This Wilderness

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

          Some forty years before the Johnsons moved to Havasu Palms, Caroline Johnson’s parents, George and Hilda Glandon, set out with horse and buggy to their homestead in Montana. Four decades later, Hilda would liken her daughter’s experiences at Havasu Palms to her own in Montana. And in many ways, Caroline felt like a frontier woman in this new wilderness.
            Leaving behind her modern and spacious home in Covina Hills, California, Caroline’s new domicile was a 10’ wide trailer. The only room which would accommodate their king-sized bed was the living room. By their first Christmas in Havasu, Walt had added a living room onto the trailer, and placed the king-sized bed in the trailer’s living room, which was in the same room as the trailer’s kitchen. Family and friends often lounged on the bed as they visited with whomever was cooking or cleaning in the kitchen.
            The trailer, a 1950’s vintage, was decorated in the colors of that era, which included a pink refrigerator, pink porcelain sinks, pink bathroom fixtures and pink and grey counter tops and wallboards. Caroline, who disliked pink, and was fond of the “new” color for the late sixties and early 1970’s, chose to ignore the pink and grey and accent her home with avocado green. She so successfully managed to block out the pink and grey in her mind’s eye, that twenty-five years later, when reminded of the odd color scheme of her first Havasu home, she declared sincerely, “I would never have done that! The fixtures weren’t pink!” It was not until she was shown a photograph that she realized it was true. Adjacent to the trailer (the eventual location of the Road’s End Restaurant) was an oblong wood framed building. It was an obsolete motel, a series of six rooms which faced the lake. Each room had its own exit door and each room connected to its adjacent room by way of an interior door.
           It was in the first room where Walt would install the family’s washer and dryer. There would never be hot water in this room, but they did have electricity and running water. “Primitive and rustic” does not adequately describe the conditions of this building. While cleaning the room, Caroline and Mike Russom killed over twenty-five black widows. They eventually stopped counting.
            When moving to Havasu Palms, Walt was told they would never be able to pick up television reception. This was the era before VCR’s and satellite dishes. After months without television, Walt found an antenna which picked up three stations, they were static-y, but they were better than nothing. Eventually, as Lake Havasu City grew, television reception improved and more channels were added. Today, with satellite dishes, there are no limitations on reception.
            The telephone took much longer than TV to arrive at the park. With no phone lines, Havasu Palms installed a mobile phone. The predecessor to the cellular, the mobile unit was not only unreliable, it completely lacked privacy. It seemed as if every mobile unit in the Parker area shared the same party line. In order to place a call, one had to listen in to the party line, then grab the free line as soon as the other party hung up. As the mobile home park expanded, and no phones were available, tenants were continually borrowing the phone or making late night phone calls, requesting messages be delivered within the park.

            By the 1980’s Havasu Palms purchased its own phone system. Although it only provided the park with one phone line, and there were still no pay phones for tenants, the problem of party lines was eliminated and privacy was restored.
            It wasn’t until 1990 that real phone service came to the park. Walt, with the help of tenants and friends, dug the trenches for the phone lines and Contel installed a microwave dish. At last, Havasu Palms had moved into the 20th century. And it was about time, for the 21st Century was just around the corner.
            Aside from the technological conveniences of telephones, televisions and hot running water, Havasu Palms had to contend with its own trash collection and disposal, build sewer ponds to accommodate the growing mobile home park, keep the water system running and maintain the only access road.

            North of the community of Parker Dam, California, the road winds upward several miles, leading to another small community. From there the road leads to Black Meadows and Havasu Palms. For many years much of this road was unpaved. Today the last eight miles remains unpaved, the road into the park.
            When storms wash out this section of road, Havasu Palms management would send out its road grader to repair the damage. Early in 1993 a portion of the road became a river for several months.
            For years, metal trash barrels with plastic liners were scattered throughout the park, for trash collection. Each week a Havasu Palms truck, pulling a flatbed trailer, would drive through camp. Those lucky enough to be on trash detail would pull the plastic bag from the barrel and load it atop the trailer for disposal in the local landfill. That was of course, if the plastic liner had not broken. After a time it seemed easier to load the entire barrel on the trailer, returning it after its contents were disposed.
            Walt grew weary of this task. Although he could not afford to purchase an automated trash truck, he was determined to build his own. A bit like Frankenstein built his monster, Walt designed and built his own trash truck, recycling parts and relying on ingenuity. Eventually the barrels were replaced by bins, and trash pickup became automated. Years later, Walt purchased a used trash truck and utilized the knowledge acquired by building the first truck, he designed the second one to allow it to be run by a single operator.
            Sometime after the second trash truck was put to work, the plumbing in a tenant’s trailer backed up, destroying their carpet, Seeking to blame Havasu Palms, the Health Department was called to investigate. While the park was held blameless for the plumbing mishap, the inspector was fascinated with Walt’s automated trash truck. He urged Walt to enter an upcoming contest for trash truck design – who would have thought there were contests for such things! Walt didn’t enter, but his ugly, yet efficient trash truck, held a special place in his heart.
            Through the years Walt Johnson’s Havasu Palms continued to rely on ingenuity, creative thinking and hard work. The same as other frontier families in the wilderness.

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.