, was
washed ashore where its hull plummeted relentlessly on the beach,
causing permanent damage. From then on, Bobbi was forced to bail
out the boat each morning before leaving for school.
As the years went on and Lake Havasu City grew, Havasu Palms began to
rely more on the city across the water and less on Parker. When
the Roads End Restaurant was built, Havasu Palms discovered the only
practical way to obtain supplies was to transport them by supply boat.
Each week the Havasu pontoon boat can be seen transporting goods for the
resort.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.