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

PAGE 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 -13 - 14

           Walt Johnson passed away on December 10, 1992. Although his dream of a long term lease never materialize, he was able to accomplish many of the improvements, in spite of the obstacles that were placed in his way. His ashes were scattered over Roads End Camp.
            Our family stayed on at the park, my husband and I were the general managers. Havasu Palms had grown to 131 fully occupied mobile home sites, it had a restaurant, and a store and marina, much different that what had been on the premises when we arrived in 1968. Over the next few years, we installed a new water tank and pump, replaced the curtsey boat slips at the store, installed above ground gas storage tanks, and removed the underground gas storage tanks.
            We also attempted negotiating with the Tribe for a new lease. We’d taken the five year option, and the final years were approaching. Because of the new EPA rules, we were forced to close our landfill, which meant hiring an independent disposal company to haul our refuge.
            There other improvements that needed to be made to the infrastructure of the park. The water supply no longer provided adequate fire protection, and a new well needed to be dug. Electrical needed to be upgraded, and alternate disposal systems needed to be developed. We felt it would not be financially prudent to undertake these projects without a new lease. We contacted the Tribe, explaining that it would be impossible to continue operating the restaurant without upgrading the infrastructure.
By 1997 we closed the Roads End Restaurant.
            We began hearing rumors that the Tribe was negotiating with another party for a lease. One of the principles was a past tenant of Havasu palms, and initially we felt this was simply a rumor. One of our past employees was a friend of this person, and we understood he was living in his home.
            We were contacted by a man who came to us, explaining that he had done work with this group, preparing a development proposal for the tribe. His complaint was that they had not paid him, and he appeared to be out for revenge He gave us a copy of their proposal, and to our surprise, it contained many of Havasu Palms Incorporated's proprietary documents, such as our expansion and development plans, including drawings prepared by my father. The only explanation seemed to be that someone had removed copies of the documents from our office.
            Finally we met with the Tribe, who announced that they were planning to solicit lessees from a Wall Street Journal ad, and we could submit our offer along with them.
Through our attorney, we began working with an international company that prepared these types of proposals. After our proposal was submitted we were eventually informed that we were not among the finalist, we later learned there was only one other applicant….it was the group whose proposal contained our documents, and they were the group that was awarded a lease. Unlike us, they did obtain a long term lease.

GO TO THE NEXT PAGE