THIS IS RIVER COUNTRY

FROM the usually shallow Bill Williams River fording at Alamo Crossing on the northeast to what's left of the once-busy Colorado River steamboat stop of Ehrenberg on the southwest from Copper Basin Reservoir in the Whipples below Monument Peak on the northwest to the river-rushing summer flood waters of Bouse Wash on the southeast from the gutted placer gold gulches at old La Paz to the ghost town of Swansea in the Buckskins. from the crest of Five-Mile Hill to the old Indian fishing hole at Twelve-Mile Slough from the black sky-thrusting walls of Devil's Elbow below Topock to the low fertile fields below Headgate Rock Dam... from Chemeheuvi Valley, now deep beneath Havasu's blue waters, to Big Bend below Parker Dam, past Turquoise Bay and Emerald Cove and The Big Island to honestlynamed Alligator Slough. from Black Mountain to Red Rock from the Needles to Cunningham Peak from the crashing white waters of the RockDrop to the dimpled fish-feeding placid surface of the Walk-In... from Poston to Parker to Lake Havasu City. This is River Country.

ONCE out of sight of the river communities much of the River Country looks as it has long looked looks as it did when Alarcon first explored it in 1540 when Fray Francisco Garces visited the Mojaves in 1776... when Mike Goldwater opened a trading post in 1860 when now-obliterated La Paz was a boom town, the county seat, and almost the territorial capital in 1864 when Irataba, last of the Mojave war chiefs, died in 1874. when Captain Jack Mellen piloted the Gila up river in 1875 when Wyatt Earp played post-Tombstone poker in Parker saloons with his back to the wall and his eyes on windows and doors in 1915.

ONE big change has been in the river itself. It is no longer the unruly flood of red waters that repelled army wife Martha Summerhayes in Ehrenberg in 1875, but a tamed ribbon of clear blue and green waters provided by a chain of great dams in the last few decades. And the change in the waters has made for some changes and will make for considerable more in the next few years. The little town of Parker and the big Colorado River Indian Reservation around it will change because they, almost alone in the southwestern desert, have water wide water for boating and skiing and boat racing cheap, plentiful water for cotton and vegetables and citrus adequate water for industry. eye-catching soul-pleasing water and waterfront for residences water for fishing and water for hunting water, water, everywhere, in the long great oasis of the Southwest. Let us look at this country in Northern Yuma and Southern Mohave Counties as it belatedly and somewhat regretfully gets ready for some big changes.

PART / THE COLORADO RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION ONE

THAT ENERGETIC MAN OF EARLY ARIZONA, Colonel Charles D. Poston, was busy here, too. Pos ton was appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Arizona Territory in 1863. He wasted no time in holding a conference at the mining town of La Paz early in 1864. Chiefs and important men of many river tribes were present, including representatives of the dominant resident tribe, the Mojaves. Poston recommended that a reservation be established on the river. He was soon selected as a Congressional delegate from Arizona Territory. On March 3, 1865, shortly before his April 1 4th assassination, President Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress establishing the reservation. The boundaries were changed a number of times before 1916 when President Woodrow Wilson signed an executive order establishing the present 264,245-acre reservation. The reservation straddles the Colorado River from a point five miles north of Parker to a point several miles above Ehrenberg, fifty miles south. By far the greatest acreage is in Arizona 226,000 acres. Parker Valley, the agricultural heart of the reservation, is in Arizona river lowlands and stretches from Parker to the southern boundary. On March 2, 1867, Congress appropriated $50,000 for the Indian's irrigation system here, the first such federal project, and the Grant-Dent Canal was dug from 186771. The early history of irrigated farming here is a dismal one. Banks washed away, tunnels caved in, wells served up alkali water, and water wheels were torn up by the mighty river. Windmills and horsepower rigs on wells and small steam-powered pumps were the next experiments. Undiscouraged by early failures, federal planners had visions of a great agricultural empire here. Parker, a 973-acre townsite, was carved out in the northern end of the reservation in 1909. Lots were sold at auction and a trading center and shipping point was assured. But by 1914 only 600 acres of land were irrigated by Indian farmers. Inadequate drainage was waterlogging those acres they could pump water to. By 1936, 5,000 acres were being irrigated. In 1941 Headgate Rock Dam was built near Parker and gravity water for the canal system made available by the guaranteed water-level provided by the dam. There were now 10,500 acres of developed land.

THE YEAR 1948 saw an accelerated program of land development begin. By 1955, 38,000 acres had been cleared of desert brush and prepared for farming. Yet thousands of these acres were not usable due to a high watertable and excessive salts. The next seven years were spent in planning and executing a proper drainage system. Waterlogged acres were reclaimed and salt leached out. (Today, careful daily laboratory measurements insure that drainage waters leaving this valley are saltier than irrigation waters coming in.) By 1963, 34,000 acres were under cultivation. Cotton was the big money crop and alfalfa a profitable one. Wheat, barley, maize, melons and lettuce were also grown. In the meantime the tribal council had been stymied by seemingly insurmountable problems. Pete Homer, Sr., was chairman and most of those now serving on the council were members then, including the present chairman, Herman Laffoon, Sr. The situation was adequately and dramatically summed up by U. S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash in March, 1963. Speaking at the annual fair here, he told the tribe that at the present rate of progress it would be another 200 years before they would see their agricultural lands completely developed. He promised to do his best to speed up the process. For a number of years the federal government had refused to spend funds to develop land here. The tribe had no money to do so. Large agricultural firms were eager to develop and farm the rich land but they needed long-term leases to make the venture profitable. Nonagricultural developers of residential, commercial and industrial sites would need still longer leases. The federal authority to make long leases could not be secured. So, the Indians couldn't develop, the government wouldn't, and would not allow private capital to do so on profitable terms for the interested parties.

