By Becky Maxedon

Once upon a time in the sparsely populated fledgling Lake Havasu City, one of the community’s original engineers had planned the first Easter Egg Hunt for area children.

When Easter rolled around that year – 1966 – the city’s founder Robert P. McCulloch’s “Sales by Air” had just started months earlier, bringing prospective residents to the city.

Joe Coombs, president of Tri-County Engineering Company of Arizona – charged with the development of Lake Havasu – planned the hunt to take place at his home.

In an account of the first Easter Egg Hunt, Coombs writes, “Although we didn’t have many full time families living in Lake Havasu City, as most construction workers and salespeople commuted, the few resident families we did have desperately wanted an Easter Egg Hunt for their children.” Coombs’ wife Dottie, according to his story, travelled to Kingman to pick up supplies to color eggs, make baskets and decorations.

“Returning empty-handed and as mad as a hornet, she asked ‘Where had I brought my family?’” She said Kingman was sold out of Easter supplies, and she then drove to
Needles, Calif., only to find a few candy eggs in the whole town. This was Friday and Easter loomed on Sunday. Coombs said he thought there was a grim possibility that there would be no Easter Egg Hunt.

It was then that Coombs sprang into action and contacted one of the iconic figures in the development of Lake Havasu City.

“I called (C.V.) Wood in Los Angeles and explained the situation. I asked, ‘If at all possible, could he have one of the Saturday ‘Connie’ (Constellation airplane and part of the McCulloch Airline fleet) flights bring in the needed supplies,” Coombs wrote.

Sadly, he said, “Upon checking Saturday’s arrival, we remained empty-handed.”

Coombs continued telling the story as it unfolded that 1966 Easter weekend.

“Lake Saturday afternoon, I received a message from the airport to meet an incoming flight. A short time later, I met the ‘Yellow Bird’ – McCulloch’s Executive E18 Beechcraft – as it touched down. After the engines stopped, out stepped C. V. Wood and behind him Jim Darling, the company pilot.”

On board that flight was 30 dozen eggs, boxes of dyes, baskets, stuffed rabbits and “every other Easter decoration imaginable.”

As word quickly spread, Coombs writes, a big party was arranged at his house with Wood as the guest of honor. “The eggs were cooked, colored and decorated and at about 2 or 3 a.m., with the aid of car headlights, the eggs were hidden amongst the black varnished rocks and creosote bushes that surrounded our house.”

Just after sunup on Easter morning, Coombs writes, “There were dozens of kids enjoying Lake Havasu City’s first Easter Egg Hunt.”

As history shows and with Coombs attribution, “Wood had so much fun, he declared that there would be an annual event and sure enough, Lake Havasu City had a big Easter Egg Hunt at the Sod Farm on Pittsburgh Point for years to come.”

To view Lonnie Stevenson’s video interview with Jay Coombs and watch home movies of the 1966 Easter Egg Hunt in Lake Havasu, visit our YouTube Channel by clicking here. https://youtu.be/UStjjo4sfdU   

Don’t forget to like and subscribe to our channel.