Havasu Palms, California

The history of Road's End Camp and Havasu Palms

from a speech given by Bobbi Ann Johnson Holmes to the Lake Havasu City Historical Society in 2005

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            When many of us think about Lake Havasu City history, it’s natural to imagine the city’s birth began the day Robert McCulloch first flew over Lake Havasu, searching for a place to test his outboard engines. Yet, even before McCulloch purchased the land in 1963, that would someday be this city, people were coming to this lake to fish and water ski. And other developers came, perhaps not with the same grandiose expectations as the founder of our city, yet with their own unique dreams and special plans for Lake Havasu.
            This month is the beginning of spring break. Back when I was in school, we called it Easter vacation. And 33 years ago this Easter season, is when I first met my husband, Don, at the place many of you know as Havasu Palms, and that place is the topic of our presentation this evening.
            For those of you who have never been there, it is a portion of lease land, located six miles south of Lake Havasu City, on the California side of the lake , just past Copper Canyon and Pilot Rock. It includes about 4 ¼ miles of California shoreline, and it was my family’s home for over thirty years.
            Technically speaking, its name is not Havasu Palms, yet people have become accustomed to calling it that. Havasu Palms is actually the name of the corporation that operated a business on the site from 1963 to 1999. It is still a California Corporation, and my mother, Caroline Johnson, is its major shareholder, and Havasu Palms is no longer affiliated with the property.
            Before the lease land was called Havasu Palms, it was known as Road’s End Camp, and was noted as such on California maps. But let’s move back in time a bit.
            Before Lake Havasu was created, it was a section of the Colorado River. On the California side, the Mohave and Halchidhoma Tribes occupied what would eventually be under Lake Havasu, or its shoreline and land to the west of the lake. The border of the two tribes was a few miles south of the land that would become Roads End Camp.
            The Halchidhoma was eventually chased from the area by the Yuma and Mohave Tribes, and around the 1800’s some of the Chemehuevi began moving into this area. That information comes from anthropologist, A. L. Kroeber.
            Within fifty years of the Chemehuevi moving into this region, the control of California shifts from Mexico to the United States, and by 1900 the California side of the Colorado River was open to homesteading.
            Yet, seven years later in, 1907, the Secretary of Interior withdrew land along the California side of the Colorado River from all forms of settlement and entry, pending action by Congress, authorizing the additions of lands to various Mission Indians. The Chemeheuvi were not Mission Indians, yet they were mentioned in the report prepared by Special Agent Kelsey, which was said to have prompted the land withdrawal. Copies of some of the letters pertaining to these actions are posted in this month’s exhibit.

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