But a determined Indian Commissioner Nash, Ari zona Congressional members Hayden, Goldwater, and Morris Udall, and forces as yet unsuspected were roiling behind the scenes. When good news happened it came in bunches. The first windfall was the September, 1962, authorization to grant 99-year non-agricultural develop ment leases. In the following spring came the much desired 25-year agricultural development leasing authority. The tribe had not recovered from this celebration when the U. S. Supreme Court gave them the biggest boost of all-water for 107,000 agricultural acres on June 3, 1963. It was almost anti-climactic on April 30, 1964, when President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill giving the Colorado River Tribes title to their reservation.

The tribe has been using these tools well. Within two years 13,000 acres of new land had been leased to farmer-developers. The reservation canal system is being steadily extended and thousands of additional acres of raw rich river bottom being offered for lease. This develop ment will continue until water is flowing to all of the water-guaranteed 107,000 acres.

In April, 1965, the tribe received authority to grant 40-year development leases for citrus farming. There are 7,000 acres on the mesa near Parker ideal for such development. An 870-acre lease was given to Sunny Valley Citrus Co. of Mesa last fall.

With the major roadblocks to progress removed and the smoke of burning brush from cleared land mingling over the river with the dust kicked up by heavy land leveling machinery, the tribe can look at recent progress and plan for future development with some satisfaction.

AGRICULTURE BOOMS IN THE

THE COLORADO RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION is probably the largest area in the Southwest with an adequate guaranteed supply of water. The Indians not only have the water for devel opment but they have it now, in contrast to so many hopeful western areas.

The Colorado River dams and their desilting basins have changed the muddy red waters to blue and the U. S. Supreme Court has assured the use of these waters to develop the reserva tion. The Court set the annual agricultural diversion of water from the river here at 717,148 acre-feet or enough water to supply consumptive use for 107,588 acres, whichever is less.

In mid-1963, at the time of the Court's decision, 34,000 reservation acres in Parker Valley were being irrigated. By mid 1965, 47,000 acres were being farmed or prepared for crops. The Colorado River Tribes will develop another 60,588 acres here by 1975 or sooner. Parker Valley will then have 93,588 acres while 7,000 mese-land acres will be farmed above the valley near Parker. The remaining 7,000 acres are across the river in California.

Agricultural water is cheaper here than in most Southwestern irrigation areas and the soil is excellent. Farmers pay $9 an acre annually for five acre-feet of water on loamy land or for eight acre feet on sandy land. This rate has prevailed for over four years. The bottomlands here are inherently rich in minerals, requiring the addition only of nitrogen and phosphates for a sustained yield of crops. River water contains approximately sixteen parts per million of potassium, sufficient for production of various crops suited to this area. In addition, the water contains about one ton of gypsum per acre-foot of water. This is fortunate.

"If it were not for the gypsum, which comes dissolved with the water, we would be in serious trouble," says Tim Dye, Land Operations Officer of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Colorado River Agency. "This is because the land here is high in sodium due to the way the valley was formed in the old days of spring floods. The floods came in hot weather and due to algae and microbial action, sodium was left in the clay. The gypsum is a built-in corrective agent acting on this sodium chemically to change it and allow it to be washed away in drainage waters." Lettuce men here say the quality of the water may be responsible for the top-quality lettuce raised in the valley.

WATER-RICH INDIAN LANDS

Economically, the development of the valley will be one long construction job spurring the local economy. In mid-1963 the BIA and the tribe approved a plan The Interim Report... to completely develop Parker Valley in eleven years or less. Indian Commissioner Nash and Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall approved this blueprint for progress. The construction needed to develop the remainder of the valley for farming will include the following: 40.6 miles of main laterals (9.5 miles completed by December, 1965) 147.1 miles of sublaterals, 50 miles of drainage ditches, 5 pumping plants, and 15 miles of dikes. These works will cost $22,127,000. The federal gov ernment will appropriate the major portion of this money, though $8,000,000 of the work will be financed by lessees. The $12,800,000 cost of clearing, leveling, and otherwise preparing the land for crops will also be borne by lessees.

The Interim Report's figures on the completed 93,588-acre Parker Valley are interesting. It estimates an annual farm operat ing budget of $13,950,000, a labor force of 3,360 farm workers and another 1,140 non-farm workers. (The entire valley population is now 2,000.) The report notes that the reservation is strategically located "near the rapidly expanding market of nearly 10,000,000 people in the Southwestern part of the United States."

The water in the Colorado River that the tribe does not use for irrigation flows through fifty miles of reservation. This gives the tribe two potential miles of valuable property for leasing. Over 8,000 residential-commercial acres along ten miles of river have already been leased.

THE BACKBONE OF THE RESERVATION ECONOMY and the most successful development to date has been agriculture. The 13,000 newly-leased acres are being readied for crops or farmed by a number of large agricul tural firms. Bruce Church, Inc., The Garin Co., Sunny Valley Citrus Co., Sax Eaton Farms, and Wilco Produce Co., are some of the new lessees.

