Lake Havasu Museum of History, 10/27/2015

Wherever we travel, we always enjoy visiting local museums. We had passed this one on our way to the Visitor Center and the London Bridge. Knowing that Lake Havasu City was founded in 1964, I couldn't imagine there even was much history to this town!  

An eight-minute video provides an excellent overview of the town. The museum is basically one large room with exhibits arranged in chronological order starting with the Native Americans that lived in the area: the Chemehuevi and the Mojave. Today there is a 35,000-acre Chemehuevi reservation located on the California shore of Lake Havasu across from Lake Havasu City.

A petroglyph exhibit features a rock and photos of ones found in the region. We have seen some of these during our travels. 

Steamboats provided the cheapest and most efficient means of transportation in the West for about 50 years beginning in the mid-1800s. River steamers traversed 600 miles of the Colorado River stopping at Liverpool Landing (now known as Site Six in Lake Havasu City). When the Laguna Dam was completed in 1909, the steamboat era on the Colorado came to an end. 

Mining: Gold was discovered here in 1857 and there many gold mines in the area. While all of them are closed today, some prospectors continue to seek gold using electronic devices to detect it. 

Below is a model of the Parker Dam, a concrete arch-gravity dam built between 1934 and 1938) that crosses the Colorado River 155 miles south of the Hoover Dam. It is reportedly the "deepest dam in the world" at 320' high with 235' below the riverbed). It has two purposes, to create a reservoir (Lake Havasu) and generate hydroelectric power. The Colorado River Basin serves the western states of WY, UT, CO, NV, CA, AZ, and NM. Therefore the use and access to the water resource is highly regulated. 

During World War II, the area called The Island in Lake Havasu City, was one of the sites used by the Army Air Corps to train B-bomber crews. Named Site Six, it also served as a R&R site for the Army. 

Robert McCulloch, an engineer, entrepreneur, successful businessman, and millionaire at age 32, founded Lake Havasu City in 1963. He purchased 26 square miles  of rocky, undeveloped land paying $73/acre. Forty years later, an acre was worth $595,000. Initially he was looking for a place to test his outboard motors and Lake Havasu fit the bill. He hired a friend, C.V. Wood, Jr., the master planner of Disneyland, to design and help build the town. McCulloch (also known for his chainsaw business) moved his entire operation to Lake Havasu City creating jobs for those who relocated to the area.

When Lake Havasu City was not growing rapidly enough from McCullough's perspective, he continued to look for ways to attract residents and visitors. Lo and behold, the City of London but the London Bridge up for sale because the heavy granite bridge was sinking at the rate of 1/8 per year. McCulloch paid $2,460,000 for the bridge. It was disassembled (carefully marking each stone), shipped through the Panama Canal to from the UK to California, and then hauled overland by truck to Lake Havasu City where it was reassembled. 

The interior of the bridge is hollow where reinforced steel and cement were used to fortify the bridge built in 1831. Interior granite stones were sold by McCulloch to buyers who used them as headstones, mementos, etc. The bridge was reconstructed on dry land, and then the area that became to Bridgewater Channel was dredged to create The Island (which was previously a peninsula). The Island is connected to Lake Havasu City by the London Bridge. The final cost for the entire project is estimated at $7M. Today, it is the second most popular attraction in Arizona (the Grand Canyon is #1) and about 4M visit it annually. 

The last three exhibits feature Desert Nature including fossils found in the area, fish found in Lake Havasu, and mammals of the desert. 

There is one more exhibit outside of the jail cages used in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Yes, prisoners were kept outside in this jail while awaiting transfer to Kingman, AZ.

Admission to the museum is $5/adult. I was very pleasantly surprised with the quality of the exhibits we saw here and found it to be very interesting. The folks that manage the museum were friendly and informative. It only takes about an hour or so to visit, so check it out if you are in the area.

Website:  www.havasumuseum.com

Oatman, AZ, 10/26/2015

Labelled the "ghost town that refuses to die," Oatman was founded in 1906 when gold was found here. Mines produced over 1.8M ounces of gold by the mid-1930s. By 1942 the last mines closed when the US government determined that gold was non-essential to the war (WWII) effort (copper, however, was in high demand). 

It was a boom town where 50 mines operated in the area from 1904 to 1931 with a population of 10,000 at its peak. The surrounding countryside is beautiful.

