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.