The Church lease is the big one 6,308 acres. Its development indicates, perhaps, Parker Valley agriculture of the future. Under the management of Fred Andrew, the progress report as of last fall was as follows: 4,500 acres brushed and cleared, another 2,000 acres leveled, 1,500 acres cropped or in crop, 300 acres on a leaching-settling program, a cattle working area and a feed lot pen for 800 head under construction, eleven new homes for manage ment built, nineteen trailers for employees in, a 9,600 sq. ft. shop in use, an ice house built, a 4,000 foot air-strip built, many miles of farm roads developed, seven miles of underground monolithic piping laid and in use, fifty men employed including twelve Indians, and many more men working for various contractors working on the farm.

The feed lot, the fourth in Parker Valley, will even tually hold 10,000 cattle and will process 20,000 yearly. The underground irrigation system, new to Arizona agri culture, will be extended until forty miles of it cover the entire lease. This is an expensive installation with many advantages. Andrew says his firm plans to have the lease completely developed in five year years or less and is presently ahead of schedule. He is still sweetening the land with grasses, grains, and sorghum. Cotton is a year or two away and the first vegetables are two years away.

The major crop changes in the future would seem to be large-scale vegetable growing and the introduction of citrus and perhaps grapes. The new lessees are vegetable growers in other areas and state frankly their intentions to do likewise here. The Bruce Church lease underground piping is designed for vegetable runs as the pipelines run east and west down the middle of 40-acre fields, providing the short north-south runs preferred for vegetable crops.

Superintendent Homer Gilliland of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Colorado River Agency, here says that local growers and shippers have told the Santa Fe Rail road they need more loading areas at Parker. The tribe expects to lease land to the railroad for a spur track. A new cotton gin (the 3rd here), several new fertilizer firms, an alfalfa buyer, a flying service, two new air-strips and many new residences and trailer homes are some of the developments evident in the last two years.

NOTES FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

A photo tour of busy Lake Havasu and area revealing the beauty of the desert lake of blue water

OPPOSITE PAGE "ALONG THE 'NEEDLES' - LAKE HAVASU"

NAURICE KOONCE. This photograph was taken from a plane a short distance south of Topock, Arizona, on upper Lake Havasu where the lake winds its way among the "Needle" formations in the Mojave Mountains. The word "Havasu" is from the two Havasupai Indian words "haha," water, and "vasu," blue, or "blue water." 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; Ektachrome E-3; f.7 at 1/250th sec.; 135mm Symmar lens; mid-October; clear bright cross lighting; Meter reading 200; ASA rating 50.

FOLLOWING PAGES "AERIAL VIEW - PARKER DAM" NAURICE KOONCE.

This view of Parker Dam is looking north toward Lake Havasu. California is on the left, Arizona on the right. Located on the Colorado River, seventeen miles north of Parker, Arizona, this dam is 856 feet long, 85 feet above the river with a foundation 235 feet below river level. Work on the dam began July 29, 1937 and was finished September 1, 1938. Waters diverted from the lake behind the dam supply many communi ties in Southern California. The photographer is associated with the Ray Manley Studio in Tucson and specializes in aerial photography. Another associate of the Ray Manley Studio, Mickey Prim, piloted the firm's plane from which all Naurice Koonce aerial photographs in the issue were taken. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; Ektachrome E-3; f.7 at 1/250th sec.; 135mm Symmar lens; mid-October; clear bright morning

"HEADGATE DAM" NAURICE KOONCE.

This dam diverts water to canal on left which serves the Colorado River Indian Reservation. This dam is located just north of Parker, Arizona. Photo was taken looking to the southwest. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; Ektachrome E-3; f.6.3 at 1/250th sec.; 135 mm Symmar lens; mid-October; early morning.

NAURICE KOONCE. This scene is on the north end of Lake Havasu in the wildlife reserve looking north. Waterfowl are seen in foreground. The area shown is particularly rich in bird life and is considered one of the most important areas in the West for the study of ornithology. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; Ektachrome E-3; f.9 at 1/250th sec.; 135mm Symmar lens; midOctober; bright morning, rather flat lighting.

"AERIAL VIEW - DAVIS DAM" NAURICE KOONCE.

This view of Davis Dam is looking north toward Lake Mohave. This dam on the Colorado River is 67 river miles below Hoover Dam and 32 miles west of Kingman. Waters released from this dam form Lake Havasu. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; Ektachrome E-3; f.9 at 1/250th sec.; 135mm Symmar lens; mid-October; bright, clear morning; Meter reading 400; ASA rating 50.

"FARMLANDS - COLORADO RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION" NAURICE KOONCE.

This farming area is located a few miles south of Parker, Arizona, in the Colorado River Indian Reservation. Canal running through photo carries water diverted from the Colorado River by dam north of Parker. Photo is looking southwest. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; Ektachrome E-3; f.6.3 at 1/250th sec.; 135mm Symmar lens; midOctober; early morning; Meter reading 200; ASA rating 50.

"MOTOR BOAT RACING - LAKE HAVASU" HERB AND DOROTHY MCLAUGHLIN.

