Cottonwood Cove, a respite from the heat in Nevada

Entrance to Cottonwood Cove via the town of Searchlight, Nevada

One of the most memorable aspects of traveling is not the places visited, though that has a lot to do with the traveling, but the people you meet along the way.

I’ve been fortunate to meet famous folks, ordinary folks, and sometimes some unsavory folks along the byways. But all were wonderful in their own right.

Laureen, my lovely wife, and I decided recently to boat up to Cottonwood Cove Resort and Marina on Lake Mohave, approximately 35 miles north of Davis Dam on the Nevada side of the lake. We would leisurely cruise the blue waters of the Colorado River and spend the night at the Cottonwood Cove Motel along the shores of the marina.

Beautiful view of Lake Mohave from Cottonwood Cove

A wonderful way to spend a weekend. Sun, fun, and burning through a whole lot of fuel which made my wallet feel a lot lighter when we docked at the marina gas station.

“I bet we’re still a buck cheaper than Katherine Landing,” a young man said while pumping fuel into the tank on our boat.

“Yes, you are,” I replied not feeling any more chipper as I handed him a hundred and received no change back.

“Did you bring snacks?” I asked Laureen. “I don’t think we can afford the cafe for dinner.”

The winds had picked up about halfway along the trip and the lake often looked like a churning clothes washer. But we were out in the fresh air, tunes blasting away on the pontoon, and getting splashed by cold lake water was just part of the adventure.

Even with some pretty rough water, we made Cottonwood Cover in a little less than two hours and decided to chug further north to Nelson’s Landing on the Nevada side of the lake.

And this is where we encountered two young men who were in desperate need of help.

I wrote about the tragedy that had taken place on September 14th, 1974 when a monsoon west of the landing created a sudden flood which led to a 40-foot wave of water roaring through Nelson’s Landing, killing nine people.

Nelson Landing along the Colorado River

We had only seen the beach from the land and decided to take a gander at the site from the water's edge.

As we slowly pulled into the cove, which was packed with swimmers, Laureen noticed a young man frantically waving a white Frisbee at us.

I waved back.

“I believe he wants to talk to us,” Laureen said, with a slight shaking of her head in my direction.

Turns out two of their friends had paddled across the lake to the Arizona side, about a mile or more in distance, and had not returned. The choice of craft for the adventurers to cross some pretty rough water was a small inflatable raft with two short plastic paddles.

“It’s an orange raft and we lost sight of them,” the Frisbee-waving twenty-something yelled out to us from his perch on a high cliff.

A young woman beside him asked if we would mind going and looking for them. And off we went across the lake in search of a small orange raft.

Fast forward to the end.  We did locate the two boys on the Arizona side - Gavin and Westin - hefted the raft and them aboard our boat and drove them back across the lake to their very relieved friends on shore.

“I think I underestimated the river,” Gavin stated.

“Lots of folks do,” I replied, while Laureen draped a towel over Westin’s shivering shoulders. It may have been early May and the sun beaming from above but the water temperature is still in the mid-60s, which is pretty chilly when a person has been hanging onto the side of a flimsy raft for hours. 

We dropped the guys off and waved goodbye. Laureen laughed and asked if I had seen the t-shirt the girl had been wearing.

A white t-shirt with an arrow pointing to the left with the words, ‘I’m with stupid.’

“Probably should have made it plural,” I replied. Oh, the irony.

Actually, the two young men were just inexperienced. They were also very nice and appreciative. They wanted to know how they could repay us for saving them. Simple I advised, if they were ever out boating, return the favor and help someone else in need.

Good Karma is needed when on the water.

Nelson Landing, packed with sun worshipers

After doing our good deed for the day, we returned to Cottonwood Cove, tied off at a courtesy dock, and went to the store to see about a guest boat slip for the night.

And this is where we met a woman with an incredible sense of humor, by the name of Hope Full. “Yes, that’s my name.”

“Well, in that case, we are hopeful that a slip is available,” I replied.

“Never heard that one before,” Hope said, rolling her eyes just a bit. “Yes, Lisa called us this morning from Boulder Beach and reserved one for you.”

At this time, the manager came over and introduced himself. “I’m Mark Anthony, we exchanged emails about your trip here.”

Laureen turned her back to me. “Don’t say it.”

I smiled, “Is Cleopatra around?”

“Never heard that one before,” Mark said.

Mark is the manager at the resort and we did share some emails about Laureen’s and my plans for the weekend. He was awesome, as well as the entire team at Cottonwood Cove - helping us with anything we needed.

But this was not just a mini-vacation destination, there is a truly interesting history of this place.

