POWERBOATS ON THE COLORADO

Powerboats on the 7th Annual PARKER REGATTA SUN. MAY 3 - 11 Α.Μ.1953 LAKE MOOVALYA PARKER, ARIZONA WORLD CHAMPION DRIVERS SEVEN INBOARD CLASSES 125-225 DIV. 181-E-P.O.D.H. CRACKER BOX-48 Cu. In. BARBECUE SAT. NITE MAY 2-7 P.M. Entertainment 14 HEATS of TORRID RACING - 14 ADMISSION $1.35

The distant hills along the Colorado River began to take form in the clear, early morning air as the first rays of sunlight defined their crinkles with sharp blue accents. The sun rose steadily higher pulling back the shadows from the desert floor, to unveil a rather spectacular situation. This was an early hour for the little town of Parker, on the Arizona bank of the Colorado, to be stirring. In the streets, in the motel parking lots, in the trailer camps, everywhere there were boats: boats on trailers hitched behind passenger cars and trucks. Sleek, streamlined, brightly colored boats with such names as Slo-poke, Hurry Cain, and Hot Cinders. Upriver about a mile where the Colorado spreads out torelax behind Headgate Rock Dam, Lake Moovalya glistened in the morning sunlight and there also on the Arizona side, was a color-carnival of power boats lined up on the shore, already getting the final checkup and polish for Parker's seventh annual day of speed and spray. Here, on a one-mile course, before the eyes of five thousand spectators, some of the fastest powerboats in the world would fairly fly at speeds up to 120 miles per hour to rack up points, in the seven inboard classes, toward national championships. License plates on visiting boat trailers were of many states, with representation from as far away as Florida. Parker's favorite 1953 entry was at that time the town's mayor, Marion Beaver, who would be carrying the colors for Parker and Arizona in his Pacific One Design Hydroplane, Little Beaver. Not only has former Mayor Beaver a habit of winning the Parker races, but for the past two consecutive years he has sped off with the national championship while setting two new world records for his class: 62.745 mph for the mile straightaway and 57.243 for the five-mile competitions. Recently after traveling 16,000 miles with the assistance of his able fellow racing enthusiast Bob Critchlow, also of Parker, he made off with the 1953 National High Point Pacific One Design Championship as well. All this can be attested to by a room in Mr. Beaver's home lined with over sixty gleaming trophies. By Monday morning Parker returns to its role as a quiet, pleasant river town: a favorite spot for tourists and folks who love to relax, enjoy its grand winter climate and fish the Colorado. Be what it may, the rest of the year, with spring the boats will return and the desert hills will tremble with the roar of powerful motors and the spray will fly and Parker, for another day, will be one of the fastest towns in the West.

The 1954 powerboat races at Parker are scheduled for May 2nd and are to be sponsored by the Northern Yuma County Chamber of Commerce.

GRAND VIEW HOTEL

Though Parker has experienced boom after boom for the past 25 years such as the construction of Parker Dam, Headgate Dam, the aqueduct from Parker Dam to Los Angeles and the present booming Parker Valley development along the Colorado, it is still on the surface a quiet, peaceful, little desert town, where a lazy dog can sleep half a day in the middle of the cloistered sidewalk on the busiest corner in town without being disturbed.