Photo taken on Lake Havasu about four miles above Parker Dam near the California water pumping station. Here is seen Hu Entrop in Starflite III (a hydroplane boat) as he broke the world's outboard motor speed record and established a new record of 122.979 miles per hour. The record, even though made in 1960, still stands today. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; Eastman Kodak Ektachrome; f.6.3 at 1/500th sec.; 15" Schneider Tele-xnar lens; September; early morning sun; Norwood 250 Meter reading; ASA rating 64.

"CHAMPIONSHIP RACE - LAKE HAVASU" JULIAN WASSER.

Powerful outboards churn up Lake Havasu's surface as they roar past the Nautical Inn at Lake Havasu City, race headquarters for the Lake Havasu City Outboard World Championships, where the world's richest outboard races are held every Thanksgiving weekend.

"TOURING LAKE HAVASU" JOSEF MUENCH.

Photo taken from the railroad bridge crossing the upper end of Lake Havasu at Topock, Arizona. This annual Marathon Boat Race is held in September, making the 115-mile round trip from Needles, California, to Parker Dam on the Colorado River. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f.11 at 1/100th sec.; 6" Xenar lens; September; sunny day.

CENTER PANEL "A SUNNY DAY ON LAKE HAVASU" DARWIN VAN CAMPEN.

Photo taken in the Devil's Elbow area of Lake Havasu approximately fifteen miles north of Lake Havasu City. This picturesque area provides a fittingly scenic climax for boaters cruising Lake Havasu's beautiful desert waterway. Normally the water level in this section is lower than that indicated in the photograph, exposing sand bars and weed beds that, although acting as a restriction to boating activities, provide additional scenic interest. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f.20 at 1/50th sec.; 150mm Symmar lens; April; bright sunlight; Weston meter 350; ASA rating 64.

"AIR VIEW - PARKER, ARIZONA" NAURICE KOONCE.

Aerial view of downtown Parker, Arizona, looking west toward Colorado River in background. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; Ektachrome E-3; f.6.3 at 1/250th sec.; 135mm Symmar lens; mid-October; early morning, clear; Meter reading 250.

"BLACK MEADOW RESORT ON LAKE HAVASU" JOSEF MUENCH.

Photo taken at Black Meadow Trailer Camp and resort on Lake Havasu on the California side a few miles above Parker Dam. Laid out like a little city, it looks across to the Arizona shoreline. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f.10 at 1/25th sec. with Pola Screen; 6" Xenar lens; September.

"AIR VIEW - LAKE HAVASU CITY" BOB PETLEY.

This aerial, taken at approximately one thousand feet, shows a portion of Lake Havasu City, one of Arizona's newest communities. 4x5 Linhof camera; Agfa Daylight; f.8 at 1/400th sec.; November; bright day; Meter reading 400; ASA rating 50.

"RESIDENTIAL RESORT AREA - LAKE HAVASU" BILL MARTIN.

Photo taken five miles north of Parker on the Colorado River below Parker Dam. Arizona 95 is seen in foreground. Parker Dam is approximately eleven miles to the right. This is a residential-resort area. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; Ektachrome Color Reversal Film Daylight Type; f.11 at 1/250th sec.; Schneider Xenar lens; June; bright sunlight.

"ON UPPER LAKE HAVASU" DARWIN VAN CAMPEN.

Photo taken on upper Lake Havasu approaching the area known as the "Devil's Elbow." 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f. 16 at 1/100th sec.; 150mm Symmar lens; April; bright sunlight; Weston meter 400; ASA rating 64.

"BEFORE THE RACE - LAKE HAVASU" BILL MARTIN.

Photo taken one mile north of Parker on the Colorado River with Arizona 95 barely visible in upper right corner of photo. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; Ektacolor Type S; f.11 at 1/250th sec.; Schneider Xenar lens; August; bright sunlight; Meter reading 4 on GE PR-1; ASA rating 80.

"QUIET COVE BELOW PARKER DAM" CHARLES C. NIEHUIS.

This placid fishing cove is below Parker Dam on the Colorado River. The peak in the background is Castle Rock. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; Kodachrome; f.8 at 1/50th sec.; Ektar lens; sunny skies with clouds.

The Lake of the Blue Water

Continued from page twelve"IN BLUE WATER MARINE PARK" BILL BRENNAN. Photo was taken one mile north of Parker on the Colorado River at Blue Water Marine Park. Arizona 95 shown at right. Blue Water Marine Park is a tribal enterprise of the Colorado River Tribes. This is the headquarters for the nationally known Colorado River 9-Hour Endurance Race held each February. 4x5 Busch-Pressman camera; Ektacolor, Type S; f.11 at 1/100th sec.; Wollensak 135mm Raptar lens.

"WHERE BOATERS GATHER LAKE HAVASU" GLENN EMBREE. Because of the perfect boating waters on the lake (and for fishing and water skiing as well), the Arizona State Park Board is developing extensive State Parks for recreation and camping on the eastern shore of the lake. The latest to be announced is the Buckskin Mountain State Park, bordering the lake a few miles north of Parker and extending far back into one of the most beautiful desert areas in the state.

"LAKE HAVASU CITY PENINSULA" NAURICE KOONCE. Jutting out into Lake Havasu this peninsula is a haven for water sportsmen. The view is looking west towards California in the background. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; Ektachrome E-3; f.7 at 1/250th sec.; 135mm Symmar lens; clear, bright morning; Meter reading 400; ASA rating 50.