Once long ago there, was a rather large island in the middle of the Colorado River named Cottonwood Island. This was before dams were built on the Colorado, forming Lake Mead, Lake Mohave, and Lake Havasu when steamboats navigated the wide river for nearly 500 miles. 

According to the-wandering.com, the island measured nearly ten miles long and three miles wide with a huge concentration of cottonwood trees. The river flowed around the island making access to it rather easy from either shore - Nevada or Arizona.

The Mohave people used the island for agriculture. Then mining began in the 1860s, and the cottonwood trees were felled to sell to the steamboats for fuel making their way to the local mining areas, bringing supplies and retrieving the ore for the smelters down south.

In 1867, the military placed a small outpost on the island to raise cattle, but in the same year, a flood wiped the camp out and drowned all the cattle. That experiment was not tried again, though miners would still graze their cattle from time to time on the island.

Eventually, with the construction of Davis Dam and the creation of Lake Mohave in 1951, the island disappeared for good under the blue waters. Nothing can be seen of this once popular and historic land mass.

We wandered a bit before our motel room was ready and saw families with and without boats enjoying the warm afternoon weather while taking dips in the cool waters along the two swimming areas near the marina.

The Cottonwood Cove Motel, plenty of room for guests

This resort within the Lake Mead National Recreation Area has something for everyone - though I still get confused with the name of the place, since we were on Lake Mohave. A large campground is available for those coming east from Searchlight, a cafe, general store, motel, houseboat rentals for long and short term, hiking trails galore and so much more.

Gorgeous beaches gazing over at the marinas

Cottonwood Cove was part of the Mission 66 project which was started by the National Park Service in 1955 as a way to enhance visitors' outdoor experience and originally followed Route 66 when more and more people hit the roads in their own jalopies. 

After checking into our room, we opted for an early dinner at the cafe, and as I sat looking out across the sandy beach, the softly blowing tall palm trees, the sparkling blue waters I knew what I was going to order.

“What are you having?” Laureen asked.

“No choice but to follow Jimmy Buffet’s advice,” I said. “A cheeseburger in paradise.”

And I did.

For more information: https://cottonwoodcoveresort.com/

Tragedy at Nelson Landing, Nevada

 “I remember coming here fishing as a young man in the early seventies,” the now older man said. “It was a wonderful location for families to camp, boat, and just have fun.”

Laureen, my lovely wife, and I had just met this fella along the shores of the Colorado River, not far south of the Hoover Dam.

South side of Hoover Dam

In all transparency, we were actually at Lake Mohave, but it is still all part of the Colorado River. In fact, gold ore used to be shipped along the river near the town of Nelson 350 miles to the Gulf of California. With the building of Hoover Dam, Davis Dam and others, the river was tamed and man-made lakes were created, but it is still all part of the Colorado River system.

We had been out exploring places we had not yet visited when we had found ourselves along the shore of crystal clear waters.

“Then in an instant it was all gone,” he concluded, and then drove off through the sandy wash westward.

All that is left of the once popular Nelson Landing

A sobering moment as we learned we were standing on the ground where Nelson’s Landing had once stood. A river resort that had been loved and shared by countless folks for decades.

Nelson’s Landing had been located on the western edge of Lake Mohave in El Dorado Canyon, roughly five miles east of the ghost town of Nelson - which is where Laureen and I had actually been heading. But, unbeknownst to us - there was another story at the end of the pavement when we had decided to travel past the ghost town.

“Let’s see if we can get to the river on this road before touring Nelson,” Laureen had said, and being the dutiful husband and traveler agreed.

“All roads lead somewhere interesting,” I replied.

At that moment the idea of interest had been an understatement. Turned out to be a black ribbon of asphalt that had a tale of horror and tragedy at the end of it.

Nelson’s Landing had been a small beach settlement enjoyed by locals and visitors alike. Mobile homes, RVs, campsites, boat docks, restaurants, and other amenities made this place a must go river spot.

Original photo of what Nelson Landing looked like before the tragedy

Looking for a choice for water activities, there is Lake Mead, north of Hoover Dam or Lake Mohave, south of Hoover Dam. Take your pick. Either would be a good choice on a hot day. It was an easy destination for people living in nearby Boulder City or even Las Vegas, a mere 50 miles away. 

One such summer day was September 14th, 1974 where people were boating, laying on the sandy beach, camping, and enjoying lunch in one of the restaurants at the landing when the unexpected reared its ugly head.

Miles away to the west a storm cloud showed up and poured a monsoonal amount of rain onto the dry desert soil in only a few minutes.

