PEACH SPRINGS, Arizona
Peach Springs Exchange
When Vern brought his family to Arizona, this was the first town they come to, on OLD US 66.
He came here two other times. Once to verify telephone plant records.
That neatly layed housing development just east of the water tank, was special housing
for the Hualapai Reservation People, constructed on the old airport.
One difference he noticed in these homes was that many had removed the doors and windows.


The other time Vern came to this area was to cut Ponderosa Pine trees to sell in Kingman.
He had joined the "LIONS CLUB" and they came here to obtain trees to sell for Christmas.
Peach Springs is a community 54 miles northeast of Kingman on AZ 66, is the only town on the Hualapai Reservation and is the tribal capital. The Hualapai Reservation is nearly a million acres in size and includes diverse ecosystems from desert scrublands at 1200 feet to ponderosa pine forests at over 7,400 feet elevation. Visitors can experience a scenic drive into the Grand Canyon at Diamond Creek, spectacular viewpoints of the lower Grand Canyon from Grand Canyon West, and one-day Colorado River rafting trips. U.S. Route 66 brought large numbers of cross-country travelers through the Peach Springs for decades until Interstate 40 was built and opened to traffic some 25 miles to the south in 1978 (the same year the bouwman's came to town). Peach Springs offers neither charm nor anything to see, but it does have the Hualapai Lodge (Motel).

Peach Springs is the nearest town to Hualapai Hilltop, which is the trailhead from which hikers descend the 8 mile, 3,000 vertical foot trail to the town of Supai, Arizona, from which the renowned Havasu Falls and three other waterfalls can be visited.  

The town's recorded history goes all the way back to 1775 when a gray-robed friar named Fransisco Garces visited the spot and called it Saint Basil's Wells. Next came Lieutenant "Ned" Beale's famous camel-mounted expedition in 1858.
Following Beale, Mormon missionaries entered the area and, according to legend, sowed the peach trees that the town later adopted as part of its name. By 1883, Peach Springs was a 10-saloon Wild West town, having grown up around a water storage tank built for the railroad following Beale's route.

Hualapai (pronounced  "WAH -lah -pie") means "People of the Tall Pine." In the 1860s, the Hualapai fought a series of fierce battles with troops based at Fort Mohave before being required to settle on reservation lands. Grand Canyon West is the reservation's main attraction.


Havasupai children
swim at age of three.




Mooney Falls tumbles into a turquoise pool near Havasupai Indian Reservation, which lies half a mile below the canyon rim. The peaceful Havasupai long ago withdrew into this rock walled retreat.
Kelly and Bryan at park entrance
The photo above was taken by the Bouwman family in March of 1978. It is a long way down to a warm a green area along the Colorado River and rides were offered by horse back down there but the Bouwman's declined. Another March photo is below, taken at rim in the Canyon Park.

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