"LAKE HAVASU CITY MARINA" JULIAN WASSER. Skiers take off in a cove adjoining the Lake Havasu City Marina and head for the open waters of one of the West's finest water skiing areas. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; Ektachrome; f. 11 at 1/250th sec.; 135mm Optar lens; early October; bright sunlight; ASA rating 50.

LAST PAGE OF COLOR FOLIO "LAZY DAY LAKE HAVASU" DARWIN VAN CAMPEN. The smooth, quiet waters of Lake Havasu, protected from winds by bordering desert hills and mountains, offer pleasure and relaxation for the visiting boater. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f.32 at 1/25th sec.; 127mm Ektar lens; April; bright sunlight; Weston meter 400; ASA rating 64.

TRIBAL COUNCIL & FEDERAL AGENCIES ESCALATE

THE AGRICULTURAL SUCCESS would be heartening in itself but multiple water use is the story here. The increasing populations of Southern California and Central Arizona are putting recreational pressures on all suitable Southwestern areas, especially where water is available. And it is available along fifty miles of river here with Indian property lining both sides. Many southwesterners are also looking for a residence, full or parttime, on or near the water. The tribe has made several large recreational-residential leases near Parker. The major one is for 7,800 Califor nia acres along nine miles of wide, curving Colorado River. The northern end of this lease is across the river from Parker. This lease is being called "Big River" by M. Penn Phillips, long-time recreational developer and chairman of the board of the firm which signed a 67-year lease with the tribe. For two years his planners have been designing recreational facilities and utility systems and setting aside land for schools, parks, homes, and commercial establish ments. A consulting engineering firm estimated that Mr. Phillips should plan for an eventual population of 28,000 to 34,000 persons. A large island is located on the lower end of the lease. A "little Bermuda" is planned here with automobiles banned and residents and visitors limited to bicycles and horses. A golf course, a country club, marinas, homes, schools, motels, boatels, shops, and community buildings are planned. A development of this size on the long-empty land is almost too much to believe. But a well, a water storage tank (the tribe will own and manage the water company), thousands of lot stakes, and two years of planning and complex negotiations with investors, state agencies and various federal bureaus, are behind this project. Regardless of Big River's eventual size and scope it is on its way with 7,800 acres on a big river and the only one in the incomparable southwestern desert. "Palm Springs with water" say some. Time will tell.

The tribe itself is in the recreation-residence business on the river above Parker. They built Blue Water Marine Park, a waterfront facility for visitors and a first-class recreational boating and skiing resort and boat racing course. 2,500 feet of sandy beach, two large cabanas for tourists, a parking lot, a restaurant, a racing judges' stand, restrooms, and a trailer park have been built. This $250,000 facility is important to the area, especially as a boat racing center, but it is much more important to the Indians themselves. First, perhaps foremost, it gives tribal leaders and members a sense of pride much needed on the reservation. And secondly, and also of extreme importance it is giving the tribe some needed business experience. Lessons learned here will be valuable in years to come as business and financial matters get more complex.

Adjacent to the park, the tribe has a residential sub division. It runs along a mile of prime land bordering both sides of the Colorado. New paved roads provide access to the seven commercial establishments ski resorts, motels, boatels, etc. and 116 residential leases. Already, seventy homes, from modest part-time dwellings to per manently occupied $30,000 and $50,000 homes, have been built.

Industrial firms have been looking at tribal land for several years but only one plant was built. This was the yarn mill of Parker Textile Mills, Inc. A $750,000 enterprise (with $200,000 raised locally), the mill could not find a market for its products and closed its doors in the spring of 1965. As this was written negotiations were under way for sale of the plant to a western textile firm.

HOUSING, INDUSTRIAL & RECREATIONAL PROGRAMS

THE ONLY CHANGE ALONG THE RIVER in historic times comparable to that in the water itself has been in Indian life. The old Mojaves' main interests were war and dream interpretation. Their first line of offense, men over six feet tall and disdaining long-range weapons as they came on the run with clubs and bare hands, was a fear-inspiring sight. Clothing, dwellings, utensils, and agricultural practices were primitive in their non-materialistic society. The shaman or medicine man was extremely important. On the whole they got along well with white men who reported them friendly, inquisitive, intelligent, and extremely good-humored. Today they live a typical zoth Century American rural life. Most of them live in farm homes in Parker Valley and shop and otherwise use the facilities of Parker.

