About Havasu Palms, California

by Bobbi Ann Johnson Holmes

            Let’s set the record straight.  Havasu Palms was initially the corporation name for Havasu Palms, Incorporated, which operated a concession on lease land, along the California Shoreline of Lake Havasu.
            Initially Havasu Palms’ lease was with the Federal Government, but when the land was transferred to the Chemehuevi Indian Reservation, Havasu Palms had a new landlord. Havasu Palms also found itself in a new country (Indian Reservation land is considered a sovereign nation, and those on Indian lands are not guaranteed their constitutional rights.)
            While we can understand why some people who were used to calling that specific area Havasu Palms, (six miles south of Lake Havasu City, on the southern end of the Chemehuevi Reservation, and once called Road’s End Camp), it was a bit annoying when the new concessionaires begin using Havasu Palms’ corporation name (along with the Havasu Palms logo, which was slightly "remade").
            Imagine if your name was Ed, and you leased a restaurant building and opened a business called Ed’s Bistro.  You specialized in the Ed’s Bistro Burger, and it becomes famous in your city.
            Well, imagine if your landlord refused to renew your lease, so you moved your business out of the building.  THEN your former landlord leases the building to another business, who also wants to run a bistro.  The new business calls itself  “Ed’s Bistro” and advertised “Home of Ed’s Bistro Burger”.
            Well folks, that is what happened to the people from Havasu Palms. The new tenants (Havasu Ventures) borrowed Havasu Palms’ corporate name, and even advertised “Home of the Green Thing”, which by the way, was the house drink of Havasu Palms, Inc.s’ restaurant, which was developed by the owners of Havasu Palms – the REAL Havasu Palms, the first guys.
            Over the years many people referred to Havasu Palms as The Palms, a nick name of sorts.  That too the new concessionaires assumed.
            This website is dedicated to the story of Havasu Palms. The real Havasu Palms. Over time it will tell the story of that place many call Havasu Palms, and will discuss the early development of the park, the take over in 1999, along with photographs and legal documents that chronicle its history.
            We will also reveal documents and information, that until recently, we kept quiet, due to ongoing legal battles. And we will be naming some names.  And if we don’t expressly name certain names, such as which former Havasu Palms, Inc. employee was suspected of stealing proprietary corporate information that ended up in the proposal Havasu Ventures submitted to the Tribe before they were awarded the lease?  HINT: He was staying with the brother of Jim Foster (one the owners of Havasu Ventures) at the time of the negotiations. Those of you who know the people involved should be able to figure it out on your own.
 
            We will give you an overall view of the History of Havasu Palms.  In 2005 Bobbi Johnson Holmes gave a speech to the Lake Havasu Historical Society, its topic, the History of Havasu Palms.  This is a summary of that speech.  For those of you curious about the Havasu Palms Take Over, there is an article that has been posted online at Havasu Magazine, since that e-zine’s beginning, in 1999.
            Overtime we will be adding more Havasu Palms information, Havasu Palms Photographs and side stories, such as the details of the Chemehuevi Sales Tax, which plagued Havasu Palms for many years.