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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            I started high school in the fall of 1968, which meant I would now have to meet a school bus at Parker dam, for the trip to Parker. With Lynn gone, my dad began taking me to Parker Dam each day. This twice a day trip broke into his already busy work schedule. Yet, it gave us some wonderful time together.
            By 1969 Dad had submitted the master plan to the Dept of Interior, and he received a favorable response….and assurances that a lease extension would be forth coming.
            As he wrestled with the bureaucratic red tape, he continued to work. That year he added 12 new mobile home sites, and enlarged the campground. Earlier I said Mom worked right beside him, and in many ways she really did. Often she was the one who cleaned the campgrounds each season, which meant trimming bushes, racking and shoveling….sometimes she would have me working with her, and it was always very humbling, for she could outwork about anyone.
            Lake Havasu opened the high school during my sophomore year, and I transferred there so I could take the boat to school, instead of traveling the rugged dirt road each day. Dad promised mom he would drive me over in the boat. That lasted about a week. I began driving the boat myself, something I did for the remaining of my high school years. It was 6 mile trip one way, it could take between 15 and 30 minutes, depending on the weather. On one trip home, I looked down at my feet to see water coming in, I was sinking. I quickly threw on my life jacket, put the throttle in full gear and stayed as close to shore as possible, attempting to make it home. When I approached Pilot Rock I headed directly for a boat of fishermen, swerved past their boat, and beached my boat on shore. They took me the rest of the way home.
            The government also wanted Havasu Palms to realign the access road into the park. As I mentioned earlier, part of the road went over the airstrip, which was extremely dangerous. It took some major excavating, yet Dad managed to realign the road, doing much of the labor himself.
            By this time Havasu Palms had spent a considerable amount of money preparing a master plan with the professional architect firm. Since my father had abandoned his successful contracting company, his only income came from the very meager manager’s salary.
            Although the BLM expressed their approval of the master plan, they continually made excuses to stall and postpone negotiations It became a very frustrating period for my parents. Since they were unable to obtain financing to implement the master plan, they spent their time maintaining the park and operating the business. During this time Winchell Donut contacted dad, asking him to bid on a couple of donut houses in Arizona. Our family needed the money, and since things were at a standstill, Dad obtained an Arizona contractor’s license and took on the projects. He learned to fly during this period, something he had always wanted to do, and commuted to his jobs by plane. This meant my mother was often left alone at the park, when I was at school or staying in LHC with friends.

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