THE RESERVATION, originally inhabited by Mojaves who were later joined by a smaller group of Cali fornians, the Chemehuevis, is somewhat of an Indian "melting pot." Over one hundred Navajo and Hopi fam ilies relocated here since 1946 and many of them remain. Add numerous individuals from a dozen other tribes working here or married to tribal members and we find an Indian miniature of America itself. LePera School, a public elementary school on the reservation, illustrates this well. A recent year's roster indicated 209 Indian students (Navajo, Mojave, Hopi and Chemehuevi in that order), thirty-nine Caucasions, thirty-four Mexican Americans, and four Negroes. Short graduation exercise greetings were given in Spanish, English, Hopi, Navajo, Mojave, and Chemehuevi. Tribal Council Chairman Herman Laffoon, Sr., is the young (43) and aggressive leader of a nine-member council that has proven eager to develop tribal resources and improve the quality of reservation life. Laffoon says his major goals have been and will be: resource development, housing and education. He esti mates that the tribe has made a good start on the first two of these. The educational goal differs from that of many Indian tribes who need elementary and secondary schools on their reservation or who have just recently achieved local schools. The education "problem" here is that of Arizona and America in general: concern over secondary school drop-outs and encouragement of training beyond the high-school diploma. Chairman Laffoon, Vice-Chair man Dick Welsh, several other council members and most tribal headquarters employees attended local public schools. And what do the tribal elders think of the changes thus far? They have regrets for certain lost aspects of Indian life, especially the lack of interest in Indian lan guages on the part of the young people. But they find much to admire in these new, easy days. Pearl Manataba, about seventy years old, now ar thritic and a resident in a Phoenix nursing home, visited the reservation last summer. She is the only surviving child of Chief Manataba, who died in 1916. Manataba's great uncle was Irataba, the last Mojave war chief, who died in 1874. Pearl Manataba says that old Manataba was after changes himself and she states positively that, "In dians are better off today than in the old days, especially the houses and the farming. I'm glad for the changes." This would seem to be a comfortable philosophy for Colorado River Indians to have, considering their recent history and their future prospects.

A POST OFFICE CALLED PARKER existed along the Colorado River about forty years before the establish-

ment of a town by that name. After the Colorado River Indian Reservation was formed in 1865, a post office was needed. On January 6, 1871, one was established, probably in connection with the Indian agency. It was called Parker after General Eli Parker, then the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. When the Santa Fe Railroad was laying tracks across this part of Arizona in 1905, the location of the post office was moved four miles up river to the railroad crossing near a proposed new townsite. The locating engineer was also named Parker - Earl H. Parker so possibly there were two reasons for naming the community being carved out of the reservation as a shipping and trading center.

PART TWO PARKER, ARIZONA-THE HEART OF THE RIVER COUNTRY

The townsite was surveyed in 1908 and lots were sold at a federal auction in 1910. B. M. Fuqua moved here from Phoenix in 1907 to start a mercantile store and prepare for the boom expected in Parker Valley's agriculture. In 1914 Fuqua moved his family here and the population rose to ninety. Mining was the principal area activity then and merchants sold supplies to the miners and waited for agriculture to develop. But by 1930 even the optimists decided that prosperity was not around the corner. In those early days Parker was well-known to Phoenicians automobiling to Los Angeles through here on the only all-year route to the West Coast. They crossed the Colorado River on a ferry run by Joe and the late Nellie T. Bush. Wyatt Earp had come to live on the California side of the river in 1915 and he used the ferry to come to Parker to shop at the Fuqua store.

In 1937 the Colorado River Highway Bridge was dedicated and California and Arizona were linked. Parker Dam was finished in 1938 and Headgate Rock Dam in 1941. Thousands of West Coast Japanese-Americans were held in three camps near Poston on the reservation during World War II. Agriculture had increased considerably but people always spoke of Parker's "potential" and never what it was which wasn't much. Parker was incorporated, not without a struggle, on June 5, 1948, and the modern era started.

No community exists in total isolation but only in some degree of dependence upon and cooperation with other communities and areas near it. This is particularly true at Parker. If the River Country of Northern Yuma and Southern Mohave Counties can be considered as a living, functioning entity, then Parker is its heart. The town and each section of the general area can be discussed in isolation but they have little real meaning, like individual jig-saw puzzle pieces, until they are fitted together. There is the town itself, the reservation surrounding the town, the Arizona side of the Colorado River north of town to Parker Dam, the California side across the river including the communities of Parker Dam and Gene Camp, lower Lake Havasu, the Bill Williams River area, and the desert north and east of town. Parts of three counties in two states are involved in the meaningful community of the Parker Area.

REATION ON THE RIVER for fifteen miles north of Parker to Parker Dam, and on Lake Havasu, on both Arizona and California sides, is the second big reason for Parker's existence today. Ten years ago this was a land of small trailer courts and fishing camps. A dusty road on the Arizona side ended in the sand at a lagoon about halfway to the dam. Towering Red Rock rose out of the sand and prevented the road's continuance. The small neat communities of Parker Dam (a government town for the dam workers) and Gene Camp (a residential area for workers of the Metropolitan Water District whose aqueduct begins here), in California, used many of Parker's facilities as did the trailerites and fishermen. As tourism went, Parker was a small-time winter resort and it was dead in summer. Bighorn sheep stood on the river bluffs and kicked pebbles down on early morning fishermen only five miles from town.

About this time in 1955 the picture began to change. Water skiers discovered the area and by 1958 Parker was a summer resort. It seems to matter not to these visitors that Parker which set the Arizona heat record of 127 degrees on July 7, 1905 is a hot 100120 degrees all summer long. The boaters and skiers keep coming in ever-increasing numbers. Resorts began catering to them and the highway up the Arizona side of the river was completed, paved, and made part of Arizona 95. In 1955 only 5,000 people came here over the Labor Day weekend. By 1961 the figure was 15,000. Each year it increases.