The torrent splattered the desert floor, but with the sun scorched hardened earth the ground was like a piece of tile and that rain simply did what gravity intended - flow downhill undeterred.

Narrow canyon walls allowed torrents of water to flow

Soon a forty foot wave of water channeled from five separate smaller canyons rushed through El Dorado Canyon toward the resort. In a matter of minutes the resort was completely wiped out.

Among the rubble, only memories were left by those who had survived.

Nine people died on that fateful day.

Rescue workers looking for survivors at Nelson Landing

According to a July 9, 2019 online news article from 8@NewsNow.com (Las Vegas) - local resident, Tony Werly stated: “That’s fifty-two square miles that all merged into that one canyon. As the cloud was coming down the mountain, they (the people who had been enjoying the day at Nelson Landing) were trying to get their boat docks out of the water before they got rained on. They never knew what was coming down the canyon with it.”

Werly also stated a teacher he had once had, Jack Dailey, had been one of the victims of the flooding disaster.

“Dailey was actually a school teacher of mine when I was in high school and he was one of the guys that died.”

Dailey’s friend, John Gellifent, was also interviewed.

“Jack was out boating,” Gellifent said. “He was coming back when the wall of water hit.”

Turns out the teacher and friend of Gellifent’s had been out enjoying the river and upon returning to the beach in his boat he was overtaken by the destructive path of the flood and killed just offshore.

Nelson’s Landing was never rebuilt. There are now signs warning visitors that the chance of a severe flood is a real and present danger.

We looked out across the area where one minute visitors were having the time of their lives and the next, there was no time left.

“How horrible,” Laureen said. “To be here with your family enjoying a wonderful day and then that happens.”

I did not reply. My gaze took in the blue waters of the river in front of me and I could almost hear the terrified screams of those watching from wherever they were at the moment as a tsunami barreled down on them.

And then the frantic search and rescue through the rubble that had been a popular beach resort must have been heart wrenching.

It did not take a vivid imagination to feel what those poor folks felt as they looked westward up El Dorado Canyon and saw nothing but a huge debris filled wave of water racing toward them.

I felt chills run down my spine. To be standing at a gorgeous location, as this place is, and then to realize you are standing on hallowed ground.

People had perished here. Their only fault, just enjoying a hot summer day by cool waters.

It was not something we had expected to experience as we had happily been driving north along US Route 93 toward Boulder City, Nevada when we took a short jaunt toward the ghost town of Nelson.

A few years ago, my buddy Paul and I had powered up the Colorado River from Katherine Landing aboard my pontoon boat. It was a casual camping excursion, where we took in gorgeous inlets, water canyons, hidden coves, witnessed families of Bighorn sheep, and wild donkeys. The final destination of cruising by Willow Beach, on the Arizona shore to the Hoover Dam 12 miles to the northwest.

The blue waters of Lake Mohave

The previous day, we had witnessed dozens of people laughing while they jumped from some pretty high natural cliffs alongside the Colorado River on the Nevada Shore.

All through the warm months, people flock to Nelson’s Landing to jump off the cliffs into Lake Mohave. Some spots along the steep walls are 50 feet high and caution as well as a little dose of common sense are needed here.

I wondered if those summer loving folks realized that less than half a century ago, folks had literally fought for their lives on that sunny September day, and some had fought in vain.

“I boated past this spot without realizing the tragedy which had taken place,” I said to Laureen. “When Paul and I made our way to the Hoover Dam and saw people jumping into the water. Never thought of where or how tragic this place was.”

Laureen nodded.

Though the temperature was in the high thirties when we visited in January, the sun was shining making the water sparkle and the sand crunch beneath our feet.

No sign of a past calamity was to be witnessed in this picturesque setting. Just quiet and beautiful.

According to the National Weather Service - ‘Flash floods can roll boulders, tear out trees, destroy buildings and bridges, and scour out new channels. Rapidly rising water can reach heights of 30 feet or more. Furthermore, flash flood-producing rains can also trigger catastrophic mudslides. You will not always have a warning that these deadly, sudden floods are coming. Most flood deaths are due to FLASH FLOODS.’

The strength of rushing waters can dislodge huge section of earth

The fun-loving people enjoying a hot September day in 1974 did not think twice about a dark cloud far away on the horizon - why should they? But, in a matter of a blink of an eye rain fell in huge amounts and turned that care-free event into a horrific and unforgettable catastrophe. 

The teacher, Jack Dailey, did not live to see a school named after him in Las Vegas - Dailey Elementary School. 

Though I often make light of being out in nature and possibly ignoring signs about this or that - driving out of El Dorado Canyon on that January morning reminded me that signs are there for a reason and must be taken seriously.