The town is named for Olive Oatman (1837-1903), the daughter of a pioneer family (parents and 7 children) who were attacked by Native Americans in Gila River, AZ (1851) as they travelled west in a wagon. Olive (age 14) and her sister, Mary (age 7), were captured; and their brother, Lorenz (15), was left for dead. The rest of the family was massacred. Olive and Mary were held as slaves and tattooed with indelible blue cactus tattoos (on the chin) to indicate their slave status. Mary subsequently died of starvation and abuse. Olive (age 19) was ransomed at Fort Yuma, AZ, for a horse, blankets and beads and reunited with her brother (who had been looking for her since the attack five years earlier). In 1865, she married a cattleman and lived in Texas. Olive died in 1903.

Oatman was reborn as a tourist attraction in the late 1960s. The main attraction, however, are the wild burros that live in the surrounding hills and come into the town each day. 

The burros came with early prospectors and were used to haul water and supplies. They were also used inside the mines to haul rocks and ore. When miners left the area, they released the burros in the area. They have survived on their own since then. Even though they were once domesticated, today they are wild and will bite or kick. Several vendors in the town now sell feed for the burros ($1) to tourists. You really do need to watch out for their poop, though. 

There are signs on the babies saying "don't feed me" as they are still nursing. 

These burros were just so darn cute, we couldn't get enough of them!

There are many stores and several restaurants as well. We enjoyed browsing. 

The Oatman Hotel is famous as the place where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their honeymoon after being married in Kingman, AZ. They returned to the hotel on multiple occasions to celebrate their anniversary. Today it is said to be haunted. 

I was surprised to see that a US Post Office is still in operation. I mailed some Halloween postcards from here because I liked the postmark they use!

Part of the 2,400-mile Historic Route 66 runs through the town of Oatman. As we drove south towards Lake Havasu City, we made a couple of photo stops.

In Golden Shores, AZ, we also stopped at the Veterans' Memorial that we saw as we were traveling south on Route 66.

Oatman is about 50 miles north of Lake Havasu City. We very much enjoyed our visit to Oatman and of driving on Historic Route 66. 

The Desert Bar (near Parker, AZ), 10/24/2015

Today we had the interesting experience of visiting the very remote Nellie E Saloon, known simply as The Desert Bar. It is located in the Buckskin Mountains on property that was once an old copper mining camp. The owner acquired the land in 1975 and opened the bar in 1983. 

An unmarked dirt road (5.3 miles south of Buckskin State Park) on the left traveling south on Rte 95 is the beginning of a rough and rocky 5-mile drive to the bar. This is through desert terrain so be sure to bring water with you. There were many 4-wheel drive and off-road vehicles on the road (we were driving our Mini Countryman). 

When The Desert Bar first opened in 1983, there was only a temporary three-sided structure and water was brought into the site in a 50-gallon tank loaded on the back of the owner's truck. Next an old fire truck was purchased to bring in water. Today there is a 360' well that operates on solar power. 

The "Nellie E" was completed in 1988 and the covered walkway was added in 1991. A full service bar is located inside and food can be ordered at two locations. Everything is self-order and pickup. 

Turkey burgers, hot dogs, chili and more is available on the main floor. There is also a more extensive menu downstairs (burgers, chicken, fries). 

 

There is a horseshoe pit behind the outside bar which is an interesting feature that is close to the action. 

Multiple sitting/dining areas can be found on multiple levels of the establishment. There is a stage for performers and we enjoyed hearing the band today. 

There are bathrooms (more like outhouses) on the upper level and a parking area there for off-road vehicles. Flush-toilet bathrooms can be found downstairs next to the kitchen where food can be ordered. 

One of the strangest features here is the "church" that is constructed of solid steel with walls and ceiling of stamped tin. It is a silhouette building (below is a frontal and then a side view) and no services are held here. 

 

However, this unique location is sometimes used for wedding ceremonies. As luck would have it, a couple got married there today!

This place is open on Saturdays and Sundays from noon until sundown ONLY in the months of October, through April. They are also open Thursday through Saturday on Thanksgiving each year. New Year's Eve is the one night of the year that the establishment is open. 

The Desert Bar is really off the grid utilizing solar energy for the entire operation. They accept only cash for drinks, food, and their hopping t-shirt business. And we did not have cell reception when we were there. 

We enjoyed some cocktails, lunch, and the band. People watching is really interesting here as there all types of people including families that come to this place. We learned about the bar from the folks at the Lake Havasu City Visitor Center or we never would have found it.