ONE USE OF THE RIVER which has had a long and orderly growth and which continues to gain in pres tige and importance is power boat racing. Twenty years ago Parker automobile dealer Marion Beaver and some friends cleared a path through the lush growth along the Arizona bank and held a boat race on the river a mile above Parker. California and Arizona drivers liked the calm wide waters backed up behind Headgate Rock Dam at what was then called the Boat Landing and the races grew in size and frequency. A number of factors contributed to the success of racing here. The weather is such that races are held every month except December and January. The hills nearby shield the race course from winds. Other western races are often cancelled because of high winds but Parker has had only one such cancellation in twenty years. The loca tion, central to Southern California, Southern Nevada, and Central Arizona makes Parker ideal for racers to meet. Too, Parker has had the resident racers and racing leaders to spur this sport. Marion Beaver has a houseful of trophies and has won more national championships than can easily be listed. His name is in the record books and his boats keep putting it in again. One of his 225-cubic inch in board hydroplanes holds the world straightaway kilometer record and won the 1964 national competitive champion ship. A second boat held the kilo record previously and was the 1963 champion! He had three boats racing last year in the national championship 225 meet at Kankakee, Illinois, and one, the seeming winner, hit a log and Smashed on the shore. So he had to be content with 2nd and 4th places nationally for his boats. In outboards it is another Parker businessman, 25-year veteran Gaston Van Hyfte, who is responsible for racing success here. He is an active driver, an official, and an organizer of outboard regattas. Cecil Florence, Jr., is another inboard veteran who races fast boats nationwide, from Miami Beach to Parker to San Diego. And it was he who saw the im portance of endurance racing when it was new and estab lishes it at Parker. George Hendrix, a Parker native, is making a name for himself in various inboard classes and he drove the new Beaver 225 Hydro to 4th place nation ally at Kankakee. Veteran Phoenix outboarder Frank Zorkan moved here last year to be close to the water. And Ed Olsen, nationally-famous SK boat driver, has moved here and built a new home on the river a few miles above Parker. The Indians, who own the land at the racing course, decided to make it a first-class course and improved facilities there in 1964 until it has become generally recognized as the power boat racing capital of the Southwest. Finally, many drivers like to come here because over the years so many world's records have been set at Parker in the straightaway kilometer runs. The water is seldom rough and yet always has a slight chop, just enough for hydroplanes, especially, to do their fastest. Currently, eight world's records set here stand unbeaten.

IT'S ANYBODY'S RACE-THE EXCITING PARKER ENDURO

Endurance racing is the hottest item in power boat racing across the nation now, drawing the most entries and spec tators and offering the greatest thrills and cash prizes. And the biggest, fastest, toughest enduro is held at Parker on the Colo rado River. All other endurance (or enduro or marathon) con tests pale in consideration of this race, headquartered at the Colorado River Tribe's excellent Blue Water Marine Park facilities.

Other enduros limit the number of entries or type of entries or size of engines or number of engines but Parker is abso lutely unlimited. Any power boat driven by any driver can enter. Single-motored outboards, twin and triple-motored outboards, runabout inboards with powerful automobile engines (two on some boats), hydroplane inboards up to the 150 mph 7-litre jobs, huge inboards with Allison aircraft engines, jet boats, experimental boats all of these race in one mad scramble. You can put a motor on a rowboat or buy a surplus PT boat and enter.

You need no special credentials as a driver, either. World record holders, national champions, professionals employed by automobile and engineering firms, men with no experience, a group of girls all can and do enter. You can drive by yourself (as did the 1965 winner) or take a passenger along or have a team of drivers. Your wife can help you refuel or you can have, as some do, a crew of engineers and mechanics.

This unlimited event has another unique feature. It is run up and down a relatively narrow, twisting 13-mile river course. The boats start at the park and run six and one-half miles up river, then double back on the other side. They do this for nine solid hours. The winners average 65-70 mph, boats do laps at bet ter than 90 mph. The 1966 winners will split $15,000 in prizes.

The start of the race is always an exciting moment. Last year there were 102 boats milling around in front of the judge's stand where the river is over 700 feet wide. The starter's pace boat took off and all the entries turned and followed him. The pace boat quickly accelerated to seventy mph, then veered into the shore before a half-dozen of the larger entries ran it down. A mile from the start the river is only 200 feet wide on the up-stream leg. The boats squeezed through this bottleneck and the race was on.

The weather is usually in the shirtsleeve 80's in the afternoon and the bluffs and beaches along both sides of the river are lined with spectators. Some loll in chairs and others observe through the picture windows of river front resorts and residences. Over 25,000 people were here in 1965.

Though many boats start the race, not many finish. They suffer the fate of boats in any race. They flip and sink; they catch on fire; they run into the shore or one another; they blow up some vital part of their engines; their steering mechanisms fail, etc. These disasters are part of the game but they are intensified here by the large number of entries, the pace set by the leaders, and the long nine hours. In the 1964 race, ten boats never completed the first 13-mile lap.

In the first enduro, in 1963, forty boats started and fifteen finished. In 1964, ninety-nine started and twenty-three finished. Last year 102 started (an estimated $1,000,000 worth of boats) and only twenty-one survived in what must go down as one of the greatest 'destruction derbies' of all times.

This year's race, on February 20, will feature a Le Manstype start with boats dead in the water and drivers lined up fifty yards away waiting for the starting gun. This is designed as a safety feature to string boats out at the start. With 125-150 entries expected, it would seem that there will still be a pack of powerful boats playing 'chicken' at that first bottleneck.

