Baily Brothers' Cabin

Havasu's Early
Mining History at Road's End Camp

Located 6 miles south of Lake Havasu City,
on the California side of the lake.

Revised excerpt from
Where the Road Ends, Havasu Palms Recipes& Remembrances,
By Bobbi Holmes

       Miner Lincoln Baily and his brother came to the area before the first World War. Other early miners included the Spaniards, who worked the Kelly Gold Mine. Legend has it that the Spaniards were responsible for bringing in the original donkeys, ancestors of our wild burros. Local mines included the Roulette( gold mine), Islander (gold, copper and silver), Klondike (gold mine), Joker (gold mine) and the Lucky Lady (part of the Joker.) Twenty men worked the Islander in the late 1920’s.
       The first known owner of Road’s End Camp was J. Fleming, who leased a mine from the Baily Brothers. The brothers owned claims throughout the hills, which they frequently leased out.
        Bob Orchard built his miner’s shack  in the early 1930’s, before the lake was created. Today the foundation is under water.
       The various owners of Road’s End Camp/Havasu Palms were (in chronological order) J. Flemings, Bob Orchard, Al and Glenn Sanderson, Bud and Kay Sickles, Homer and Pauline Willis, and Noel and Mary Keefer, and their children (this group of owners changed the name to Havasu Palms), and the final owners, Walter and Caroline Johnson, Luanne King and L.A.Moffet.
       Bob Orchard built the first part of the original Road’s End store about 1940.       They cooked and sold hamburgers from the building and lived in a portion of the store. During this time they would also rent fishing boats.


       Although it began as a joke, Bob Orchard hung a pair of pants from a flagpole to let visitors know he was home. This unusual welcome became the official “open” sign. The area pictured is the Havasu Palms Store and Marina.

The Original Road’s End Camp Store, circa 1943.
 


     The store was rebuilt twice from Western Electric crates and other recycled material, and covered with tar paper. The store was at one end, with a beer box in the middle and a bait and storage room on the end. Gasoline, which was brought in by the barrel, was sold.
       During World War II the lake was closed off and the area was used for a high artillery and gunnery range. At that time the lease was from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. During the war the proprietors did not have to pay their lease payments, and they were allowed to come in to protect their equipment.
       The vehicles pictured are a 1940 Plymouth and a 1926 Model T, which reportedly originally belonged to Jack Kelly of the Kelly Mine.
Rattlesnake Hut
       The “The Rattlesnake Hut” (Photo 1949) was built by Mr. Fleming in the 1930’s.        The shack was located on Whipple Point, the location where Havasu Palms would construct its trailer sites, in the vicinity of space 51. It earned its name because of the many rattlers that plagued the area. The shack was frequently rented out to fishermen.



In 1974 the Federal lease land, occupied by Havasu Palms, Inc., was added to the nearby Chemehuevi Indian Reservation. Havasu Palms, Inc.’s lease with the Tribe expired in 1999.