Residents Moving into L.M.R.

The first resident to construct a cabin in Lake Mohave Ranchos was Richard Singleton, Tucson, Ariz. Mr. Singleton purchased lot 10, Development Unit 3, Section 1 at the corner of 11th St & Ivy. On the East 1/2 of lot 10 still stands the cabin, constructed summer of 1959, property now owned by Mr. Glen Chapin. Tom White wishes there was a way to preserve the cabin as it is the 1st. Mr.

Singleton, however, was not our first permanent resident; it was two years before Mr. Singleton moved here to stay.

The first resident to move in & live for a few years was Bailey & Betty Garnett & 4 children, summer of 1959. Their home was a 27-foot trailer, and this was set up on lot 15, unit 2 Section 11, and was there for several years.

The next folks to move in a trailer was Edwin (Blue) Hodge and his wife, Dooley. Tom White was driving to Kingman in August 1959, early morning, as he approached the corner of Cattle Drive and Pierce Ferry Road there was the Hodges cooking breakfast over an open fire & their trailer stuck in the sand in the middle of Pierce Ferry Road. All Tom White could do was go back to the headquarters & get the blade & pull them out; upon doing this, I also helped them find their property & got their trailer to it.

The property was later 57 & 58 L.M.R. Unit 2 Section 15. There is a small house on the property which Blue later had Jim Walters build; however, the old trailer still stands at the rear of the house on lot 57.

The two old houses still here, even though many changes, were moved here at the end of World War Il from the foundations still visible from the South of Inglewood Rd & 5th St. Mr. Miller moved them because of the shortage of water from Indian Springs. As this area was the ranch headquarters, there was a very large set of corrals and scales located from where the T& F office is and going west to the Ranch Club swim location. There also were very large cattle holding pen in the area & the dirt Pierce Ferry Rd went through it with a cattle guard at each end. In the fall of1959 and again in the Spring of 1960, we allowed Senator Jim Smith to hold 2,000 to 3,000 steers overnight & then trail pitch camp as they were trailing the steers through to the railhead in Kingman, (a page from the old West.)
 l, Tom White, constructed a temporary camp across the Pierce Ferry Road from Inglewood Rd. to where the Betty Stone store was today in 1960. I ran a 3/4 " gravity water line to the area & installed 3 or 4 water faucets, picnic tables & barbeque stands. The idea was to have a place for campers to stay while they inspected their land & relaxed a bit.

 Not long after this along came a relative towing Mae's trailer in & they set it up in what I chose to call the temporary campsite. With Mae was daughter Celia Ann, son Raymond, a couple of chickens & not long somebody moved Celia Ann's burro Abby Gail in the camp with them. Mae & family lived in the camp for quite a long time, and I finally had to insist they move to their property in Unit 2, section 27.  In fact, Tom moved them. After approximately a year plus & them without a car, I asked the company if we could trade property with them & move them in close to the Pierce Ferry Rd. They agreed & I traded property with them in the location Mrs. Bartlett presently lives.  Going back to the camp, it was not long before it was jammed with people that had retired & moved here; instead of using their own property, they chose to stay at the camp. I appointed a camp manager, Mr. Charlie Fadley & began to charge by the day to discourage people from living there. It helped, but I finally had to close the camp. Mr. Ray Pemin was the first to move to his property & Mr. Pemin constructed his own cabin in the approximate area of lot 39 on Chloride Dr. off 5th St. Was by there in the Spring of 1983 & the cabin was still there.

Mr. Fadley, Tom's camp manager, planted the elm tree, was reduced to a large bush alongside the P.F. road across from Stockman's Bank. The tree is one of our beginning landmarks still usable. It is challenging to remember over 24 years the folks still living here that were pioneers or among the first few. We have Tom& Florence White, their son Kevin, Mae Bartlett then in 1963 we have Lloyd Starr & not long after Lloyd we have Mr. & Mrs. Ben Leonelle(?) living on 7th Street. Most of our pioneers are gone today.