Parker is the gateway to lower Lake Havasu, the 30-mile long section of the Colorado River behind Parker Dam. This area is reached in Arizona by driving north of Parker on Arizona 95 and turning right a few yards before crossing Parker Dam. A public boat-launching ramp is located a mile further on at Take-Off Point. All of Lake Havasu is accessible from this point. Tourist facilities are available in Arizona just one mile past Take-Off Point at Havasu Springs Resort. The California side of Havasu can be reached by crossing the dam or by crossing into California at Parker and driving north on a paved county highway. After reaching the community of Parker Dam the road climbs to Gene Camp and beyond to Lake Havasu. Two resorts are located here, Black Meadow Landing and Havasu Palms. Again, all of Havasu is accessible from these resorts which have many tourist facilities. The Arizona State Park Board maintains sixty public camp sites for camping boaters and waterskiers on the eastern shoreline of Havasu. The attraction of Havasu is the relative isolation on the wide lake waters. It is difficult to get a crowd on a body of water this size.

Sand and small mountains stretch north and east of Parker into the Buckskin Mountains along the Bill Williams River. Considerable mining was done here in bygone days and modern prospectors and investigators keep trying today. The Planet Mine, the second copper mine discovered in Arizona Territory, was worked here in 1865. Ore was floated down the Bill Williams from mines in upper Yuma and lower Mohave Counties in those days. Then it went down the Colorado to the head of the Gulf of California. Here it was loaded aboard oceangoing vessels with most ore going to Swansea, Wales, though some was sent to San Francisco. The town of Swansea was built in the Buckskins near the river in 1909 to smelt the ores. It has long been a ghost town. These rich mines are inactive now, though a copper leaching process was recently attempted on a fairly large scale at the old Mineral Hills copper area. The hills north of Parker along the river on both sides are pockmarked with former diggings, large and small. Wyatt Earp had mines on the California side when he lived and prospected there after leaving Tombstone. Supposedly, the mountains around Parker are rich in low-grade iron ore. Mining men periodically inspect the area and there is talk of largescale development. But the ore is still in the mountains.

Some farming is done along the Bill Williams River and some cattle grazed in the desert area. However, the real wealth of the desert and mountains northeast of Parker is not material but scenic. The wild, rugged, multicolored mountains, the lush high-desert growth on both sides of the Bill Williams, the decaying mines and mining towns of the recent historic past, and the flowering desert are easier to find than Coronado's gold. The undulating sand hills east of Black Mountain are covered with purple verbena in spring and that beautiful Yuma County desert flower, the desert lily, is found on the western slope of the mountain a few miles from Parker.

PARKER WAS ISOLATED IN 1915 when an automo bile trip to Phoenix took two nights and three days. Over the years roads have been built from many directions until Parker is at the hub of an excellent road system. Arizona 72 connects Parker on the east to U. S. 60 70 and the rest of Arizona. A California county highway was built connecting Parker with U. S. 60-70 on the west in California and with California 95 which runs between Blythe and Needles inland some miles from the river. Parker Dam's construction caused a paved road to be built along the California side of the river to the dam. Arizona 95, coming from the Mexican border to Quartzsite on U.S. 60-70, was extended north to Arizona 72, ten miles east of Parker-and Yuma, the county seat, was only 120 miles away! The Parker Valley Highway was extended south from the farming area to U.S. 60-70 at Ehrenberg, and Blythe, California, was only forty-five miles away. The Arizona Highway Department took over the partially paved county road paralleling the river between Parker and the dam. The road was completed to the dam and paved and it is one of the most beautiful short stretches of highway in the state. Today, construction crews work to extend Arizona 95 northeast of Parker Dam and bridge the Bill Williams River to Mohave County. This will be the first direct all-weather road linking Yuma and Mohave Counties. Formerly, the only way to drive (ex cept by boat or detouring by land through California) between these two neighbors was across Bill Williams River fordings at Alamo and Brown's Crossings where respective county desert roads ended at the river. And these were impassable after rains when the water rose. The Highway Department has funds to extend Arizona 95 (but not pave it) to the Bill Williams and to bridge the river during this fiscal year. Later the road will be pushed on to Lake Havasu City and U. S. 66 below Kingman.

This is expected to be an extremely busy highway when completed. A number of civic improvements have been made in Parker the last few years. Over $250,000 has been spent since 1962 to improve the town's water system. A city sales tax has provided funds the last two years to pave and oil many streets in town. A new post office building was built last year as was a new town hall. An outdoor recrea tion center will soon be constructed. A municipal airport next to town on land leased from the Colorado River Tribes now has a 3800 x 75 foot paved runway. Last fall, a 3800 x 50 foot paved parallel taxiway connecting with the runway was built. A new administration building is planned and when needed the runway can be extended to 6,000 feet. New building and fire codes were adopted as was a sanitation ordinance. Parker's schools have kept pace with the slow but steady growth (about ten per cent a year) of recent years. The elementary district has two schools in town and one on the reservation. Eleven new classrooms were added last year to the Blake Primary School in town. The high school now has 360 students and is adding several new classrooms. The high-school district has leased forty acres from the tribe a short distance from the present campus. A running track has been built and Parker High School athletic facilities will be moved there as classrooms take over the present athletic field. Arizona Western College, Yuma's 2-year institution, holds night college extension classes on the high-school campus that are well attended. Parker is justly proud of its volunteer fire department which has the best and latest equipment and a waiting list for those who wish to serve. The only complaint ever heard is that they have been too efficient at times when a town landmark past its prime was saved virtually intact by their promptness and skill.